When folks think of the Lone Star State, they might think of Big Oil and big emissions. But here’s another, equally accurate image that folks might not think of when it comes to Texas: clean energy leader.
That’s right. It holds true with or without the controversial Clean Power Plan, which the U.S. Supreme Court stayed in February.
As we’ve said before, because of its abundance of natural gas, sunshine and wind power, Texas is uniquely poised to meet the Clean Power Plan’s standards. That also means that should those Environmental Protection Agency regulations fall by the judicial wayside, Texas is still poised to dramatically improve its emissions. State leaders don’t have to do anything other than let old coal power plants retire.
All on its own, the market will replace coal power sources with natural gas, solar and wind power. That’s the message from the Texas Clean Energy Coalition, which hired The Brattle Group, an incredibly well-respected outfit, to forecast Texas’ energy future. The findings? That natural gas will largely replace dirtier coal power plants in coming years, assuming these coal plants are shut down as scheduled. This is largely due to perpetually low gas prices that will persist well into the future, but also improving technology that will harness more solar and wind power. And remember, the state already leads in wind power production.
The result is a dramatic decline in CO2 emissions in Texas — even as consumer prices stay flat. Just following market forces, the Brattle Group predicts CO2 emissions between 2016 and 2035 will be 28 percent below 2005 levels.
That’s just from market forces. Now, imagine what Texas could do if state officials acknowledged the future catastrophic potential of climate change.