TX SEN: The Noriega Energy Plan Will Provide Relief For Texas Families, Lead Toweard Household Electricity Usage Coming From Renewables

State Rep. Rick Noriega (D-Houston), who is running for U.S. Senate against John Cornyn, has released his energy plan, “Bold Solutions For A Better Future.” The mainstream media has already given the plan a headline or two, but we wanted to give a bit more detail.

First, the energy plan is centered around three main points:

1. Provide Immediate Relief for Texas Families;

2. Build the Road to Texas and American Energy Self Sufficiency;

3. Develop a Sustainable Energy and Economic Future.

The part of the plan that got the most attention from the media yesterday was the “100% in 10″ plank:

100 % in 10: The most notable part of the Noriega plan is the call for Texas household electricity usage to be 100 percent from renewable sources by 2019– 10 years after Rick Noriega wil take office. In other words, my plan calls for Texas to be able to produce enough kilowatts of electricity from renewable sources to power every household in Texas within 10 years. Is this an extremely bold goal? Yes. Can Texas do it? Absolutely!

It’s great to see this kind of bold, progressive vision from a candidate for U.S. Senate. Some may scoff at such a bold vision, but the fact is that such a bold plan is entirely “doable” within a decade. Wind power, solar power (including self-contained units for individual homes that are actually “off-grid”), and more can make this a reality. But, it won’t happen with Junior John Cornyn in office because he’s too beholden to the oil companies.

Here are some excellent planks of Rick’s energy platform that the media didn’t delve into:

Protect Consumers from Price Gouging. Consumers must be protected from artificially created spikes in gasoline and other energy prices. The Noriega plan will strengthen the enforcement authority of the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and punish those who artificially inflate fuel prices and would subject OPEC to American antitrust laws.

End Market Price Speculation. Market manipulation pushes oil prices higher than they should be. Some experts have testified that speculation is adding as much as $40 to the price of a barrel of crude oil. Notable energy expert Daniel Yergin recently stated that “financial markets are today playing an increasingly important role in price formation responding to, accentuating, and exaggerating supply and demand, geopolitics and other trends.”

The Noriega plan will curb excessive speculation in the energy futures markets, including preventing traders of U.S. crude oil from routing transactions through offshore markets to evade speculative limits, setting reporting requirements, and requiring the CFTC to set a substantial increase in the margin requirement for all oil futures trades, contracts or transactions.

Once again, it’s an energy plan where the people come first. We all know that the commodities market helps keep gasoline and oil prices artificially high due to rampant speculation. Taking a step toward curbing that trend will be a major help for American consumers.

Here is another particularly interesting point:

Maximize Output from Current Oil Fields. Currently, threequarters of the 90 million plus acres of federal land being leased by the oil companies onshore and off are not being used to produce energy, among them potentially highly productive leases in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. As Oppenheimer analyst Fadel Gheit said, “Oil companies should finish what’s on their plate before they go back in line.” The Noriega plan will require oil companies to drill or give up the leases they hold on 68 million acres of undeveloped federal land.

While the Republicans are keen to yell “Drill here, Drill now,” they are careful to leave out this fact that the Noriega energy policy brings to light. On land the government has already said the oil companies can drill, they aren’t. And, these aren’t, by and large, lands like some of the offshore areas they want to get their hands on where it would take a decade of infrastructure building to actually drill a well.

More:

Lift the Ban on Offshore Drilling. Rick Noriega believes that we cannot drill ourselves out of our current problems but recognizes that we must attack our energy problem from all angles ­ which includes allowing offshore drilling as long as that oil is required to be used in the United States, not exported overseas. The Noriega plan will encourage states to decide for themselves on their drilling plans and will support lifting the congressional ban on offshore exploration.

This is a bit of a twist on traditional progressive energy policy, admittedly. However, it does two key things: it places the determination of whether or not offshore drilling should be done in the hands of the states–not Congress, meaning the states get some local control. Mandating that the oil produced be used in the U.S. is also another good thing. Of course, a separate set of serious environmental protections will be required to go with this, but we can find ourselves in a position to support this aspect of Noriega’s plan.

The plan also calls for adopting a national renewable energy standard:

Set a National Renewable Portfolio Standard. The Noriega plan recognizes that in order to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, both supply and demand must be addressed. Nationally, Rick Noriega supports requiring 20% of the country’s electricity to come from clean, renewable sources like wind, solar, hydrogen, and biomass by 2020. The requirement will be met through a flexible market based approach that allows electricity  providers to generate it themselves, obtain it from other companies, or purchase credits from providers who exceed the standard.

A couple of other very notable aspects of the plan:

Realize that It’s the Grid, Stupid. Texas is the U.S. leader in wind power development and has the
natural resources necessary to become a leader in solar, biofuels, hydrogen, and other alternatives. Politicians in Washington like to talk about renewable energy while ignoring the fact it doesn’t matter how much wind or solar power you generate if you can’t get that power to the people who need it. We have an energy infrastructure problem in the United States as much as we have an energy production problem. The Noriega plan recognizes that it is critical to invest in the infrastructure needed to carry alternative energy from where it is produced to high population areas. Currently, the biggest obstacle in Texas to effective use of wind energy is the lack of transmission lines to carry the power where it’s needed. As noted earlier, the July 2008 announcement of the Texas $5 billion plan to boost wind transmission capacity is a massive step in the right direction and towards Texas reclaiming its rightful place as the world’s energy innovation leader. However, much more needs to be done nationally to encourage other states to follow Texas’s lead. As Texas Public Utility Commissioner Paul Hudson stated,” we will add more wind than the 14 states following Texas combined.”

Nationally, Rick Noriega supports the establishment of national renewable energy zones to provide additional financing options to ensure that new transmission lines can be built and areas rich with renewable energy resources can be connected to the grid.

Prioritize R&D to Make Texas a World Leader in Safer Nuclear and Clean Coal Technologies. At
present, there are downsides to both nuclear and coal playing a major role in our energy future. Nuclear energy, while cheap and lacking greenhouse emissions, still worries many due to storage of radioactive waste concerns. Coal, while relatively cheap and plentiful, is still a major polluter.

Currently, Texas is a major nuclear power generating state with its two nuclear plants ­ Comanche Peak and South Texas Project ­ accounting for about onetenth of the state’s electric power production. Noriega recognizes that in this time of crisis, all energy options need to be on the table but he believes that before any decision on nuclear power plants can be made, there must be safety protections put in place, including laws addressing public right to know, security, waste storage and proliferation issues. This is yet another area of our energy future where we simply must stop all the talk and start actually trying to address the problems. We have the best R&D scientists in the world, let’s put them to work.

Texas’ coal fired power plants are a major reason Texas leads the country in carbon dioxide emissions leading to global warming. This has to change. Noriega will work for investments in clean coal technologies and supports setting restrictions on carbon emissions.

Some great progressive goals from a great progressive energy policy.

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