A coalition of elected officials, business leaders, and community groups announced a plan to revitalize Texas’ economy through state investments in solar power and energy efficiency. The group called on the Legislature to renew Texas’ leadership as the energy capital of the world by adopting policies to boost manufacturing and installation of clean energy products.
The "Renew Texas" plan was endorsed by more than 90 Texas leaders, including former Shell Oil President John Hofmeister, Abilene Mayor Norm Archibald and statewide organizations like the League of Women Voters, NAACP, the Sierra Club, and Public Citizen.
"Our economy is struggling and unstable energy prices are only making things worse," said Luke Metzger, Director of Environment Texas. "But Texas has the technological prowess and vast resources of renewable energy from the sun, wind and crops that can revitalize our economy, power the nation, create thousands of high-paying renewable energy jobs and renew Texas’ role as the energy capital of the world."
The plan calls on the Legislature to create incentives to install 4000 megawatts (MW) of solar power by 2020.
It also would require utilities to reduce energy consumption by 1% a year by 2015 and 2% a year by 2020
Other elements of the plan include:
- Improving building codes so that the efficiency standards for new homes are increased by 15% every three years
- Helping schools, universities and local governments improve the efficiency of buildings through low-cost loans
- Requiring certain appliances to meet minimum efficiency standards.
"The wind power boom in Texas has demonstrated how clean energy investments can create jobs and put money back in the pockets of consumers," said state Rep. Mark Strama (Austin). "We should continue down the road to a new energy economy by investing in solar and energy efficiency."
According to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, if Texas made a major investment in energy efficiency, consumers could save $5 billion in energy costs over the next fifteen years, more than 38,000 high-paying jobs would be created, and air pollution from power plants would be reduced by 20%.
"Texas could reap the largesse of new federal spending on clean energy," said Dr. Cyrus Reed, Conservation Program Director for the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. "But because other states already have well-developed solar and efficiency programs, we have to play catch up if we want to compete in these industries."
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