We could list all the climate change driven catastrophes over the last few years including the unprecedented heatwave spread over the north Atlantic killing marine life melting the ice in Iceland and cooking usually cool countries like Ireland and Holland. I could talk about big forest fires in the West and record heat waves in the conservative South, represented mostly by republicans who not only deny climate change, but they are also staunchly opposed to doing anything about it.
As Texans bake under a record heatwave, their republican legislature and governor are working to put obstacles in the way of further wind and solar development in Texas. The Texas electrical grid is stressed to the limit by millions of air conditioners struggling against the heat. The Texas grid is not tied in with neighboring states, so Texas really is on its own when it comes to electricity. And republicans are telling the public that electricity shortages are caused by wind and solar when the reality is that natural gas power plants are failing just as they did in the winter storm of a few years ago.
Republicans discount the value of renewable energy even though Texas is now the leader nationally in wind and solar with more planned. But the oil industry is bothered by renewables which are pushing them out of some of the market. That’s the point. If we are going to solve the climate change crisis, oil burning must be cut down to almost none.
In response Texas republicans voted to take tax breaks away from wind and solar and give them only to fossil fuel generation plants and nuclear plants. They also voted to build natural gas power plants with tax dollars. The message to wind and solar companies is clear; subsidies from the government only go to fossil fuels and the market economy is distorted. Solar and wind are cheaper to build and operate than fossil fuel plants and with battery and other backup systems they are more reliable in extreme weather.
Two problems. First oil and gas give politicians millions of dollars in “campaign contributions” (which probably end up in their personal bank accounts in some cases). Second, conservatives don’t really like scientists and environmentalists, intellectual types with a focus different from the good old boy networks that dominate conservatism in the South. People who work on climate change solutions probably are not republican voters.
So, the climate issue becomes a culture war issue and people like Governor Greg Abbot dig in their heels, lying about the reliability of renewable energy to try to get the public to turn on market based solutions to the climate problem. Further subsidizing the oil industry would seem anathema to conservative free-market thinking. But maybe republicans aren’t all that interested in free markets if they don’t support their cultural perspective.
Maybe the renewable energy industry isn’t providing the right campaign contributions to republicans to get them to look favorably on this growing industry in Texas. Maybe they need to join the good old boy networks, play golf, go to the right churches and stop talking about the climate benefits of renewables to people who obviously don’t care about the climate at all.
In the meantime, these sorts of petty political moves by conservatives are going to cause more and more heatwaves in Texas and the South and elsewhere. But conservative politicians make lots of money from their relationship with the fossil fuel industry and they want things to stay the way they have been since the 1940s. That’s conservative.
With 30% of its power coming from wind and solar, Texas is weathering this heatwave with few power problems thanks to the investments of the renewable industry. But renewables should not ask for any thanks from Texas republicans. They’ve got a culture war to fight, and the markets and climate reality be damned!
Tom Ribe
