Concerned Texans oppose a bill to extend a tax incentive program for large businesses, including solar and wind farms, that has moved to the Texas Senate after the House approved it on May 8.
The Texas Economic Act, also called Chapter 313 because of its place in the state’s tax code, limits the amount of public school district property tax certain businesses pay in exchange for meeting wage and job creation requirements. The House voted 112-29 in favor of moving the expiration date of the act from 2022 to 2024.
However, not all Texans are behind the measure.
Petrochemical, wind and solar companies often benefit from Chapter 313, Dick Lavien of Every Texan told Lone Star Standard. In a joint release, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Every Texan wrote, “These tax breaks do not deliver the promised benefits, shift school funding costs, and waste tax dollars.”
Citing economic and environmental concerns, the North Texas Heritage Association is working to keep wind farms out of Jack, Clay and Montague counties.
"A lot of our emphasis is to encourage the Jack County commissioner court to not provide those incentives,” landowner and North Texas Heritage Association member Roby Christie told KFDX/KJTL.
In Brown County, commissioners were recently presented with more than 1,800 signatures of residents opposed to tax abatements for solar and wind projects, WC Texas News reported.
"The data shows an overwhelming amount of people are against the abatement and the aggregate data shows that the people in the county do not want it to happen," Jeff Tucker, an activist, told WC Texas News.
DC Business Daily reported previously that many, including experts, "believe that relying on wind and solar will lead to less reliability and greater volatility" in the electric grid. Two states which have encouraged taxpayer subsidies for wind and solar projects, California and Texas, "have seen challenges" including rolling blackouts as their respective grids have dealt with the addition of intermittent wind and solar generation while managing increasing demand.
A Princeton study highlighted the dilemma President Joe Biden faces to make his no-carbon energy future a reality. DC Business Daily reported that some experts agree that land use is a major issue. On the one hand, the study found that a land mass footprint nearly the size of France would be required to meet Biden's wind and solar energy goals. On the other, there is difficulty navigating the traditional disparate interests of wind and solar developers and local, rural landowners.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, energy expert Robert Bryce points to the "backlash against the renewable industry" pointing to how local governments and landowners "are rejecting wind projects because of concerns about noise pollution, falling property values, ruined views and the potential loss of tourism dollars." One of the driving forces fueling this conflict, according to Bryce, is the "lucrative" federal (and state) tax incentives the Biden administration is proposing to extend another 10 years.