Solar outperforms coal in March

WASHINGTON (TND) — The big red state of Texas is turning green. It is undergoing an energy transformation, using wind and solar energy to an even greater extent.

Is this a model for the country or a political dead end?

Vice President of General Economics at the Cato Institute Scott Lincicome joined The National Desk’s Angela Brown to discuss the issue.

“They (Texas) are an outlier in one respect, and that’s really for regulatory reasons. “The reason Texas is leading the nation right now is because it makes it easier to build and connect new, renewable or any energy projects in the state, while many other states are dealing with long-standing research requirements and other regulatory hurdles,” he said. “As a result, new energy generation comes online in Texas in about half the time it takes elsewhere.”

In March, Texas generated more electricity from solar than coal for the first time. This pushed California to second place from a stronghold of more than 20 years.

Texas’ solar market share also topped 10% in March, while coal’s market share fell 9.1%, according to the Institute for Energy, Economics and Financial Analysis.

“We offer all these grants for all green energy projects, and some of them may still make economic sense, but they get bogged down in permitting, interconnections and other regulatory issues,” Lincicome said. “If we just remove these supply-side obstacles, we can get more of what we want without all these subsidies.”