Intro

Texans take pride in their competitive electricity market, a system designed to let the cheapest resources win. And that market is increasingly choosing clean energy, with wind, solar, and batteries dominating new generation. Nearly 40 gigawatts have been added in just four years, equivalent to the capacity of a mid-sized European country.

This market-driven boom has unequivocally lowered costs and improved reliability. But now, in a major ideological reversal, some Texas lawmakers are trying to stop it. Bills advancing through the legislature would override market signals, impose unprecedented restrictions on renewables, and cap economic growth in the eighth-largest economy in the world.

"People aren't choosing renewables out of any ideology or just because they like it better or it's clean or anything like that. It's low cost and that matters a lot to the business community," said Doug Lewin, who runs the Texas Energy and Power Newsletter and hosts the Energy Capital podcast.

Lewin joined Open Circuit to explain the high stakes in the Lone Star State. He describes how the oil and gas industry is increasingly inking power purchase agreements with wind and solar as they electrify operations. Data centers are flocking to Texas because of the attractive energy picture. And distributed energy is poised for explosive growth as virtual power plants come online.

So why are some lawmakers trying to slam the brakes on this economic engine? According to Lewin, it's a mix of well-funded disinformation campaigns and social media algorithms that keep feeding anti-renewable content.

"There are people out there that are clearly not acting in good faith and are putting information out there that is really misinformation and they know it," said Lewin.

Bills like SB 715 and SB 388 would require solar and wind to have backup and exclude batteries from being counted as dispatchable resources. Lewin calls this an attempt to tie Texas' economic growth to gas turbine availability, "which just seems like a spectacularly bad idea."

Modeling shows these bills could cause blackouts and add billions in costs for consumers. With the legislative session in its final weeks, the business community is pushing back — but Lewin says anything could happen.

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Credits: Co-hosted by Stephen Lacey, Jigar Shah, and Katherine Hamilton. Produced and edited by Stephen Lacey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand.