Sierra Club: Governor Abbott's Demands Would Leave Texas More Polluted and Texans in the Dark
AUSTIN -
Earlier this week, Governor Abbott released a letter to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), demanding changes that Abbott falsely claims will "increase power generation capacity and to ensure the reliability of the Texas power grid."
Unfortunately, Abbott's letter promotes polluting, unreliable fossil fuels, attacks safer clean energy options, and ignores solutions that would actually benefit everyday Texans.
"Governor Abbott, in a blatant effort to politicize Texans' energy security, wants to double down on fossil fuels, even though they were the single largest point of failure during both February's blackouts and June's energy conservation alerts," said Cyrus Reed, Interim Director & Conservation Director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club.
"Many of these so-called solutions were considered and rejected most recently by the Texas Legislature. Texas must focus on expanding clean and reliable renewable energy, energy efficiency, and storage capacity.
"We can little afford to repeat the same mistakes that have failed to provide enough electricity where it is needed most and cost Texans billions of dollars. Instead of advocating for evidence-based solutions, Abbott wants to be a culture warrior for coal and gas, even when it results in blackouts across Texas."
Related News
Scientists generate 'electricity from thin air.' Humidity could be a boundless source of energy.
WASHINGTON - Sure, we all complain about the humidity on a sweltering summer day. But it turns out that same humidity could be a source of clean, pollution-free energy, a new study shows.
"Air humidity is a vast, sustainable reservoir of energy that, unlike solar and wind, is continuously available," said the study, which was published recently in the journal Advanced Materials.
“This is very exciting,” said Xiaomeng Liu, a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and the paper’s lead author. “We are opening up a wide door for harvesting clean electricity from thin air.”
In fact, researchers say, nearly any material…
