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A battery storage complex and substation stores energy produced by renewable sources. Credit: Shutterstock.\/ The Desert Photo<\/p>\nA battery storage complex and substation stores energy produced by renewable sources. Credit: Shutterstock.\/ The Desert Photo<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News<\/a>, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump\u2019s policies targeting U.S. renewable energy have put two-thirds of Texas\u2019 future solar and battery storage projects at risk of getting stuck in regulatory limbo.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The sector\u2019s leading trade group, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), found <\/a>that the Trump administration\u2019s stalling of renewable projects through slowing federal permitting and rolling back tax credits could result in more than 13,000 megawatts of planned solar and battery projects \u2014 half of all the scheduled projects \u2014 might not come online in Texas next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2027, the share of at-risk capacity jumps to more than 22,500 megawatts of the 26,000 planned. In total, SEIA identified 165 projects in Texas that are at risk of not being built.\u00a0<\/p>\n The figures are from an analysis of Energy Information Administration (EIA) data. More than 70 gigawatts of solar and 40 gigawatts of battery projects haven\u2019t received all the federal, state and local permits required and are at risk of being slowed down by an administration determined to halt renewable development in favor of fossil fuels.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some projects in the interconnection queue have lost funding from canceled Solar for All grants and it\u2019s assumed that some projects might not be built due to the loss of tax incentives, said Cyrus Reed, conservation director of the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter. It\u2019s too early to tell what the broad impact will be, Reed said.\u00a0<\/p>\n In July, the Trump administration began requiring the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum\u2019s office to sign off<\/a> on all the agency\u2019s decisions regarding clean energy projects. In its announcement<\/a>, the Interior Department said it was \u201cending preferential treatment for unreliable, subsidy-dependent wind and solar energy.\u201d<\/p>\n Later, in September, an agency official said the Interior Department was prioritizing permits for new fossil fuel plants over renewable energy projects because of limited resources and a desire to focus on permitting \u201creliable\u201d power.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Interior Department did not respond to questions about how many solar and storage projects were approved by the department since July.\u00a0<\/p>\n SEIA President Abigail Ross Hopper said the administration\u2019s policies are threatening the future of U.S. energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPolitical attacks on solar and storage are putting half of all power planned to come onto the grid this decade at risk, just as electricity demand from AI is exploding,\u201d Hopper said. \u201cThese are projects that would lower costs for families, strengthen our grid and cement America\u2019s global competitiveness.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While campaigning last year, Trump pledged to cut electricity bills across the country in half within 12 months. A new analysis<\/a> by Democratic members of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee found that the opposite is happening. Households in nearly every state are on track to pay more for electricity this year than last, upwards of $100. Texas is no exception, the congressional report found.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n On average, a Texas household spent $1,960 on electricity last year. This year, they\u2019re projected to pay $2,070, or 5.6 percent more.\u00a0<\/p>\n Washington, D.C., is projected to have the largest bill increase, up more than 22 percent, followed by Indiana, which the analysis forecasts will see average electricity bills rise more than 16 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n The CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state\u2019s grid operator, credited both solar and storage for bolstering the grid throughout the summer without ever having to make conservation calls despite record-breaking<\/a> energy demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n When the state legislature was debating bills earlier this year to restrict<\/a> the growth of renewables in Texas, the Texas Energy Buyers Alliance Club, a trade group, reported that blocking future renewable energy and storage would cost Texans $115 billion<\/a> in higher wholesale prices over the next 15 years, for both residential and commercial customers within ERCOT.<\/p>\n \u201cTexans know how nonsensical it is for President Trump and Congress to cancel tax incentives for renewables and Solar for All grants so they can spend hundreds of millions to prop up old, polluting coal plants,\u201d Reed said. \u201cTexans deserve to see these projects built, not lost due to federal decisions that are bad for business, bad for bills and bad for our air and water.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n Follow us:\u00a0Apple News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>| Twitter<\/a>\u00a0| Or sign up for our\u00a0RSS Feed<\/a><\/p>\n Related Stories<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tTexas\u2019 Solar for All program was intended to bring solar panels and batteries to low-income neighborhoods and create jobs by training workers to install the technology.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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