The Obama administration’s approach to developing green, Renewable Energy has been to provide subsidies to companies selling solar, wind, and other environmentally benign sources. It is also clamping down on the regulation of fossil fuels, especially coal, to provide disincentives for using such sources. The White House would like to impose a carbon tax, but thus far Congress has stymied that approach.
Meanwhile, deep in the heart of Texas, according to My San Antonio, the Lone Star State is trying a different approach, using market forces, to switch from coal and nuclear to an energy economy based on natural gas, the least polluting form of fossil fuels, and wind and solar.
A study conducted by the Brattle Group and the Texas Clean Energy Coalition suggests that the switch is happening absent a big push from any central government.
Texas has a competitive electrical utility market, with a number of companies vying to provide customers energy at the lowest cost possible. Natural gas prices have plummeted thanks to the fracking boom. The cost of running aging coal plants, the fuel to which has to be imported from out of state, is going up. The cost of photovoltaic cells is plummeting, and their efficiency is steadily increasing. The cost of installing rooftop solar systems is also declining. Finally, wind power is booming in Texas, thanks to wind farms harvesting energy in West Texas.
Because of the competitive electricity market and the advance of technology, Texas power users are not going to get a hit on their utility bills. The study suggests that the price of energy will remain at 2014 levels or below for at least the next 20 years. This is even supposing that some brand new technology, such as advanced nuclear power plants or even fusion, does not become available in the meantime.
Meanwhile, the Obama green energy push has been fraught with scandal, such as happened with Solyndra, a solar company that went bankrupt despite hundreds of millions of dollars of subsidies from the federal government. The irony is that Texas, known as the center of oil and gas, has hit on the right way to transition to renewable energy, using sound business practices, developing technology, and using market forces.