Texas republicans consider legally forcing more fossil gas

Almost as amazing as it is stupid, Inside Climate News has this story: As Solar and Batteries Dominate in Texas, Republican Lawmakers Consider Natural Gas Minimums . That’s right, solar (plus wind and batteries) are so thoroughly dominating new energy production that the Big Oil bought-and-paid-for politicians in Austin are proposing to require new fossil gas plants.

As new electricity generation skews toward solar and battery storage in Texas, Republican state senators are questioning whether it’s time to impose minimum standards for building gas plants and move away from free trade in the state’s electricity marketplace.

…State Sen. Phil King, a Republican from Weatherford, asked the leaders of ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) at a public hearing last week whether there should be a rule that puts a quota on what share of new generation connecting to the grid comes from fossil fuels.

“Should we say that from a point of interconnection that 50 percent—or some percentage of new generation—has to be dispatchable generation as opposed to just letting the market forces guide that,” King asked, referring to gas plants as “dispatachable” because they can be ramped up or down on demand, unlike intermittent wind and solar power sources.

“That would be a pretty significant policy change to have a requirement like that,” ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas replied at a Senate Committee on Business and Commerce public hearing.

A pretty significant policy change, indeed! To hell with your free market, and to hell with the final shreds of Republicans pretending to be against government “handouts”. Let’s just legislate our donors' businesses back into the black. Madness. Here’s hoping the economics continues to highlight how crazy this is.