Texas
Lawmakers push against renewable energy in hearings on the Texas grid
State lawmakers held two days of hearings this week on modifications made to the Texas energy grid in response to final 12 months’s massive blackout. The conferences touched on the whole lot from infrastructure enhancements to the upper price of power in Texas. However in addition they offered a preview into what lawmakers will deal with grid-wise in subsequent 12 months’s legislative session. That preview could fear renewable power advocates.
For the reason that 2021 blackout, officers have targeting growing the quantity of electrical energy out there to the grid that may be turned on and off when wanted. That sort of power manufacturing, typically referred to as “dispatchable” in coverage conversations, may come from a lot of sources, together with battery storage or pure gasoline energy crops.
The diploma to which extra dispatchable energy is definitely wanted is a matter of debate. Some power specialists level out that decreasing demand for electrical energy makes extra sense economically and financially than constructing new capability. Others say {that a} geographically dispersed mixture of wind and photo voltaic era can reliably present a big majority of the state’s power wants, though the wind doesn’t at all times blow and the solar doesn’t at all times shine.
However within the first day of hearings Wednesday, some Republican lawmakers used the decision for dispatchable power to additional a longstanding push in opposition to renewable energy in favor of constructing extra pure gasoline energy crops.
“I feel we have to determine what share of our grid might be renewables and what’s one of the best strategy to try this,” state Rep. Matt Shaheen mentioned, suggesting renewables ought to have a tough cap.
“If we would like individuals to construct a gas-fired generator, what do we now have to have [happen]?” state Rep. Phil King requested.
Pushing in opposition to the headwinds
The feedback come as renewable power is proliferating on the Texas energy grid.
Final 12 months, almost 1 / 4 of the electrical energy utilized in Texas got here from renewable sources. Within the first three months of this 12 months, 34% of all power consumed got here from wind and solar energy, outpacing even pure gasoline era, in line with a report from the Institute for Vitality Economics and Monetary Evaluation.
The way forward for the Texas grid appears to be like even greener. The present listing of power initiatives within the works reveals the overwhelming majority of deliberate new mills will likely be a mixture of wind, photo voltaic and battery storage.
It’s in opposition to these headwinds that cheerleaders of the fossil gasoline business within the Texas Legislature are pushing.
“The way in which it’s now, renewables is rising like this,” King mentioned, acknowledging the discrepancy, “and gasoline is rising like this. And the way do you flip that round?”
Market realities
King posed his inquiries to Katie Coleman, a lobbyist for the Texas Affiliation of Producers, the biggest shoppers of electrical energy within the state. Her reply illustrated the catch 22 confronted by lawmakers who help aggressive markets, but in addition wish to see reinvestment in fossil fuel-powered era.
“In a deregulated market, you can not assure that that cash goes to go to dispatchable funding,” she mentioned. “It might get pocketed, it could go to photo voltaic, it could go to another know-how.”
Additional complicating any push for a buildout of pure gasoline mills is the present excessive price of pure gasoline.
“There is a robust case to be made that should you pair wind and [energy] storage collectively, it may well present comparable reliability advantages to the system at a decrease price than gasoline,” Carrie Bevins, the impartial market monitor for the Texas electrical grid, instructed lawmakers.
Whereas that market actuality might be unhealthy information for the way forward for pure gasoline energy crops, it’s excellent news for efforts to fight international local weather change. These efforts require a speedy transition to non-fossil-fuel energy if they’re to achieve success.
Texas A&M will be without its leading scorer for this weekend’s top-10 matchup against Alabama. The Aggies listed senior point guard Wade Taylor IV as out in its SEC-mandated availability report on Friday night.
Meanwhile, Alabama will be without backup guard Houston Mallette, who was listed as out for the matchup against Texas A&M. Earlier on Friday, Alabama head coach Nate Oats said Mallette is having his knees evaluated as the team decides whether or not to sit him for the rest of the season and apply for a medical redshirt.
Taylor leads Texas A&M in both scoring (15.7 points per game) and assists (4.8 per game. The 6-foot, 180-pound senior has scored in double digits in all of his 13 games this season. During Texas A&M’s 100-75 loss at Alabama last year, the Tide held Taylor to 10 points and five rebounds on 4 of 15 shooting, including 2 of 5 from beyond the arc.
According to a report from KWKT FOX 44, Taylor experienced knee tightness during Texas A&M’s 80-60 win over Texas on Jan. 4. The guard left for the locker room during the second half against the Longhorns but was able to return to action, finishing with 13 points on 25 minutes. Taylor did not play during the Aggies’ 80-78 win over Oklahoma on Wednesday. He was replaced by senior Manny Obaseki in the starting lineup.
With Taylor out, Texas A&M leaned on senior guard Zhuric Phelps, who scored a career-high 34 points against Oklahoma, making 11 of 25 shots from the floor, including 6 of 10 from beyond the arc.
Alabama (13-2, 2-0 in the SEC) is set to tip off against Texas A&M (13-2, 2-0) on Saturday at 7 p.m. CT inside Reed Arena in College Station, Texas. The game will be televised on ESPN.
On Friday night, two of college football’s iconic programs will meet with a spot in the College Football Playoff National Championship game on the line.
The Ohio State Buckeyes and Texas Longhorns have their fingerprints all over the sport’s history yet somehow have squared off only three times.
A Fiesta Bowl meeting after the 2008 season. A home-and-home series in 2005 and 2006. That’s all the history the Buckeyes and Longhorns share on the gridiron — until they take the field in the CFP Semifinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic on Friday.
Here’s how each of those three matchups played out.
Jan. 5, 2009: Texas 24, Ohio State 21
Although the 2009 Fiesta Bowl experienced a low-scoring first 30 minutes (the Buckeyes led 6-3 at halftime), the fourth quarter offered an ending to remember.
First, Ohio State roared back into the lead with 17 unanswered points after entering the final period trailing 17-6. With just two minutes to respond, Texas put together an impressive 11-play drive that culminated in quarterback Colt McCoy finding wide receiver Quan Cosby for the winning touchdown with 16 seconds remaining.
The McCoy and Cosby connection dominated all game, with the pair linking up 14 times for 171 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Sept. 9, 2006: Ohio State 24, Texas 7
McCoy’s first encounter with Ohio State wasn’t as pleasant as the Fiesta Bowl.
In a battle of the then-No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the land, it was the top-ranked Buckeyes who made an early-season statement against the defending national champion Longhorns on the road in Austin. Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith, who would go on to win the Heisman Trophy that season, threw for 269 yards and two touchdowns as the Buckeyes scored in all four quarters of the win.
Sept. 10, 2005: Texas 25, Ohio State 22
The first meeting between the Longhorns and Buckeyes came with nearly the same high billing as the 2006 contest, with the two squads squaring off as the No. 2 and No. 4 teams in the country, respectively.
As in 2006, it was the higher-ranked visiting side that came out on top, although the game itself proved to be much closer. Texas jumped out to an early 10-0 lead, but Ohio State battled back and eventually entered halftime, and then the fourth quarter, ahead.
Said final quarter, however, belonged to the Longhorns. Quarterback Vince Young’s 24-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Limas Sweed proved to be the winner, with Texas adding some insurance in the game’s final moments with a safety-inducing sack of Troy Smith in the end zone.
The top-five win was the Longhorns’ first major statement in a campaign that would end with a national championship.
NORTH TEXAS – This week’s snow event will end with a “few flurries” during Friday’s morning commute, according to CBS News Texas meteorologist Jeff Ray.
“But roads will have frozen over,” Ray said.
Expect hazardous road conditions in the morning, as it will be “the worst” the roads have been since the event started on Thursday morning, Ray said.
Late in the morning, temperatures will rise above freezing, which will “help drivers get around the Metroplex,” Ray said.
A cold front is expected Friday, he said.
“We are going to have wind chills in the 20s all day,” Ray said. “By nightfall on Friday, temperatures will drop quickly and water will re-freeze on the roads across the evening. This ice will remain until mid-morning on Saturday before the sun and warmer temperatures in the mid-40s clear the roadways.”
CBS News Texas will continue to provide updates as information becomes available.
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