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Windy liability
Credit: Houston Chronicle | December 31, 2013 | www.chron.com ~~
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Translate: FROM English | TO English
Regarding “W. Texas winds to light up region” (Page A1, Sunday), the article on Texas’ new 3,000-mile electricity transmission Competitive Renewable Energy Zone network mentions its cost ($6.8 billion, almost one-third over budget) but fails to explain its wholly unnecessary nature.
Every ratepayer in the state will pay $7 per month for years for this monument to cronyism.
Wind power generation in Texas was mandated by a 1999 law championed by Enron to set the table for its fledging subsidiary, Enron Wind Corp. (now owned by GE).
Because the wind turbines are remote to population centers, the new problem was transmission. So special interests successfully lobbied for good money to be thrown after bad to enable wind power to better reach markets.
In a free market, wind turbines – there are nearly 8,000 of them now in Texas – would not have been built in the first place, removing the need for wind transmission in the second place.
The Competitive Renewable Energy Zone network may be a technological success, but it will forever be a liability parading as an asset.
Rob Bradley, Houston
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