Clean Energy In the News

By LUKE METZGER and BEE MOORHEAD

Special to the Star-Telegram

Texas is at an energy crossroads. With a state population that could double in the next 30 years, we soon will have many more homes and businesses that need electricity. Across the state, policymakers, experts and ordinary Texans are debating how best to meet these energy needs.

According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the operator of most of the state's electric grid, Texas electricity use is growing by 2.3 percent every year; in 2008, demand will exceed safe levels of supply. Gov. Rick Perry, TXU and other electric utilities argue that 19 new coal-fired power plants are necessary to meet Texas' growing energy needs and avoid blackouts.

However, the proposed coal plants would supply much more electricity than ERCOT says Texas needs, and they wouldn't be brought online in time to meet the power crunch.

Even worse, this "coal rush" would mean continued mercury and soot pollution from power plant smokestacks, landscapes denuded and waterways fouled by mining operations, and massive emissions of the greenhouse gases that already have begun to warm the globe, threatening unimaginable harm to our environment, economy and society.

Fortunately, by implementing readily available efficiency technologies, we can keep the lights on in the short term and plan for Texas' long-term energy future at a cost far smaller than that of the new coal plants. Texans currently use twice as much energy per capita as people in New York and California -- states that have adopted aggressive energy efficiency programs. That means there is a lot of low-hanging fruit that Texas could easily pick to save energy.

According to an analysis by Environmental Defense, existing efficiency programs in Texas have resulted in a cumulative reduction in peak demand of 585 megawatts (MW) between 2002 and 2005, at a cost of about $460 per kilowatt. By comparison, TXU estimates the costs of its new plants to be $1,100 per kilowatt, which doesn't even include transmission, distribution and fuel costs. The first coal plant could be up and running by 2009 at the earliest; efficiency programs can be implemented immediately.

Numerous technologies exist to reduce energy use in homes and businesses.

Home weatherization -- including air sealing, insulation and window replacement -- can cut energy use for home heating by 20 to 30 percent. Efficient furnaces, like those meeting federal Energy Star standards, can cut energy use for heating by 20 percent compared with today's furnaces and by 40 percent compared with those 20 years old or older. Solar and heat pump water heaters can reduce energy use for water heating by half to two-thirds, and more efficient refrigerators, clothes washers and dishwashers can provide additional savings.

Businesses can save energy, too. Wal-Mart, for example, has committed to reducing its in-store energy use by 20 percent. And one recent analysis found that the use of more efficient motors and improved controls in the industrial, electric and commercial sectors could reduce total U.S. electricity demand by as much as 15 to 25 percent.

In addition to efficiency, clean wind, solar, biomass and geothermal energy could meet all of Texas' energy needs. Thanks to a successful renewable energy program established by the Legislature in 1999 and expanded in 2005, Texas leads the nation in wind power, and billions of dollars in investments will continue to feed that industry.

Texas is also in a prime position to be a world solar leader. According to the State Energy Conservation Office, the energy from sunshine falling on a single acre of land in West Texas is capable of producing the energy equivalent of 800 barrels of oil each year. If solar panels were distributed on roofs and over parking lots throughout 5 percent of our urban areas, they would produce more than half of Texas' current electrical consumption.

Solar is also most effective during the peak demand that ERCOT is most worried about. Solar helps stabilize the electric grid, avoids the need to fire up expensive natural gas plants to meet demand, and reduces emissions at a time when smog is at its greatest concentration.

When it's distributed on rooftops, solar negates the need for expensive new transmission lines.

The Texas Legislature should call a time-out on new coal plant construction and take a serious look at Texas' energy future. Today's decisions will have enormous ramifications for generations to come, and we owe it to our children to make sure we choose very carefully.