Texas grid boosting fossil fuel dependency, worsening climate change - Houston Chronicle
Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, Lt Gov. Dan Patrick and Sen. Phil King along with other lawmakers held a press conference to discuss Texas energy bills in the works in the Senate on March 9 in Austin.Aerial view of solar power plant located in Arizona. Chem-Energy Corp. is planning to invest $1.15 billion in central Texas to build and maintain two power plants that will combine solar generation and battery storage. The top regulators of the Texas electrical grid confirmed last week that they will put short-term profits for the state’s largest Republican donors over the future of life on Earth by misleading the public about the clean energy transition. Public Utility Commission Chair Peter Lake proved himself to be a politician’s tool by declaring that reliance on clean energy threatens Texans. In one breath, he swears to the Legislature that he is agnostic about the technology used to generate electricity and in the next misleads Texans about grid reliability.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate legislation
The federal government and states are in the process of implementing two laws — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — an investment of more than a trillion dollars to address climate change.
Related Knowledge Center: Electrical grid reliability
With the need to reduce use of fossil fuels in transportation and other areas, demand is likely to increase for solutions that increase dependence on electricity and the electrical grid.