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ABBOTT BLAMES RENEWABLES: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is pinning his state’s recent power grid troubles on renewable energy, even as data from the grid operator shows failures at fossil fuel-fired plants contributed far more.
“Electric generators are expected to provide enough power to meet the needs of all Texans. When they fail to do so, those generators should shoulder the costs of that failure,” Abbott wrote in a letter to commissioners on the state’s Public Utility Commission yesterday.
In this instance, however, Abbott was referring to wind and solar power, not the many natural gas plants that tripped offline during the February cold snap that left millions of Texans in the dark for several days.
“He got it completely backwards: nuclear, coal and gas failed in February and again a few weeks ago, yet he bills them as ‘reliable,’” said Michael Webber, chief science and technology officer for ENGIE and an energy professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
While the cold forced Texas wind turbines to shutter or produce lower capacity, data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, the state’s grid operator, showed that far more fossil fuel-fired power plants, largely natural gas, failed. That was in large part because those power plants weren’t weatherized to keep running in extremely cold temperatures.
And just last month, when ERCOT asked Texans to conserve energy during high-demand summer days, the major contributing factor was more fossil fuel-fired power plants being offline for maintenance than expected.
Politics vs. reality: Nonetheless, Abbott and other Texas Republicans have blamed renewable energy for grid troubles, insisting those resources aren’t as “reliable” because they are dependent on the weather.
Texas has largely been a success story on renewable energy thus far, becoming a powerhouse for wind and solar despite not having the aggressive climate goals that California, New York, and other liberal states do.
Abbott’s letter proves it could be difficult to move past the politics of pitting one energy resource against another. The Texas governor is asking the PUC to penalize renewable energy, charging fees if those generators can’t provide power all the time. Meanwhile, Abbott is calling on the PUC to further boost natural gas, coal, nuclear, and other non-renewable energy generators, directing reliability-based “incentives” toward those resources.
The politics threaten to overshadow the more mundane but significant steps energy analysts say state and federal regulators should be taking to ensure a reliable grid, such as weatherizing power plants, building out transmission lines, increasing energy efficiency, and improving electricity planning.
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PSAKI ADDRESSES GAS PRICES: The White House is working to calm nerves over rising gas prices after a stand-off in OPEC+ negotiations has led to an uncertain oil market.
“The president wants Americans to have access to affordable and reliable energy, including at the pump,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during yesterday’s press briefing. She said the Biden administration is “constantly monitoring gas prices and directly communicating with OPEC parties tso get a deal and allow proposed production increases to move forward.”
When asked whether President Joe Biden would directly intervene in the OPEC talks (as former President Donald Trump often did), Psaki said she is “certainly not predicting that at this moment in time.”
The Biden administration has found itself on defense as Republicans have been keen to link rising gas prices to Biden’s energy and climate policies. The White House has repeatedly sought to clarify that gasoline prices are rising as people are vaccinated and begin traveling again, driving up demand. The failure of OPEC to reach an agreement on boosting oil output threatens to drive prices up further.
“I think there sometimes is a misunderstanding of what causes gas prices to increase,” Psaki said, stressing the administration wants to “convey to the American people that we’re working on it and certainly the supply availability of oil has a huge impact.”
Psaki added that Biden was “vehemently opposed” to any increase in the gas tax or a tax on vehicle miles traveled to pay for the infrastructure bill because “he felt that would fall on the backs of Americans.”
FINANCIAL REGULATORS SEEK ALIGNED CLIMATE DISCLOSURE RULES: The Financial Stability Board, a group of global financial regulators, is calling on G20 nations to work to quickly implement and align climate-related disclosure requirements.
“The interconnected nature of climate-related financial risks and the growing body of work to address them reinforce the need for coordinated action,” wrote Randal Quarles, vice chair of the Federal Reserve who is the current chair of the FSB, in a letter to G20 finance ministers this morning.
The FSB is presenting a roadmap for G20 nations to align their climate-related financial disclosure requirements and plug gaps in the emissions and climate data that companies currently provide. G20 finance ministers are meeting later in the week, and the FSB is hoping they will endorse the roadmap.
The FSB is recommending that G20 nations establish a “global baseline” for climate disclosures to ensure companies are reporting “consistent and comparable” information. Quarles, in his letter, notes that a global baseline “would not preclude authorities from going further or at a faster pace in their jurisdictions.”
Action underway in the U.S.: The Securities and Exchange Commission is working to establish a framework for mandatory climate disclosures, recently accepting comments on what those standards should include.
Environmentalists are urging the SEC to require public companies to disclose the full scope of their emissions (including indirect emissions), as well as details about how those companies will achieve their climate targets. Republican lawmakers and some energy groups, however, have raised concerns that climate disclosures will be used to choke off investment in fossil fuels.
BIG BUSINESS LINES UP TO BACK A CES: A coalition of major corporations is throwing its support behind a clean electricity standard, a signature policy of Biden’s to eliminate power sector emissions.
The companies — which include Apple, eBay, Exelon, Mars, Salesforce, and Unilever — are pushing lawmakers to adopt a clean electricity standard that achieves 80% carbon-free power by 2030 and 100% by 2035.
“Passage of a federal clean electricity standard will drive large amounts of new renewable generation and do so in a way that provides businesses a clear path and expectations to make needed investments at the scale and speed necessary,” the companies wrote in a letter to lawmakers this morning. The letter was organized by several environmental groups, including Ceres and the Environmental Defense Fund.
The letter comes as the Biden administration is outlining a clean electricity standard as a major priority for the forthcoming reconciliation bill. But as Josh recently reported, Democrats may struggle to push the policy in a way that complies with the strict budget rules that govern the reconciliation process.
NEW CLIMATE AD CAMPAIGN: Climate Power and the League of Conservation Voters announced yesterday they will spend an additional $10 million on a TV ad campaign to increase pressure on lawmakers to pass significant climate and clean energy investments this Congress.
The ads will air nationally, and the groups are also targeting 16 states and 23 individual congressional districts. The two groups have already spent $10 million in paid media this year to encourage aggressive climate investments, and the League of Conservation Voters recently announced a separate $8 million field organizing effort.
The Rundown
Wall Street Journal Coal shows its staying power as economies bounce back
Financial Times Shell prepares to raise shareholder payouts
Reuters Volkswagen to sell stake in charging unit Electrify America -sources
Calendar
THURSDAY | JULY 8
12 p.m. CRES Forum will hold an online event titled, “How Conservatives are Planning to Tackle Climate Change.”
