Clean energy rules will save us money

In the next several days, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will announce its final rules to reduce the emissions of carbon pollution from old coal-fired power plants.

The good news is the winds of change are blowing and the sun is shining, and renewable energy is cheaper than running old coal plants or even building natural gas-fired powered plants.

We have so much of these clean energy resources that we could provide for all of our state’s energy needs and still have enough left over to supply 10 percent of the energy used in the rest of the country.

If Gov. Greg Abbott were smart and responsible, he’d get ahead of the issue and create a Texas-sized plan to maximize the money savings and job creation potential of these new rules.

Georgetown recently decided to get 100 percent of its energy from renewable energy sources. As Mayor Dale Ross mayor wrote in Time magazine on March 27:

“No, environmental zealots have not taken over our city council, and we’re not trying to make a statement about fracking or climate change. Our move to wind and solar is chiefly a business decision based on cost and price stability.

“The city’s contracts for solar and wind power will provide wholesale electricity at a lower price than our previous contracts. These long-term agreements also provide a fixed cost that will enable the city to avoid the price volatility and regulatory costs we were likely to have seen had we continued to use electricity generated by burning fossil fuels. With energy costs locked in for the long-term, we can maintain competitive, predictable electric rates through 2041.”

It’s not just Georgetown that sees the value of these lower costs. Austin Energy, in soliciting bids for a power purchase recently, received offers as low as 3.8 cents per kilowatt-hour — almost 40 percent less than the 6.1 cents they estimate it will cost to build and fuel a new gas plant.

Warren Buffett, one of the nation’s most successful investors, purchased 100 megawatts of solar energy for one of his power companies at a similarly low price.

The city of San Antonio is shifting to renewables, too. NRG Energy, which has seven large power-generating plants near Houston, is building more than a dozen utility solar farms. Exelon, in the Panhandle, is planning to meet its carbon reduction obligations with renewables as well.

Luminant, the big North Texas electric generating company, should follow suit.

Luminant has eight old coal plants at three sites. Studies have shown old plants are too costly to continue operating if they are upgraded to meet pollution rules.

Replacing them with a combination of renewables and natural gas-fired electricity would save over a half a billion dollars.

The company would reduce air and water pollution, as well as healthcare costs attributed to the pollution, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area by an estimated $2.5 billion annually.

Last year, the Dallas County Medical Society petitioned the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to limit the pollution from these old coal plants, because the air pollution they emit is having a detrimental effect on North Texans’ health.

Luminant is currently in bankruptcy. The company bet big on coal and is now losing even bigger, as the falling price of natural gas undercut the value of coal.

We hope it has learned its lesson and will replace its oldest and dirtiest coal plants with cheaper renewables now.

Tom “Smitty” Smith is director of Public Citizen’s Texas office, a consumer and environmental organization.

This story was originally published July 31, 2015 at 5:55 PM with the headline "Clean energy rules will save us money."