Abbott vows to exclude renewable energy from economic incentives

TEXAS, USA — As Gov. Greg Abbott indicators more potent fortify for the advent of a brand new program to exchange a multibillion greenback company tax wreck program that expired final yr, he’s additionally drawing a transparent line within the sand: wind and sun energy tasks needn’t observe.

“I support [the program] not providing economic incentives for renewables,” Abbott stated throughout a news convention in Austin. “There’s already federal incentives for renewable projects, and those will continue to be allowed. As it concerns especially energy and power and the power grid, our focus is on dispatchable power,” comparable to herbal gasoline or coal.

Abbott’s feedback lay down a transparent marker as a large coalition of industrial teams check out to revamp Texas’ economic advancement equipment following the expiration of this system referred to as Chapter 313. In 2021, the Texas Senate declined to imagine a invoice extending this system, which discounted native belongings taxes to trap large corporations to the state. It had turn into plagued with bipartisan accusations of “corporate welfare.”

For Republicans, some of the contentious facets of Chapter 313 was once how a lot it was once reaping rewards renewable energy tasks. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick boasted in January that he killed this system as it have been “misused,” claiming “about 60% of all 313 projects were renewable windmills.”

Renewable energy has proliferated in Texas: The selection of wind generators has grown considerably during the last decade, and the selection of sun farms is emerging, too. Texas produces extra wind energy than another state. It opponents California for sun. Both varieties of energy don’t pollute the air and are affordable, most often beating out assets comparable to herbal gasoline to promote the electrical energy they produce.

Small, rural counties particularly benefited from the usage of Chapter 313 to convey renewable energy corporations to their spaces, stated Judd Messer, Texas vp of the Advanced Power Alliance, in a commentary. Those corporations generated investment for native faculties, executive and landowners.

“It would be unfortunate for Texas to risk the continued economic prosperity of these rural communities by enacting an economic development program that is exclusionary in nature,” Messer stated.

Abbott’s feedback come an afternoon after state House Speaker Dade Phelan gave precedence standing to a brand new invoice that seeks to chart a post-Chapter 313 long term for economic advancement in Texas. That law, House Bill 5, is mild on main points as written however seems to depart the door open for it to get advantages renewable energy tasks.

Asked about that invoice Wednesday, Abbott applauded it as “an innovative approach” however didn’t explicitly endorse it. He stated it’s “one potential idea, and there will be others.”

Both Abbott and Phelan are keenly enthusiastic about discovering some way to strengthen Texas’ economic advancement equipment after the expiration of Chapter 313. But it’s much less transparent what Patrick will tolerate within the Senate, particularly as he pushes aggressively to construct extra herbal gasoline capability around the state in reaction to the 2021 energy grid cave in.

In reaction to that hurricane, the Legislature is thinking about a transformation to the electrical energy marketplace this is designed to supply a monetary incentive for extra weather-independent assets, comparable to herbal gas-fueled vegetation and batteries, to be constructed. The House and Senate have each been debating the Public Utility Commission’s debatable plan to do this. It is anticipated to build up electrical energy prices, and a few mavens don’t assume it is going to paintings.

Patrick stated in January that renewable energy assets are “fine to have, keep energy price low and helps the environment, but you have to have enough dispatchable to meet the needs” of the state.

On Wednesday, considered one of Patrick’s lieutenants within the Senate, Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, additionally made transparent that renewable energy tasks can be a crimson line for him in bearing in mind any post-Chapter 313 proposal.

“Let me be clear,” Hughes stated at an match in Austin. “If there is a proposal for a new economic development program, to give incentives, if it has wind and solar, I’m not just gonna vote no. I’m gonna do everything I can to kill it. I can tell you that will not pass the Texas Senate with wind and solar in it.”

Hughes’ feedback had been seconded via state Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, an impressive House veteran who serves as Phelan’s speaker professional tem. “I agree,” Geren tweeted.

Hughes made the feedback on a panel dialogue for the Texas Public Policy Foundation along Comptroller Glenn Hegar, whose place of business was once answerable for reviewing Chapter 313 packages. He stated two-thirds of the Chapter 313 agreements that had been signed in 2022 — the final yr of this system — had been for renewable energy tasks.

“That was the biggest … state-of-Texas program that enabled more renewable wind and solar,” Hegar stated.

Emily Foxhall contributed to this file. 

This article initially seemed in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/01/chapter-313-texas-renewables-economic-development/.

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