For Texas, Energy Dominance Means Embracing – Not Limiting – Renewable Energy Power Generation

As the undisputed energy capital of North America – and perhaps the world – Texas has derived much of its strength from embracing an all-of-the-above-and-below approach to energy. This approach has fueled the economic miracle, making Texas the 8^th largest economy in the world.

In fact, when you look at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) dashboard on any given day, you’ll see that a striking half to two-thirds of all power in the state’s grid comes from renewable sources like solar and wind generation.

This week, the Texas Association of Business (TAB) released the results of a study by Aurora Energy Research, revealing that if Texas limits renewable energy development, consumers are likely to see a 10% bump in household power bills. What’s worse is that by limiting energy options, the grid would not have the capacity to serve all of Texas in the case of extreme weather events.

Texas can and should support all forms of energy production to meet the increasing demand that we’re expected to witness over the next decade. As the study finds, Texas needs to continue building a diverse energy portfolio is key to meeting this demand:

Texas is growing exponentially, and we’re playing a leading role in enhancing our national and economic security through artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductor production and other innovative manufacturing.

If we want to maintain Texas’ place as the best place to do business in the galaxy, we need all the energy we can get.

Right now, we see businesses from all over the world flocking to Texas due to our robust infrastructure, energy abundance, and regulatory environment ideal for starting and growing businesses. To sustain this momentum and ensure we remain a welcome environment for businesses of all sizes and their modern operations – which increasingly rely on data center capacity – we must continue to encourage sufficient power generation from a broad variety of sources.

The economic success that bipartisan leaders in Texas have worked tirelessly to cultivate is an incredible accomplishment. But we must recognize that this success comes with higher and higher energy demands due to rapid population growth, and we need to stay ahead of the curve by advancing smart policies that will help us secure an abundant supply of affordable energy to meet the needs of Texas residents and businesses.

The challenges businesses will face in the coming decade will only be met by an all-of-the-above-and-below approach to energy generation. We are on the brink of technological and economic changes that will drastically improve the lives of all Texans, but we can only maintain this pace if we use every tool available to us.

To read the full study, click here.

-Glenn Hamer, President & CEO, Texas Association of Business

###