Texas is first in the nation in wind power generation. The Lone Star State is far and away the leader and is second when it comes to solar power generation. But Senate Bill 624 could flip the switch on that, according to critics who don’t like the bill sponsored by State Senator Lois Kolkhorst, which would give the Public Utility Commission more oversight on new and existing wind and solar projects protecting landowners and wildlife.
“It just opens the conversation of where are we today and are we sure we don’t want to know the environmental impacts long term,” Sen Kolkhorst said during a committee hearing in which the bill was introduced. “Senate Bill 624 is not meant at all to stop because it will not stop renewables. (Let’s) just take a moment to make sure we know what’s going on, and our beloved Texas is not harmed in any way, and that all landowners know something about what’s going on.”
In a hearing for the bill, some landowners testified in support of the legislation, which would require additional regulations and environmental impact studies for new and existing projects.
“We’re not anti-renewable, but we feel there are some areas that should be off limits to turbines,” a landowner, Randy Nunns of the Devils River Conservancy, said. “Go ahead and develop these alternative energies but don’t blow it by putting them in the wrong places.”
“We need help,” a landowner, Bill Hicks, said. “We need Senate Bill 624. Whatever we can get. We want it under the PUC. We want some uniform regulation in the state of Texas.”
Though critics said it tramples on property rights and singles out renewable energy while ignoring traditional power generation coal, oil, and gas. Jeff Clark, with the Advanced Power Alliance, said the bill does the opposite of protecting property rights.
“If this bill was about protecting habitat or ensuring that all of these generation resources are safe for their location or for the environment, it is almost twisted that the only generation form they target are those resources that are cleaner, have no emissions, use no water to produce electricity,” Clark told ABC13. “We think is an attack on basic property rights that every Texan value, and the effect for every consumer in the state are higher electricity prices.”
Dan Cohan at Rice University said the legislation is some of the most punitive he’s ever seen for renewable energy and could harm the strength of an already vulnerable grid in a state with growing power demands.
“It would put a whole new set of restrictions on wind and solar farms that they haven’t faced before, and it would even apply them retroactively to wind and solar farms that have already been built,” Cohan said. “This could be the sort of legislation that could shut off the growth of wind and solar that we’re enjoying and make it really hard for some existing wind and solar farms to stay in business.”
There is a companion bill in the Texas House that has not yet made it out of committee. The Senate version now heads to the floor for a vote.
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