Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

AUSTIN- Our economy is struggling and high energy prices are only making things worse. 

But Texas has the technological prowess and vast reserves of renewable energy from the sun, wind and crops that can revitalize our economy, power the nation, create thousands of high-paying manufacturing jobs and renew Texas' role as the energy capital of the world.

The Texas Legislature has adopted a number of important policies in recent years to promote clean energy. In 2005, lawmakers adopted a renewable electricity standard that propelled Texas to become the national leader in wind power. By the end of this year, more than 8,000 megawatts of wind turbines will be installed in the state. 

That's enough electricity to power 2 million homes. 

In 2007, the Legislature took steps to promote energy efficiency, including new requirements on state government as well as creating a sales-tax holiday for energy efficient appliances. 

These policies have pumped billions of dollars into the Texas economy, saving urban dwellers money on their electric bills, helping rural communities build new schools, and creating jobs across the state, from the dockworkers unloading wind turbine engines at the Port of Houston to engineers in Dallas developing high-efficiency lighting systems. It's a success story for which we can all be proud. 

But with the economic outlook getting worse every day, what we need is a clean energy program on steroids. 

To start, the Legislature should create incentives to get Texas to at least 4000 megawatts of solar power by the year 2020. With the sometimes-almost-unbearable amount of sun we have in Texas, combined with a supply stream of chemical companies producing solar-grade silicon and semiconductor companies producing photovoltaic equipment, the solar industry has their eye on Texas. 

We could be a world solar leader, but first the Legislature needs to help create a market that will allow solar to flourish. 

A combination of direct rebates, sales tax exemptions and fair prices paid to homeowners who put surplus electricity back on the grid should do the trick. 

Next, we should continue our progress on energy efficiency. Efficiency is the most cost-effective way to help consumers save money and help avoid the need to build expensive and polluting new power plants. The Legislature should direct electric utilities to reduce energy consumption by 1 percent per year in 2015 and get up to 2 percent a year by 2020. They can accomplish this by offering expanded programs to promote home energy audits and weatherization programs, switching out incandescent lighting for energy efficient compact fluorescents, providing rebates to consumers to replace old appliances with new energy efficient appliances, and providing incentives for manufacturers to replace inefficient equipment with more efficient technologies. 

A new generation of clean, efficient, zero-energy homes and businesses is on the horizon. With new high-tech building products and advanced construction techniques, we've already got what it takes to build green. The Legislature should follow the lead of Houston, Dallas, Frisco, Austin and other cities by adopting a statewide building code that requires new homes to be at least fifteen percent more energy efficient. We should also give innovative builders the tools they need to go even further by retrofitting old buildings and developing new ways to save energy. 

Finally, the Legislature should make more low-cost loans available to schools and other public buildings to invest in energy efficiency and set new efficiency standards for consumer appliances. 

If Texas is to attract manufacturing facilities of photovoltaic panels and energy efficient building materials, we need to do much more to create additional incentives and rebates to help create a Texas market for these products. The steps we take in the next few years could determine whether Texas is a lion or a mouse in the clean energy industry. 

The 81st Legislature should deliver a mighty roar this spring and show the world we mean business when it comes to clean energy.