 "Photo: Meg Loucks")
By 2020, Texas could gain 36,000 more jobs and add billions of dollars to its economy if renewable resources such as wind and solar energy are used at six times the rate they are now, according to renewable energy advocates at a Capitol press conference Monday.
Their recommendations were based on the findings of a new study released by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The study concluded the economy will benefit if electric utility companies generate 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources instead of coal or natural gas.
By 2020, the study says, $10 billion in capital investment and $665 million in property tax revenues for small towns and school districts could be generated.
Four state legislative committees are examining this issue and are expected to make recommendations by Thanksgiving, according to a UCS written statement.
"Texas would be the largest single winner among the states if we were to develop a renewable energy standard of this size," said Tom Smith, director of Public Citizen's Texas office. "It would help us in clearing our air, provide jobs for rural Texans, increase our tax base at a time when we are trying desperately to find solutions to school funding, and it would provide lower energy bills for us all. It's win, win, win!"
Public Citizen is a national consumer and environmental activist group.
Texas mandated in 1999 that 3 percent of the state's electricity production be renewable.
"Texas turned a corner in 1999. We took an initial step, modest by Texas standards, toward restoring our historical role as the energy state," said Russell Smith, executive director of the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association.
Smith said oil production will continue to decline, gas production will soon decline and coal production will never increase.
"The 20-percent standard will save consumers $9 billion on their energy bills through 2020, and it would do so primarily by reducing the demand for and the price of natural gas," he said.
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