Texas House committee passes blackout bill, strikes anti-renewable language

Environment Texas

AUSTIN – Today the Texas House State Affairs committee unanimously approved an amended version of SB 3, legislation responding to the deadly February blackouts. The bill largely strikes language from the Senate-passed version of the bill which would have made wind and solar power pay potentially billions for “ancillary services” and “replacement power.” Environment Texas had called on the House State Affairs committee to strike the language and educated and mobilized its members on the issue. 
 
Environment Texas Executive Director Luke Metzger released the following statement:
 
“Natural gas failures were primarily responsible for the deadly February blackouts, but some have unfairly blamed renewables and are working to saddle wind and solar with new costs while doing nothing to improve reliability. Section 13 of SB 3 would have hamstrung the wind and solar industry and we appreciate Chairman Paddie and the committee for significantly improving the legislation. 
 
Wind and solar energy and battery storage are clean, affordable and quick to deploy. They’re booming in Texas, which is great news for our air and climate, as well as for ratepayers. In order to reduce the pollution damaging the health of Texans and heating up our atmosphere, the state should do more to promote renewables, not make it harder for them to operate.”