A struggle among Republicans over how harshly the wind and solar industries should be treated in the budget megabill before the Senate carried echoes of similar battles in Texas, Oklahoma and other deep-red states.
Republican lawmakers in Texas this year proposed a number of bills that would have curtailed the state’s wind and solar boom, including one that would have raised fees on new wind and solar projects. Despite getting strong support in the state Senate, the bills fizzled in the GOP-controlled House, and none of them reached Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk by the end of the legislative session in June.
Similarly, bills that would have made it harder to build renewable projects in states like Arizona, Oklahoma and Wisconsin fell short, even as Republican rhetoric against those projects has accelerated.
Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas, said that business groups — including tech companies, manufacturers and even oil and gas producers — were crucial in spreading the message that restricting renewables could drive up electricity costs. That, he said, helped defeat the most strident anti-renewable bills even in a Legislature dominated by conservatives.
