Let the consumer decide.
That’s the position of some analysts as they note the increase in the price of power, with renewable energies continuing to receive subsidies that drive up energy costs for homeowners and businesses.
Jason Isaac, the director of Life: Powered at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a research and educational institution, said as local, state and federal governments provide huge subsidies to wind and solar power, Americans' energy bills are increasing as a result. It also prevents billions of people across the globe from accessing more affordable power.
Isaac told Texas Business Daily that the system must be changed.
“The Texas Public Policy Foundation is working on legislation to improve transparency and level the playing field in three ways. First, the state should eliminate waivers that allow renewable projects to create fewer jobs than legally required,” he said. “It should also prohibit companies from donating to local education foundations in exchange for favorable consideration, a common practice that comes uncomfortably close to bribery. Finally, transparency should be improved to ensure taxpayers are aware of how their pocketbooks are impacted by these tax breaks.”
Veteran energy analyst Bill Peacock of Austin, in a July 20 report for the Energy Alliance, said government aid to renewable power providers have damaged the Texas energy market, costing Lone Star State residents a great deal of money to live in a less-reliable energy market.
“Since 2006, wind and solar generators in Texas have received about $19.4 billion from taxpayers and consumers,” Peacock wrote. “It is estimated they will receive another $15.9 billion over the next decade. Texas policymakers should eliminate subsidies for renewable energy in order to ensure an energy abundant future for Texans.”
That means a level playing surface, with all energy producers held to the same standard, Isaac said.
“The Texas Public Policy Foundation is proposing that all energy generators be required to guarantee a fixed amount of ‘dispatchable,’ or readily available, power, particularly during peak times,” he said. “The intermittency and unpredictability of wind and solar power contributed to dangerously low electricity supply during peak hours last summer, and the problem will only worsen if generators are not held accountable.”
Isaac said the foundation is working with key members of House and Senate energy committees on legislation that should be filed in the coming weeks. But he said it’s important to realize that won’t correct the problem overnight.
“It’s unlikely that subsidies will be eliminated entirely, although that would be the best solution for Texans,” Isaac said. “Hundreds of billions of our dollars are spent every year at the state and federal level on energy subsidies without meaningfully changing our energy landscape.”
Bigger issues are at play as well, Isaac said. It’s become a matter of exposing the vast difference in political and economic beliefs.
“Texas will lead the charge against Wall Street investment firms taking anti-American, anti-Texas stances by prohibiting companies that boycott or divest from fossil fuels from doing business with the state of Texas,” he said. “In partnership with other energy-producing states like Alaska, we will send a strong message that energy discrimination has no place in our public discourse and America must continue leading the world in efficient, environmentally responsible energy production.”
Isaac said the solution is clear: Let the consumers decide for themselves. Let the process work as intended.
“In the long term, we believe all energy subsidies – for renewable energy and for fossil fuels – should be eliminated to allow the free market to function,” he said.