Political leaders in a college town in central Texas won wide praise from former Vice President Al Gore and the larger Green Movement when they decided to go “100 percent renewable” seven years ago.
Now, however, they are on the defensive over electricity costs that have their residents paying more than $1,000 per household in higher electricity charges over the last four years.
That’s right – $1,219 per household in higher electricity costs for the 71,000 residents of Georgetown, Texas, all thanks to the decision of its Republican mayor, Dale Ross, to launch a bold plan to shift the city’s municipal utility to 100 percent renewable power in 2012 when he was on the city council.
In short order, Ross was elevated to celebrity status, appearing in scores of articles and videos, both at home and abroad.
Al Gore made it a point to feature the Texas Republican mayor at renewable energy conferences as well. Ross was even featured in one of Gore’s documentaries.
But while Ross was being lauded far and wide, the residents of his town were paying a steep price. His decision to bet on renewables resulted in the city budget getting dinged by a total of $29.8 million in the four years from 2015 to 2018.
Georgetown’s electric costs were $3.5 million over budget in 2015, ballooning to $6.3 million in 2016, the same year the mayor locked his municipal utility into 20- and 25-year wind and solar energy contracts to make good on his 100 percent renewable pledge.
By 2017, the mayor’s green gamble was undercut by the cheap natural gas prices brought about by the revolution in high-tech fracking.
Power that year cost the city’s budget $9.5 million more than expected, rising to $10.5 million last year, according to budget documents reported by The Williamson County Sun.
Whether Mayor Ross and his colleagues on the Georgetown City Council were motivated by good intentions, political machinations, or mere vanity is unknown.
What is known is that Georgetown’s municipal utility, an integral part of the city budget, is hemorrhaging red ink thanks to those long term renewable energy contracts.
The deficits were triggered by the drop in natural gas prices—now the mainstay of the U.S. electric grid, having displaced coal—which caused the city to sell its surplus wind and solar power at a steep discount into Texas’ wholesale energy market.
City leaders had to lock in a large excess of wind and solar power to be able to lend credibility to their 100 percent renewable claim since wind and solar power can’t be relied on to keep the lights on 24/7/365.
And, even with that surplus, there are times when Georgetown draws traditional fossil fuel power from the Texas grid, making the city’s “100 percent renewable” claim nothing more than spurious sloganeering.
That a city in Texas (which voted for President Trump) claimed to be “100 percent renewable” generated significant “man bites dog” notoriety.
But as University of Houston energy expert Charles McConnell noted, “It’s not kind of misleading, it’s very misleading, and it is for political gain.”
Most Texas residents have the ability to choose their electricity provider in a competitive statewide market, leading to electricity prices that are among the lowest in the nation: 18 percent below the national average in 2018, and 48 percent below prices in green energy pacesetter California.
But Texas’ electricity market excludes municipal utilities like Georgetown’s from competition, leaving consumers without choice and allowing political decisions – rather than market forces – to determine the mix of electricity suppliers.
Georgetown is now trying to renegotiate its costly long-term wind and solar energy contracts—this after the city council agreed to skimp on needed electric infrastructure investment to make up their budgetary shortfall.
Mayor Ross had previously reveled in trolling President Trump, boasting to a German TV show that, “I make decisions based on facts… unlike the president,” then opining that: “It was a huge mistake to withdraw from the Paris climate accords…”
One wonders what Mayor Ross thinks about the ongoing unrest in France, initially sparked by a climate change fuel tax hike that has since been rescinded, under pressure, by President Macron.
The mayor, who not long ago was approaching ubiquitous status with the media, could not be found by the local press to comment on his city’s budget-busting power deficit, declining to comment by both phone and email.
Meanwhile, Texas legislators – who are unlikely to wind up on German TV – have the power to introduce a bill with the potential to free Georgetown’s ratepayers from the city’s electric monopoly, giving them the same ability to shop around for electricity now enjoyed by some 20 million of their fellow Texans.
Wonder what Al Gore will have to say about that?
h/t Paul Homewood
Read more at Fox News
Al Gore the Conman Snake Oil Salesman and Swindler a former V.P. who wrote a Eco-Babble book EARTH IN THE BALANCE(With his thumb on the scales)two unearned prizes and his two junk science fake films he uses more electricty in one month then the average American Household uses in one year and with his fleet of Limos Gulf Stream or Leer jets and he wines and dines with world leaders who treat their people like trash
The results are the same when ever a region tries to get a high percentage of power from renewables. Prices sky rocket and reliability goes down. The tragic part of this is the people most impact usually don’t have an input to the decision and often don’t even know what is happening until it is too late.
Templaroz, you got it worse than us.
I’d gladly split you the difference in our temperatures.
The South Australian and Victorian electricity market was plunged into crisis last week during a searing heat wave – temperatures in the mid 40’s to low 50’s Celsius.
South Australia has demolished its coal fired power stations and Victoria is following suit. Both States are committed to windmills and solar. Despite emergency measures, 20,000 households in Adelaide and 200,000 homes in Melbourne were blacked out, under a process called ‘load shedding’. Spot power prices hit the maximum of $14,500 a megawatt hour in South Australia and in Victoria $14,444/MWh compared with an average price of $100/MWh.
Wind supplied less than 4% of electricity power in South Australia with Gas generators doing the heavy lifting accounting for 82% of generation and recently installed diesel generators contributing. Fossil fuels to the rescue!
In Victoria renewables supplied 3.8% of the State’s requirement forcing the energy providers to deploy brown coal (last remaining coal fired power station – soon to be de-commissioned) gas and hydro to meet rising demand. It is estimated that consumers in South Australia and Victoria now face an additional power bill estimated at close to $A1 billion.
I thought Musk’s giant Tesla battery was supposed to save South Australia from blackouts?
Musk’s battery melted from the heat ;^D
That I hadn’t heard about. From a ‘news report’ – or just a ‘comment’?
Lithium batteries do have a heat issue when supplying current. Formula 1 cars and the Boeing 787 had bad experiences with them.
The Georgetown, Texas fiasco smells like the one the Ontario Liberals dumped on us. Sky – rocketing prices, dumping surplus power at a loss to New York, desperately renegotiating with Samsung and paying more, taxpayers subsidizing the whole cluster fcuk. If pain and embarrassment was their aim, it’s been a rip roaring success.
Correction! Ross isn’t a republican, never was! At best, he was a left wing RINO! As fast as he signed the town up for the democrat ponzi scheme renewable energy scam, he could also sign immediately with a normal energy discounter. But, he has chosen to continue to front for the democrats, and the allgore renewable energy ponzi scheme. Vote the bum out! Put a professional in his place!
Always expect this to happen when your a fool enough to listen to that Con Man and Snake Oil Salesman Al Gore who features a town run by fools in his fake film and they probibly liked his stupid poem as well.They need to bill Al Gore for this swindle
Yes. Why not sue Gore?
If the AGs can sue the oil companies, then the town can sue Gore.
That is what we’d have to look forward to if we were to drive all our electricity from the so-called renewable sources except without the fall-back this town has of buying electricity from conventional sources when there is enough from around and solar. Wonder how the folks in the upper midwest would feel right now if that were the case now.
What happens when there is no conventional sources of power because a nation or region has gone for 100% renewables. It is called a blackout.