Opinion: Renewables are great and all, but who’ll pay when they fail? – Houston Chronicle

Regarding Tomlinson: Texas electric grid recommendations are just more crony capitalism costing consumers, (Sept. 7): I have a simple question for Mr. Tomlinson and the others pushing for more adoption of wind and solar generation capacity. Who will fund and invest the necessary capital in fossil fuel plants that will have to sit idly by until needed on days when the renewable sources cant produce their base-load average?

On average, wind accounts for about 20 to 25 percent of power generation in Texas, but some days, it drops well below 10 percent, which means you need at least 15 percent of on-demand generation capacity at the ready. How will this necessary reserve capacity be maintained and funded? Should renewable sources be required to pay fees when they fall below their average? Should home solar users pay a higher rate when they need to draw power from the grid? This is not unlike the issues with electric vehicles and gasoline taxes used to maintain roads. As more and more EVs take to the road, fewer and fewer gas taxes will be collected to maintain the roads.

Renewables are great and all, but how much are we going to have to pay to ensure the power stays on?

Tim Graney, Katy

Texas has enough solar to power the world two times over, Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist at Texas Tech, said in a TED talk. Texas can lead the way to a better future.

Alas, our State Energy Plan was written by Gov. Abbott, Lt. Gov. Patrick and House Speaker Phelans appointees. They are like folks driving a car while looking into the rearview mirror. Hayhoe says that will work as long as the road is straight, but when we hit a curve oops.

Texas grid is heading for curves. Because of global warming, air conditioner load will grow and we may have another bad freeze. Were hard at work exporting our natural gas to Europe. Electric vehicle sales in Texas are up 55 percent from last year.

Please vote against Abbott.

Nan Hildreth, Houston

Chris Tomlinson comments acutely on the crony capitalism of the Texas oil industry. What he identifies is endemic to the so-called free market.

Once an industry becomes entrenched, it loses its creative impulses and instead builds defenses around itself. It is not above using political, or state, mechanisms to protect its interests. No entity is more anti-competition than a monopoly or near monopoly. The market winners become anti-free market in reality while retaining rugged individualism in theory.

A hypocrisy develops. There grows a kind of socialism for the (upper) classes and rugged individualism for the masses, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once put it.

The Ayn Rand individualists seem to believe that unleashed capitalism can exist without interference by or with the political system. That is unrealistic. Once wealth has been accumulated, it will be protected by lobbyists, political alliances and ideological friends. This is human nature, something the market absolutists like to remind us over on the port side about.

In the mounting human disaster that results from radical climate change, the reaction of fossil fuel businesses holds back the development of solutions. We need rapid public and private investment in solar, wind and geothermal energy, as well as ecology-friendly energy storage in order to adapt, and to save life on this planet. The old-time religion is not going to get us there. We need a new system of checks and balances for a new, challenging time in history.

As the old Iroquois philosophy teaches, What you do, do for the next seven generations.

Paul L. Rowe, Houston

Regarding With climate legislation complete, Biden looks to presidential power to boost clean energy, (Sept. 6): The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and potential executive action will clean up the air at home, but we still need to fix the problem not yet addressed while we reduce pollution in the U.S., other countries continue to release heat-trapping gases into the air which warms the planet for all of us.

One way to increase responsibility elsewhere is to impose a fee on imported products from nations, such as China, that release more pollution in their manufacturing processes. The EU is rapidly moving forward with a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which will force countries trading with it to produce products with a lower carbon footprint or pay a fee. We too can level the playing field by placing a CBAM on foreign manufacturers undercutting our U.S. businesses with their cheaper, higher carbon-intensive goods.

Now it may fall to Republicans to hold other countries accountable. As the new Congress approaches, we urge Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, and Houston area Representatives Dan Crenshaw, Troy Nehls, Michael McCaul, Kevin Brady, Brian Babin and Randy Weber to support federal policy that does just that.

We can send a firm message to high-polluting countries if you dont follow our lead, youll pay to do business.

Drew Eyerly and Waqar Qureshi, conservative outreach director and volunteer, Citizens Climate Lobby

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Opinion: Renewables are great and all, but who'll pay when they fail? - Houston Chronicle