Austin News

In February, state Rep. Bryan Slaton (R–Royse City) introduced legislation aimed at ensuring equal competition in the Texas energy sector by eliminating special tax breaks for solar facilities in the state, according to Texas Scorecard.  

House Bill 2372, currently pending a vote in the House State Affairs Committee, would ban tax abatements and incentives for solar energy facilities and properties that are not available to other traditional energy sources. The bill also requires abandoned and ineffective solar plants that have outlived their use to be officially decommissioned. The bill is co-sponsored by Rep. Kyle Biedermann (R-Fredericksburg) and Rep. Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park).

Solar energy, according to Slaton, only seems to be successful due to artificial government subsidies.

“The government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers, and that includes the energy industry,” Slaton said in a joint news release March 1, “After the green energy disaster during last week’s winter storm, it’s clear that sources like solar are unreliable, especially when people need it most.”

Slaton's comments mirrored those of Sen. Bob Hall (R-Rockwall), who introduced a similar bill in the Texas Senate, Senate Bill 829.

“Solar energy is neither reliable nor cost-effective,” Hall remarked during the joint news release, "We experienced firsthand its lack of reliability during last week’s power outages. Current solar technology only appears to be cost-effective because of the extensive taxpayer subsidies that are mostly hidden from the public.”

The Austin American-Statesman reports that in 2020, wind power generated 24.8% and solar 3.8% of the generating power in Texas.

According to a study by Brent Bennet of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, solar energy producers have earned 75 times more subsidies per unit of electricity produced than conventional energy sources since 2010.

“Green energy should not be receiving tax incentives and this bill removes those unfair incentives for solar," Slaton further stated in the release. "Additionally, since solar facilities typically only last a few decades, this bill requires that solar operators clean up and restore the soil before closing up shop, making this an exceptionally pro-taxpayer and pro-environment piece of legislation.”

In a separate study on intermittent generation, the Texas Public Policy Foundation found that all energy subsidies cause market distortions, but renewable energy subsidies for wind, solar and biofuels have proved the most damaging.

Additionally, the study found these subsidies result in wasteful usage of existing electricity generator assets and higher transmission costs.

Lower natural gas prices led to lower electricity prices in most parts of the United States in 2019, according to a report by the Energy Alliance.

This report, however, also discovered that energy prices in Texas rose by 13% from their average due to major distortions in the Texas energy market caused by renewable subsidies, totaled more than $2.3 billion in 2019.