"Let history note that Enron and Texas governors George W. Bush and Rick Perry created an industry that consumers in a free market did not.
With the help of the federal Production Tax Credit of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, since renewed 13 times, as well as the $6.9 billion CREZ transmission line, Texas became the wind power state on the backs of national taxpayers and in-state ratepayers.
And post-Presidency, guess who was the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) in Dallas?
Former President George W. Bush (at the) American Wind Energy Association’s conference in Dallas ... praised Texas wind energy, bashed the media, refused to bash his successor and said his grandchildren will be driving electric cars.
Bush was welcomed enthusiastically at the speech, with an audience of 6,000 giving standing ovations before and after his talk…
When he was governor of Texas, Bush signed the 1999 law that is widely credited with kick-starting wind development in the state.
The 1999 law deregulated the electricity markets, but also required Texas to get 2,000 megawatts of electricity from renewable energy by 2009.
... The state’s renewables requirement, called a renewable portfolio standard, is widely viewed as a model for the industry due to its simplicity.
Texas is (now) the national leader in wind energy by far, with nearly three times as much capacity installed as the next-closest state, Iowa.
Under the thumb of Ken Lay and Enron at the time, the major sponsor of the 1999 law, Bush was all-in on wind.
... Other states, Bush noted, are struggling to build the transmission lines that will carry the wind from remote windy areas to the cities that need it.
“There’s a big difference between the talkers and the doers, and here in the state of Texas, we are doers,” he said.
And Gov. Perry took it from there.
... As the Wall Street Journal reports, as part of the 1999 law, Bush included a provision that called for 2,000 megawatts of renewable power capacity by 2009.
That milestone came four years early.
Bush’s successor, Rick Perry, raised the bar to 10,000 megawatts by 2025.
Such a massive boom in renewables comes with some problems, though.
First, the Texas grid is straining to move all of that wind power from the rural places where it’s generated to the cities where it’s needed.
New transmission lines are helping, but wind power figures continue to grow.
There are big plans for new solar capacity as well, about 6,000 megawatts’ worth, so the transmission bottleneck is likely to remain an issue going forward.
Second, wind and solar are intermittent and only provide power when the wind blows or sun shines.
... special government favor created a new, unneeded industry of industrial wind turbines.
In a slightly different form, on-grid solar is a second, sister industry that is directly and indirectly government enables, a story for another day."
"Arguably, Mr. Perry’s most interesting energy efforts have related to wind power, which has boomed under his administration.
Today, after a decade of rapid growth, Texas is the nation’s wind leader.
The groundwork was laid by Mr. Bush, who in 1999 signed a bill that … established a renewable-energy requirement that kick-started wind development. But Mr. Perry has added to that.
In 2005, he signed a bill requiring Texas to have 5,880 megawatts of renewables capacity by 2015. The state has already surpassed that requirement.”
– Kate Galbraith, “As Governor, Perry Backed Wind, Gas and Coal.”
New York Times, August 20, 2011.
And from Robert Bradley Jr., “Texas Gov. Perry’s Muddled Energy/Climate Keynote,” October 9, 2014:
“In October 2006, Governor Perry announced $10 billion in commitments from wind developers to increase installed Texas wind capacity by about 7,000 MW.
And to get this (remote, unneeded) electricity to market, Perry committed the state to a $5 billion–and now $7+ billion– transmission project.”
Little wonder that Gov. Perry awarded crony capitalist T. Boone Pickens the 2009 Texan of the Year Award.
(According to news reports, “Perry said Pickens’ alternative energy [featuring wind power] could change the world forever’.”)
“’While Perry’s been governor,’ said the American Wind Energy Association, ‘we’ve had a business climate that allows a generator to build, connect to the grid and sell power.
... Added Paul Sadler, executive director of the Wind Coalition, in the New York Times: ‘He [Perry] has been a stalwart in defense of wind energy in this state — no question about it.’”