Tyler Reporter

If approved by the Texas House of Representatives, House Bill 2372 will ban tax abatements and incentives for solar energy facilities and properties that are not available to other traditional energy sources. 

“It would remove the unfair tax incentives that these solar facilities are currently eligible to receive,” said Rep. Bryan Slaton (R-Royse City). “Second, it would apply common-sense decommissioning requirements on solar facilities once those facilities are at the end of their life, similar to what is already required of the oil and gas industry.”

Introduced by Slaton in February, HB 2372 is co-sponsored by Rep. Kyle Biedermann (R-Fredericksburg) and Rep. Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park) and is currently awaiting a vote in the House State Affairs Committee, according to Legiscan.  A sister bill, Senate Bill (SB) 829, is being promoted by Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood). 

The bill will require abandoned and ineffective solar plants that have outlived their use to be officially decommissioned.

“As we saw during this year's winter storm when the sun stopped shining, solar energy was nowhere to be found,” Slaton told the Tyler Reporter.

In 2019 most areas in the United States experienced lower electricity prices due to lower natural gas prices, according to the Energy Alliance. In Texas, however, energy prices rose by 13% from their average due to massive distortions in the Texas energy market caused by renewable subsidies, the Energy Alliance reports. In 2019 alone, renewable energy subsidies in Texas totaled more than $2.3 billion.

“It is important that we let the free market decide which energy options are the best for Texas consumers, not the government,” Slaton said in an interview. “This should apply across the board to all energy options."

The Texas Public Policy Foundation reports that energy subsidies do not foster innovation and instead create industries and sub-industries that are wholly reliant on the government for financial support.

All energy subsidies cause energy market distortions, but renewable energy subsidies for wind, solar, and biofuels have proven to be the most harmful, according to a Texas Public Policy Foundation study called Intermittent Generation Comes to Texas. These subsidies lead to the inefficient use of existing energy generator assets as well as increased transmission costs.

“Because renewable energy is wholly supported by subsidies, it is destroying the energy market in Texas by causing artificially low or even negative wholesale prices that drive out more reliable sources of energy and decrease the efficacy of the energy grid,” said Charles McConnell, executive directive of the Energy and Environment Initiative at Rice University, in a report.

The Energy Alliance contends that solar and wind energy generators are able to price their electricity below their marginal cost because they are propped up by renewable subsidies from the state and federal government.