Wind holds key to benefits
Bills before Legislature would make use of renewable resource

Texas Office of Public Citizen
San Angelo Standard Times
March 24, 2005

A wish list for Texas legislators right now might look something like this: more good jobs, less air pollution, lower electric bills and new tax revenues for schools.

But this is no wish list. It's the real benefits that can come from the development of more wind power in Texas.

If you've driven on Interstate 10 near Fort Stockton or I-20 near Sweetwater lately, then you already know the dramatic impact of wind power on parts of the West Texas landscape. Visible from miles away, hundreds of wind power turbines top the mesas in those areas.

Still, only a small percentage of the state's electricity comes from wind power and other forms of renewable energy. That may change under bills now before the Texas Legislature.

From the governor on down, a consensus is growing among lawmakers that we should increase the state's renewable energy goal. The debate right now is over just how much bigger that goal should be.

Texans shouldn't be timid about setting that goal. The state's initial, modest investment in wind power has proven that setting an ambitious, but realistic goal works. And more wind power will bring more good things to Texans.

Those good things are the subject of a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, "Increasing the Texas Renewable Standard: Economic and Employment Benefits."

The report concludes that if the state sets a goal of getting 20 percent of its electricity from wind power and other renewable energy by 2020, benefits in Texas by 2025 would include:

• More than 38,000 new highly skilled jobs in the renewable energy industry.

• More than $1 billion in new property tax revenues for local school districts.

• Almost $700 million in payments to farmers and ranchers and rural landowners for producing biomass energy and for wind power land leases.

• A savings of $5.6 billion on consumer electricity and natural gas bills.

• Less dependence on foreign oil and coal imported from other states to meet our growing energy needs.

• Cleaner air for Texas cities.

A recent public opinion poll conducted by the oil and gas industry found that 80 percent of Texans think it wise to develop more of the state's renewable energy resources. But Texas lawmakers may also be looking over their shoulders at other states that are moving aggressively to develop wind power.

The big wind companies have said they'd prefer to build new projects in Texas. But they've also said they will go where the political climate for wind power is best.

Legislative hearings are under way in Austin to consider six bills designed to help make Texas the best climate for wind power and other renewable energy. These bills are:

• Senate Bill 533 by Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, and House Bill 1671 by Rep. Bob Hunter, R-Abilene. The most modest proposals, these bills would expand the state's renewable energy goal, called the Renewable Portfolio Standard, or RPS, to 5,880 megawatts by 2015 with a long-range target of 10,000 megawatts by 2025.

• Senate Bill 836 by Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, and House Bill 1798 by Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas. These more ambitious bills would increase the state's renewable goal to 10,880 megawatts by 2015 (about 8 percent of the state's electric generating capacity). This goal is supported by the renewable energy industry in Texas, including the Wind Coalition and the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association.

• Senate Bill 1075 by Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, and House Bill 2692 by Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine. The most aggressive proposal, these bills would require Texas to get 20 percent of the state's electricity from renewable energy by 2020.

The problem with the Fraser-Hunter bills is that they greatly underestimate the ability for Texas to produce wind power. The state's current RPS, passed by the Legislature in 1999, calls for the state to produce 2,880 megawatts of renewable energy by 2009, or about 3 percent of the state's electricity. We're well ahead of that schedule. An increase in the RPS to only 5,880 megawatts by 2015 isn't a very bold step for Texas.

yield the greatest economic impact for Texas. And it's a goal well within the reach of our state's tremendous renewable resources.

It's not just wind power that would benefit from an expanded RPS. The bills before the Legislature include provisions to promote the development of solar power and farm-based renewable energy from crop and animal wastes.

These bills also call for the construction of more transmission lines to meet an expanded renewable goal. Texas built a system of farm-to-market roads in the early 20th century to help farmers and ranchers get their goods to market. We need to do the same for our renewable energy resources.

The cost of building new transmission for wind is very reasonable. Building lines to meet a goal of 10,000 megawatts by 2015 would cost residential electric customers 50 cents to $1 more per month, according to a study by the Lower Colorado River Authority for TREIA.

And that cost could be more than offset by an overall decrease in electric bills. The Union of Concerned Scientists report found that average electricity prices in Texas would decrease 9 percent by 2025 if the state got 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

That's because high-priced natural gas has driven up electricity costs. The more renewable energy we use, the less the demand for - and the lower the price of - natural gas.

Let's ask our lawmakers to heed a Feb. 27 editorial in the San Angelo Standard-Times that ran under the headline: "Let's not be timid in setting goals for renewable energy."

©2005 San Angelo Standard-Times

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