Nuclear Subsidies in Texas? Ouch!

“… our legislative leaders think that the answer to overcoming renewable subsidies is to give subsidies to everyone else.” (- Bill Peacock, below)

Subsidized wind and solar power–dilute, intermittent, and fragile–wounded the Texas grid (ERCOT, covering 90 percent of the state), resulting in the greatest Blackout in the history of U.S. electricity back in February 2021. With the tricked grid continuing to attract inferior energies, Texas politicians have tried to wrong a wrong into a right. Instead of halting the cancers in the system (wind, solar, and battery investments), the Republicans are now subsidizing new capacity from natural gas technologies as well as nuclear fission. (New nuclear plants are a real stretch, but Texas can lose a few billion taxpayer dollars, right?)

The latest? Bill Peacock reports:

Yesterday, Rep. Cody Harris filed House Bill 14 that would establish the Texas Advanced Nuclear Energy Program. Among other things, this would provide state subsidies for the building of nuclear energy generation of electricity in Texas. Gov. Gregg Abbott has made this one of his priorities.

The program follows in the footsteps of the Texas Energy Fund created in 2023 by the Legislature and funded with $5 billion. The funding level for the nuclear energy fund has not yet been revealed, but the proposed Texas budget already has another $5 billion set aside for the Energy Fund, which provides subsidies for natural gas generation plants.

Peacock gets to the underlying problem.

Where the federal government is cutting corporate welfare, it is big business in Texas. The push for these energy subsidies stems from the unwillingness of the Texas Legislature—unlike President Trump—to eliminate subsidies for the “Green New Scam” despite the fact that renewable energy is gutting the reliability of the Texas electric grid. Instead, our legislative leaders think that the answer to overcoming renewable subsidies is to give subsidies to everyone else.

Two wrongs do not make a right. All subsidies for all energies should immediately cease, federal and state. Texas should not add any new wind, solar, or battery capacity nor subsidize transmission access for the same. Existing wind, solar, and battery facilities should be retired as they wear out or otherwise underperform. A real free market requires a phaseout of ERCOT in favor of nonregulated utilities assuming the supply function, a story for another day.

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