One proposal would create a $10 billion low-interest loan program to build natural gas power plants. The other would cap a market design that favors those...
At Thursday’s hearing, Anchía said the loan program would expose the state to “pretty sizable” financial risk of borrowers defaulting.
Texas’ top three power producers, including Irving-based Vistra Corp., have said they would not take advantage of the loan program. The University of Texas at Austin’s Michael Webber said the legislature’s emphasis on building natural gas power plants ignores other ways to increase the grid’s resilience via power lines projects, curbing demand, other sources of dispatchable energy and the problems that plagued natural gas lines during the 2021 freeze.
Initial estimates show the new market design costing $460 million a year – a 2% increase to consumer electric bills. But a consortium of major industrial companies led by coastal refineries, manufacturers and West Texas oil interests have argued that without guardrails, Texas residents would see their bills increase by 75%.
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