There’s power in a diverse energy supply
Attacks on wind energy take up oxygen that could be spent on real facts and real solutions.
Yes, wind is a fair-weather friend. It blows when it blows — not necessarily when we need it or want it. And until humans learn how to harness it and store its energy, its on-again, off-again nature is an inconvenient truth in Texas’ complex relationship with the affordable energy source.
That doesn’t mean wind is unreliable. Here in Texas, we generally know the way the wind blows — when and how much, depending on the season and the time of day. Unexpected weather can thwart production forecasts, slowing blades in winter or turning them so fast at other times that they can power 60 percent of Texas’ energy needs and even risk overheating the whole electric grid.
In the end, even a fairweather friend is valuable when you’ve got a whole army of them. And Texas, which claims the largest wind capacity in the nation, has amassed quite an army. In 2019, the federal government counted more than 13,000 operating wind turbines here — generating jobs, tax revenues and power and zero carbon emissions.
All that explains why, back in December, when Congress voted on a massive pandemic relief measure, it made sure to tuck in a familiar provision: a one-year extension of a tax credit for wind energy production — the 13th such extension since a Republican president first signed it into law in 1992.
It’s the Little Tax Credit That Could for its outsized role in helping transform West Texas and the U.S. energy industry over the past three decades.
The credits have faced gale force opposition in recent days as Texas’ tragic power outages have left politicians looking for a scapegoat and fossil fuel advocates seeking to channel the gust of public skepticism about wind into competitive advantage.
The opportunists have ignored, downplayed or simply lied about how the sudden shutdown of nuclear power and frozen natural gas pipelines played a far bigger role in the emergency than other energy sources in the mix. Out of the entire pie of energy expected in those critical days, wind’s percentage of unmet obligation was in the single digits.
Texas derives roughly half its electricity from natural gas. But when the bitter cold disrupted natural gas supplies, people across Texas died. Our much-bragged-on electric grid simply won’t work when the temperatures dip below 10 degrees. That’s largely because pipelines and wellheads freeze up, Vistra Corp. CEO Curt Morgan told Texas lawmakers Thursday. “Let's be honest, they’re not built for the winter.”
They should be, and so should the wind turbines. But Texas’ failure to require weatherization doesn’t change the fact that no state has benefited from the explosive growth of the wind industry more than Texas. If Texas really were a whole other country, it’d rank fifth in the world for installed wind power capacity. In their haste to tarnish, at least publicly, any alternatives to fossil fuels, many voices — from Gov. Greg Abbott to oil and gas industry advocates — seem to suggest energy sources present an either/or proposition and that Texans must pledge loyalty to one. That’s hot air. Despite our reservations about the mantra “drill, baby, drill,” it coexists quite happily with “blow, baby, blow.”
Debate tax credits
It’s important to acknowledge that much, though certainly not all, of wind’s success is owed to tax credits, which have helped producers lower prices for wind to pennies per kilowatt hour, and sometimes even to zero. Many argue that distorts the market, putting other sources at a disadvantage. Competing with free, after all, is not easy.
In April, the Congressional Research Service noted the credits weren’t the best way to reduce America’s carbon emissions — which is, after all, the main reason why renewable energy is so sorely needed: “Subsidies reduce the average cost of energy, encouraging energy consumption, countering energy conservation initiatives, and offsetting emissions reductions.”
In other words, the United States could reroute the billions the wind tax credits cost the treasury to more directly combat climate change, including incentives for fossil fuel companies to reduce emissions. The report championed an idea Chronicle columnist Chris Tomlinson wrote about Friday, and in more detail three years ago: swapping the tax credits for new taxes on emissions themselves, an arrangement that would still benefit wind but even the playing field.
There may be a smarter way to help the planet, and the economy, than heavily subsidizing wind indefinitely. That’s a debate this country needs to have before tax credits come up for their 14th renewal this year.
Natural gas beat coal
Politics and pundits aside, the good that has come of the growing diversity of Texas’ power supply should be clear to everyone.
In the wake of the Texas blackout, the Wall Street Journal editorial board blasted former Texas Gov. Rick Perry for his 2005 support for billions in state help to expand wind power transmission lines: “Coal and nuclear are more strictly regulated and can’t compete, and many coal plants have shut down in Texas and elsewhere.”
This ignores history — not to mention, the billions in subsidies that have benefited oil and gas for decades. As of November, wind power, solar and other forms of renewable fuels together contributed just 26 percent of the electricity used in Texas. Coal still contributes 19 percent, nuclear another 10 percent and natural gas 45 percent. The single biggest factor in coal’s loss of market share has been cheap natural gas, thanks to the Texas-led fracking revolution.
Reduce demand
Texas should see its success in wind and, more recently, solar, as net wins. The planet will thank us, and so will oil and gas companies, who as we noted recently have also begun transitioning to carbon-free sources of energy.
In Texas, we talk too often about supply, insisting that the more energy we produce, the better. That’s often not true. If we’re looking for ways to reduce the stress on our electric grid, and save the planet, we need to use less energy, period.
Call it conservation. It means more efficient engines, air conditioners and industrial plants. Consider: California’s economy is more than 1.5 times as big as Texas’ and 10 million more people live there. And yet it uses far less energy. California industry used a third as much as Texas industry. California homes used 87,000 gigawatt hours of energy, compared with Texas’ 154,000.
Texans should find hope in those figures — and a challenge.
Attacks on wind are taking up precious oxygen that could be spent on real facts, real problems and real solutions. With the largest appetite for energy in the nation, Texas should be grateful for what wind power has done to feed our hunger. It’s been a friend — and we could all use more of those.