Georgetown’s Commitment to Renewable Energy Leading to High Costs, Reliability Problems

Texas is in the midst of something of an energy renaissance. Overall energy production in the Lone Star state has increased 27 percent since 2001. In that same time frame, the United States’ energy output has increased by nearly 12 percent. But it’s not just fossil fuels experiencing the boon, renewables such as wind are reaching new heights as well. Wind energy production in Texas increased about 75 times the amount from 2001 to 2018 — outpacing the nation’s overall growth rate in wind production by nearly double. Texas is the number one state producer of wind energy and number four producer of solar energy. The share of wind power in the United States’ electric grid increased from one percent in 1990 to seven percent in 2018. This has been significantly spurred by taxpayer-backedgovernment subsidies. With the surging presence of wind power, it has become fashionable for communities to emphasize their commitment to renewable energy. That commitment has perhaps never been made more starkly than by Georgetown. Nationally acclaimed as the epicenter for a nationwide push away from fossil fuels, the central Texas city has been heralded as the “future of renewable energy.”