With more wind and solar, we can move to 100% clean energy

Too much of our energy comes from coal, oil and other dirty sources that wreak havoc on our environment.

We are surrounded by clean energy options — the power of the sun, the movement of the wind blowing in west Texas and off our coast, the heat of the earth, even the energy leaking from drafty windows in our homes and businesses. By using energy more efficiently and tapping our vast renewable energy resources, we can move to 100% clean energy that doesn’t pollute and never runs out.     

Leading the Nation in Wind Energy

Thanks in part to renewable energy standards adopted by the Texas Legislature in 1999 and 2005, Texas has become the national leader for wind power. If we were a nation, we’d rank 4th in the world for the number of installed wind turbines. Wind power has helped reduce air pollution, create jobs, and lower wholesale electricity prices. 

We need to keep investing in wind power, including supporting the development of offshore wind farms in the Gulf of Mexico. 

It's time for Texas to go solar

Here in Texas, solar power is a particularly powerful, but largely untapped resource.

Attractive for its clean, reliable, and independent energy, solar is being used by schools, homes — even the oil industry. Texas helped create a boom for wind power, and it can do the same for solar.

In particular, it's time to help Texas Go Solar by creating rebates and incentives to make it easier for homeowners and businesses to install solar on their rooftops, investing in solar for schools and in large-scale solar farms, and requiring utilities to pay consumers a fair price for surplus electricity they generate.

Efficient buildings will spur energy savings

America’s homes are like cars that only get 10 miles to the gallon. Buildings consume 40% of America’s energy, and much of that energy is literally flying out the window rather than heating or cooling our homes and businesses. What’s worse, energy-wasting buildings are responsible for nearly half of our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Millions of Americans are already weather-stripping doors and windows, insulating attics and making their homes more energy efficient and thus healthier, more comfortable and less costly to heat and cool.

If everyone makes these small changes, they can really add up — to 334 million fewer metric tons of global warming pollution emitted each year, the equivalent of taking 65.5 million cars off the road.  The average family could save up to $400 on their utility bills.

Visit our guide, "Plug Into Clean Energy," for tips on how to give your home an efficiency upgrade.


Clean energy updates

News Release | Environment Texas

Building Officials Approve Major Increase in Energy Efficiency Standards for Residential and Commercial Buildings

AUSTIN—Largely unnoticed in the shadow of upcoming midterm elections, the International Code Council—a body of building officials from local and state governments across the country—convened in Charlotte, North Carolina during the last week of October to make what is arguably the most significant energy policy decision of 2010. The Council meets every three years to consider updates to the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), the standard by which new homes and businesses are built, and this year, they voted overwhelmingly for stronger energy efficiency standards.

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News Release | Environment Texas

Clean Cars Would Save Texans over $16 million on Thanksgiving Travel

AUSTIN — As Texas families prepare for one of the busiest travel holidays of the year, a new Environment Texas report finds that more fuel efficient cars would save Texans over $16 million at the gas pump this Thanksgiving holiday alone. The report was released as new federal fuel efficiency and global warming pollution standards for cars and light trucks are being developed.

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News Release | Environment Texas

Statement of Environment Texas Director Luke Metzger on New Austin Facility for SunPower

AUSTIN-Environment Texas Director Luke Metzger issued the following announcement upon news that solar company SunPower will establish a new U.S. operations center in Austin, creating at least 450 jobs.

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News Release | Environment Texas

Environment Texas Helps Texans Plug into Clean Energy for Earth Day

AUSTIN—On the eve of Earth Day, Environment Texas released a new guide to help Texans improve the energy performance of their homes and workplaces. The renewable energy and energy-saving measures proposed by Environment Texas’s Plug into Clean Energy Guide promise to lower energy bills and reduce pollution from power plants across the state.

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News Release | Environment Texas

Texas Ranks 7th in U.S. for Solar Jobs

AUSTIN – Environment Texas today released new data showing that Texas has the 7th most solar-related jobs in the country with an estimated 3,346 people employed by the solar industry.  Environment Texas was joined in releasing the new data at the Las Casas Verde Solar subdivision in South Austin.

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