“Government increased the cost of Texas electricity by $20 Billion in 2023.”
On July 1, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced that they “will seek to expand the [Texas Energy Fund] to $10 billion to build more new [generation] plants as soon as possible.” The Texas Legislature, with voter approval, created the Fund last year with initial funding of $5 billion.
Subsidizing multi-billion dollar generators and electric utilities using Texans’ money is nothing new in Texas. Figure 1 shows that in 2023 the U.S. government, Texas’ state government, and Texas local governments increased the cost of electricity in the Texas area served by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) by $19.9 billion, most of it by providing subsidies and benefits to generators and transmission companies. This represented 42.7% of the total cost of electricity to Texans in ERCOT.…
Continue Reading“Republicans will increase Energy Production across the board, streamline permitting, and end market-distorting restrictions on Oil, Natural Gas, and Coal.”
In the approximately 5,000-word platform of the Republican Party, some 400 (8 percent) explicitly deals with energy. All of the statements (below) are pro-consumer, pro-taxpayer, pro-economy, and pro-environment.
Nary a mention of the tired, half-century alarm of a ‘climate crisis’. No mention of forced energy transformation to dilute, intermittent, land-intensive wind and solar. No mention, logically, of a new energy tax domestically or at the international border. Free and open markets are strongly implied.
“MAKE AMERICA THE DOMINANT ENERGY PRODUCER IN THE WORLD, BY FAR!”
“Unleash American Energy. Under President Trump, the U.S. became the Number One Producer of Oil and Natural Gas in the World — and we will soon be again by lifting restrictions on American Energy Production and terminating the Socialist Green New Deal.…
Continue Reading“Absolutely I think they should build another [nuclear plant], because I think they’ll get better at it, It’s the cleanest energy you can possibly have out there, and we’re gonna need a tremendous increase in energy production.” [Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), quoted in Politico. June 27, 2024]
Nuclear power is a government-created and government-enabled industry. It was born of government largesse and regulatory favor, led by these five policies:
Nuclear’s history of cost overruns, construction delays, and in-progress cancellations speaks for itself. Suffice it to say that the free market would have never allowed this industry to jump from military applications to civilian ones.…
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