Category: Energy

Reuters recently ran a story highlighting wind generation’s failure through the early months of 2023: The Texas power grid operator urged homes and businesses to conserve electricity on Tuesday as the first major heat wave of the season spurs residents to crank power-hungry air conditioners. Power prices for Tuesday topped $2,500 per megawatt hour (MWh)…

“Two years ago, not long after the Texas electricity system snapped following a winter storm, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway pitched an idea to Texas lawmakers: Let us build some backup power plants in exchange for steady, guaranteed payment. Now the state is one step closer to making that concept a reality. “The state Senate earlier this month passed a…

Austin passes subsidies for gas power to counter wind-power subsidies that have destabilized the state electric grid. What a mess. Renewable subsidies have distorted and destabilized the Texas electric grid, which resulted in a week-long power outage during the February 2021 freeze. To prevent more blackouts, Republicans in the Lone Star State now plan to…

Our state leaders continue to hand out more money to big business while claiming it will benefit us. In this case, the Texas Senate “voted to set aside $3.9 billion for escalating costs being pushed onto customers.” While this sounds like a good idea, this money would go directly to businesses; it is unclear how…

by Chuck DeVore When Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom called a special legislative session in December to tax California’s oil refiners out of their “excessive” profits, he was following a well-trod path of Golden State governors blaming the oil and gas industry for the state’s high energy prices. Newsom should look in a mirror to see…

Everyone knows that the Texas electricity grid has problems. And just about everyone knows that the problems with the grid have been caused by government intervention. The question becomes, then, why would Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the Texas Senate reveal a plan this week to fix the grid with MORE government intervention? Of course,…

The Public Utility Commission of Texas recently voted to proceed with a redesign of the Texas electricity market despite opposition concerned about its high cost and poor chances to improve reliability. Independent evaluations of the PUC’s plan show that the most likely outcome of the PUC’s current direction is higher costs for consumers with no…

The Texas PUC is Going to Replace Competition and Market Prices with a Capacity Market Download the .pdf version of this here. Download a .pdf version of a PowerPoint presentation on this topic. The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) last week released the E3 report on the market redesign of the Texas electric grid….

Problems with generation adequacy in Texas were once rare occurrences. But no more. As everyone knows, Texas had the worst blackout in its history during the winter of 2021, when 10 million Texans went without power and 12 million without water. After the Texas Legislature passed a number of bills in response, Texas Gov. Greg…