As wind power booms, Texas lawmakers consider yanking support

[TexasTowelie]

Thousands of wind turbines have sprung up across West Texas and up and down the Gulf Coast. Companies as diverse as Google and Dow Chemical are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Texas in a race to lower their carbon emissions. With almost 20 percent of the country’s total capacity, Texas has become the undisputed king of wind energy.

With so much success, state politicians are asking whether it’s time for Texas to end its support for the renewable power industry.

State Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, the chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, has filed legislation to end the very renewable energy program he championed a decade ago, when wind power was still in its infancy.

What began as a goal of 2,000 megawatts of renewable energy in 1999 was eventually increased to 10,000 megawatts, to be met by 2025. But wind boomed far beyond estimates. Texas passed that 2025 goal five years ago and now counts 12,800 megawatts of wind power — at times supplying more than a quarter of the electricity on the grid.

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/20150322-as-wind-power-booms-texas-lawmakers-consider-yanking-support.ece

[msongs]

1. and they will also cut all subsidies to oil, right? nt

[NBachers]

2. OK, as long as they yank support for the oil industry, and let it go-it's-own in "the marketplace"

[freshwest]

3. Don't think TX supports oil this way, instead money flows to TX. Except for living things.

Ready to be corrected, as things may have changed a lot. Back in the day, they paid a lot of taxes for infrastructure and schools. Now no one seems to support those unless they are privatized. If they can't make a profit, they don't bother.