Essay by Eric Worrall
Fund a green project, support an oil company – two University of Texas academics have found that in Texas at least, oil companies often collect cash at the end of the blue rainbow.
Who benefits from renewable energy subsidies? In Texas, it’s often fossil fuel companies that are fighting clean energy elsewhere
Published: August 4, 2022 10:20 p.m. AEST
Nathan Jensen Professor of Government, University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts
Isabella Steinhauer Master’s Candidate in Public Affairs and Graduate Research Assistant, University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts
Texas is known for strongly promoting the oil and gas industries, but it is also No. 2 renewable energy producer in the country after California. In fact, more than a quarter of all wind power produced in the United States in 2021 will be generated in Texas.
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By reviewing applications and ownership documents, we can track who actually builds and owns a large portion of the nation’s renewable energy, when and how those assets change. owner and ultimately who benefits from tax incentives.
The results may surprise you. The majority of utility-scale wind and solar projects in Texas are not owned by companies focused on renewables – they are owned by energy companies or utility companies. better known benefits to fossil fuels, including some strongly oppose renewable energy and climate policies in other states and across the country.
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To our surprise, almost half of the projects built in 2020 or 2021 have changed hands in 2022. Some are due to company acquisitions. Many other projects have been opened for sale.
This changed the owner component. While renewable energy companies own about half of the projects at the application stage, by 2022 two-thirds of the projects are owned by utility and energy companies whose assets are fossil fuel.
The original owners may have benefited from the first year of the tax break, but new owners are ready to enjoy most of the remaining years of the 10-year property tax incentive.
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Personally, I find this hilarious – big oil is collecting most of the subsidies meant to help green energy businesses compete with big oil.
I have no doubt the oil companies are at the end of a lot of other blue rainbows, not just Texas. Oil companies are experts at positioning themselves to make money and have extensive experience in squeezing dictatorships, rigged markets, and command economies.
Continue to sponsor big oil, green vegetables.
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