Karla Florez – Austin News Earlier this week, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid, came close to declaring “emergency conditions” after approximately 25% of its capacity was shut off to undergo maintenance. “Alert: Due to a combination of high-gen outages typical in April & higher-than-forecasted demand caused by a…
Category: Energy
Buffett’s proposed power plants would make Texans ‘bear all of the costs’
By Andy Nghiem Representatives from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy are currently proposing to build 10 new natural gas power plants in Texas at a cost of $8 billion. The Texas Tribune reported that lawmakers would provide Berkshire a return on its investment by creating an additional charge on Texans’ power bills. Critics, however, question whether this deal…
Hancock offers amendment promoting ancillary services during emergencies
By Bree Gonzales (this article was originally published in the Lone Star Standard) State Sen. Kelly Hancock (R-North Richland Hills) has offered an amendment to Senate Bill 3, which provides that renewable energy sources must fund reliable ancillary services in the event that they are unable to meet demand. Hancock, who also filed SB 1278, which…
Energy Alliance analyst: A capacity market for electricity comes with ‘high costs’
By Savannah Howe (this article was originally published in the Lone Star Standard) The future of Texas’ electric grid remains up in the air as controllers, legislators and advocacy groups battle over whether the competitive market should continue. While the state has been operating on a competitive market – where consumers are offered an array of…
The Texas Legislature Should Give Texans Their Money Back
The feud between Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott has a new participant; Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan. On Monday, the Texas Senate did what few have ever witnessed: introducing, referring, hearing, and passing a bill on the same day. The bill requires the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) to reverse its…
The Power Hungry Podcast
I was recently a guest on Robert Bryce’s Power Hungry podcast. He wrote: “In the days immediately after the Texas Blackouts, numerous national media outlets published articles and TV segments which insisted that wind energy was not to blame for the electricity crisis. In this episode, Bill Peacock, policy director of The Energy Alliance, tells Robert about…
A $16 Billion Refund from the PUC is Not Enough
We should have seen it coming. The $16 billion (or more) of electricity overcharges in Texas seem to have caught everyone by surprise, but the truth is they had been in the works for years. For the last decade or so, the Texas Legislature and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) have treated the…
The Downfall of the Texas Electric Grid (Guest: Bill Peacock)
I recently was a guest on the Heartland Institute’s podcast hosted by H. Sterling Burnett. Here it is: Politicians interference in energy markets led to the failure of Texas’ energy grid during the polar vortex. Bill Peacock explains what went wrong. Texas politicians and regulators interference in energy markets resulted in the closure of baseload…
The Texas Electricity Market Never Had a Chance to Work During the Blackouts
If the theory that politicians are full of hot air is true, it is a wonder that the dome of the Texas capitol did not fly off into orbit last week. During hearings in both the Texas House and Senate last Thursday questioning electricity market regulators and participants about the Texas blackouts, most–though not all–legislators…
What the Bible Can Tell Us About the Texas Blackouts
The Bible may not have been the first place you turned to over the last couple of weeks to look for information about the Texas blackouts. This may be in part because some in the church today teach us that the Bible and Christianity are not really appropriate for the public square, that if we…