There has been a lot of debate about why Texas had rolling blackouts last week in the midst of the historic winter storm. Poor winterization, lack of integration with the national grid, bureaucrats, deregulation, Enron’s Ken Lay, and frozen natural gas pipelines are frequent targets of politicians and media pundits for the blame. However, the…
Category: Energy
Progressives’ Coordinated Cover-Up for Renewables
Have you ever noticed that the mainstream media and liberal politicians almost always say the exact same thing when something goes wrong with their narrative that only progressivism can save America? Leaving aside for another time how they coordinate so well, they are at it again when it comes to trying to absolve renewable energy…
Are California’s Blackouts a Glimpse of Texas’ Future?
This was originally published in August 2020. Many Californians are alarmed as each new day brings the prospect of more rolling blackouts. Despite warnings from the California Public Utilities Commission that blackouts could affect millions, so far about only 600,000 homes and businesses have lost power. Yet the blame game has started. “These blackouts ……
Only Free Market Reforms Can Repair the Damage of the Texas Blackouts
Well, that didn’t take long. The same day Texas started experiencing blackouts in the midst of an unprecedented winter storm, critics started pointing to markets as the problem. Monday’s Dallas Morning News ran a Bloomberg Wire story that claimed “The extreme cold appears to have caught Texas’s highly decentralized electricity market by surprise.” Yes, Texas has…
Renewables Put Millions of Texans in the Dark
With almost hundreds of thousands of Texans still without power—and many without water, everyone is looking for someone to blame. Monday’s Dallas Morning News ran a Bloomberg Wire story that blamed the blackouts on freedom: “The extreme cold appears to have caught Texas’s highly decentralized electricity market by surprise.” Not to be left out, state…
Will the Texas Renewable Energy Gravy Train Ever Stop?
Wind has dominated Texas’ renewable energy landscape for the last 20 years. However, solar is making a concerted effort to catch up. Utility-scale solar capacity almost doubled in 2020, topping 8,000 gigawatt hours. Texas, which already leads the nation in wind capacity, is moving up the ranks of U.S. states in terms in solar capacity….
Why Texas Should Take a Closer Look at Renewable Subsidies
The Renewable Energy Industry is Stealing Your Money
For the last few decades, the claim from the renewable energy industry was that renewables needed subsidies to catch up to traditional sources of energy such as coal, nuclear, natural gas, and oil. Now the headlines are telling us that wind and solar are cost competitive with traditional sources: Solar and Wind Power So Cheap…
Predatory Pricing in the Texas Electricity Market
Executive Summary Renewable energy generators are driving other, more reliable sources of energy out of the Texas electricity market. The reason is straightforward. Renewable generators often undercut the prices of their competitors by selling electricity below their costs, and even their marginal costs, to gain market share. In many ways, this behavior matches one of…
Wind and Solar Subsidies Increase Texas Electricity Costs
Key Points Texas wholesale electricity prices jumped 13% in 2019, compared to drops from 15% to 30% in other markets Retail electric prices in Texas increased by 6.8% last year, more than the 1.3% increase in U.S. retail prices Renewable energy subsides in Texas last year cost $2.4 billion, and have totaled $19.4 billion since…