The Texas Senate voted to approve a new energy bill that would impose new permitting restrictions on renewable energy projects, a measure billed as increasing reliability but that threatens to deter investment and drive up consumers' energy costs.
Senate Bill 624, which cleared the Texas Senate by a 21-9 vote, is an effort by Republicans to shift the state’s power generation away from renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, and back toward natural gas-fired generation, in the name of reliability.The bill would force renewable energy project developers in Texas to pay a new yearly fee for their operations, compared to fossil fuel projects, which would pay nothing.
The bill also retroactively applies to renewable projects that are online, effectively forcing developers to shut their doors while they undergo a lengthy bureaucratic review process for the second time. S.B. 624 would grant the utility commission the ability to enter project sites without warning and to remove clean energy capacity in Texas that has already been installed, should it deem it has “not met” the new regulatory standards.
The bill now goes to the House. There are just three weeks before the Texas legislature concludes its session, and members also have to grapple with other major energy-focused bills the Senate punted to them just weeks earlier.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Texas has eased gun laws in recent years despite mass shootingsThe Allen, Texas, shooting is the latest of 17 mass shootings in Texas this year.
Read more »
'Texas Needs an Observer' Membership Bundle - PREORDER – The Texas Observer StoreOne thing has become clear to us here at the Observer in 2023, and that is that Texas needs an Observer. It needs oversight on the important issues that affect our state's future. It needs politicians and big business to be held to account. Above all, it needs a community to stand up and say the hard things, not just t
Read more »
Texas House votes to expel state Rep. Bryan Slaton over alleged sexual misconductNorth Texas Republican Bryan Slaton, 45, had resigned on Monday in advance of the...
Read more »
7 dead after car runs into pedestrians in Brownsville, Texas, alleged driver arrestedBROWNSVILLE, Texas — (BROWNSVILLE, Texas) -- Seven people are dead in Brownsville, Texas, after a car ran into pedestrians Sunday morning while they were waiting at a bus stop.
Read more »
Texas mall shooting prompts Biden to renew call for gun controlPresident Joe Biden on Sunday called on Congress to pass gun control bills in the wake of yet another mass shooting that left nine people dead, including the gunman, at a Texas mall on Saturday.
Read more »