Save Texas Renewables

At Environment Texas, we’re all about conservation. We share a vision of a Texas of wide open spaces with plenty of state parks and other natural areas where people can hike, fish, camp, raft and hunt.

But we also know that Texas needs to supply power for our homes and businesses and schools and places of worship, and it’s best for our air and water if we do so as cleanly as possible. Fortunately, Texas has the greatest solar and wind resources in the whole country. The more we can harness the power of our sunshine and wind, the healthier our water, air, land and wildlife will be.

Unfortunately, legislation under consideration in Austin would erect new bureaucratic obstacles to solar and wind power. If you’re a landowner who wants to put wind turbines or solar panels on your property, you’d face new government hurdles that don’t exist now. 

The result? Renewable energy development in Texas could grind to a halt. That would mean more air and water pollution threatening our health and land and higher electric bills.

Renewable energy is delivering results for Texas

We’re proud of the forward-looking entrepreneurs, farmers and ranchers who have made Texas the national leader in renewable energy. In the last ten years the amount of wind and solar generated in Texas has tripled and renewable energy now produces almost a third our electricity. As old, dirty, and water-hungry coal plants retire, wind, solar, and batteries are stepping up to help meet the state’s growing demand for electricity. That’s resulting in huge benefits for our environment, saving billions of gallons of water and avoiding millions of pounds of deadly air pollution. And since wind and solar are now some of the cheapest forms of energy out there, renewable energy is saving consumers billions on their electric bills.

But the fact is some politicians just don’t like renewable energy and want to make it harder to build.

Cleaner, cheaper, more reliable solutions to strengthen the grid

We need more clean energy, not less. More wind and solar energy, more battery storage, more energy efficiency, and more interconnection with the national grid will strengthen our electric grid and protect consumers and the environment.

At the same time, we need to make sure that we minimize the impacts to our land and wildlife from energy projects – fossil fuel and renewable energy alike. By protecting pristine areas like wild rivers and grasslands, creating setbacks from neighboring properties, and reducing runoff and light pollution, we can develop our natural resources responsibly. That’s the solution – not more red tape that will hurt landowners and our environment.

A plan to win

We stopped similar anti-renewable energy plans in the Texas Legislature in 2023 and we can do it again. Texans overwhelmingly support more investment in clean energy. A recent poll by the University of Houston found that “64% of Texans favor expanding U.S. reliance on solar power plants, 59% favor reliance on geothermal plants and 57% favor reliance on wind turbine farms.”

And so do many legislators, including rural Republicans attracted by the economic development renewable energy is bringing to their districts as well as urban Democrats concerned about the environment and consumer costs.

We’re working to mobilize public support across the state to show supportive democrats in Houston, Dallas and Laredo that they need to stand up for renewables. With groups like Conservative Texans for Energy Innovation building support with lawmakers in more rural parts of the state, we’ve got a bi-partisan coalition working to defeat attacks on wind and solar power and instead focus on solutions for a cleaner, more reliable, more affordable electric grid.

Together we can win if we:

1. Get the truth out there. Some Texas lawmakers are still trying to sink renewables by blaming blackouts on solar and wind, when the reality is that most of the problem was at natural gas facilities. This will remove the smokescreen many decision-makers are using to hide their pro-natural gas agenda. 
2. Emphasize the enormous benefits renewable energy is providing Texas, including by saving consumers billions of dollars
3. Oppose any proposals that make renewable energy more expensive or blocks it altogether

Environment Texas has successfully advocated for clean energy for decades, including helping double the state’s renewable energy goal in 2005 and helping double the state’s energy efficiency goal in 2007. We helped stop the worst attacks on renewable energy in the 2023 legislative session and we can do it again.

We also have a long track record of working to protect open space, including getting the Texas Legislature last year to invest $1 billion to buy land for new state parks. We know how to balance the urgent need for more clean energy with the need to preserve the countryside from sprawl.

Please contact your legislators and urge them to vote against attacks on renewable energy. You can also get the word out to your friends and help support our campaign.

The nation is counting on us
As the national leader in renewable energy, Texas is playing a critical role in helping the United States fight climate change and air pollution. With some of the best wind and solar resources in the nation, our nation needs us to keep leading the transition to clean energy. 

If we stop these bills, we’ll protect the growth of wind and solar energy and battery storage and the state’s national leadership in renewable energy. We’ll save consumers billions of dollars and avoid millions of tons of pollution.