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Tuesday, September 6th, 2016

George W. Bush Helped Make Texas a Clean-Energy Powerhouse

Author:     Michael Reilly
Source:     MIT Technology Review
Publication Date:     August 29, 2016
 Link: George W. Bush Helped Make Texas a Clean-Energy Powerhouse
Stephan:   I suggest this story is important for two reasons. First, it shows that the transition out of carbon is not an easy smooth path, but will require considerable innovation and restructuring. This is where jobs are already appearing, even as carbon employment is withering -- consider the coal industry. Second, Texas is a deep red state, and George Bush is not a social progressive. Yet this shows that when the wellness option is chosen even in Red value states it takes hold and grows. I take that as good news.
Texas Wind Power Credit: MIT Technology Review

Texas Wind Power
Credit: MIT Technology Review

Texas is crushing its clean power goals. Ever since 1999, when then-governor George W. Bush signed a law deregulating the state’s power market, Texas has been building wind turbines like crazy. And the boom isn’t likely to end anytime soon, thanks to a combination of federal subsidies and the falling cost of both wind and solar.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, as part of the 1999 law, Bush included a provision that called for 2,000 megawatts of renewable power capacity by 2009. That milestone came four years early. Bush’s successor, Rick Perry, raised the bar to 10,000 megawatts by 2025.

The state blasted past that milestone as well. As of April this year, it had an astonishing 19,000 megawatts of renewables, enough capacity to power 4 million homes and good for about 16 percent of the state’s total energy diet. The vast majority of that is wind: nearly 18,000 megawatts, far and away the nation’s leader.

Such a massive boom in renewables comes with […]

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