Environmental legislation could help Texas

Dallas Business Journal - Thursday, July 12, 2007
Environment Texas is pushing for a national standard that would require utilities to increase their use of renewable energy sources by 20 percent by 2020.

In Texas alone, such a standard could create 17,630 new jobs a year, according to a study by the Union of Concerned Scientists released Thursday by Environment Texas, an Austin-based nonprofit.

Turning on renewables in Texas would cut energy costs not only for individual families but for small businesses and large energy users," said J.J. Karabias, federal field organizer with Environment Texas. "At the same time, increasing our use of renewable energy would help clean up air pollution and make a down payment in the fight against global warming."

Environment Texas is keying in on a U.S. House of Representatives vote on renewable electricity standard legislation that could take place as early as next week. If it fails, it will be the fourth time in five years such a bill has passed in the Senate and died in the House.

For Texas, through 2020, UCS found that the mandates laid out in House Reform 969 would mean more than 17,000 new jobs each year, bring in $550 million to rural landowners who use their land for renewable energy production and save $1.75 billion in residential energy bills.

Nationally, UCS said it could mean 185,000 new jobs, $25.6 billion to farmers and landowners and $10.5 billion in household utility bill savings. It would also be the equivalent of removing 36.4 million cars from the roads.

UCS is a Cambridge, Mass.-based nonprofit.

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