Texas Windpower: EU Energy, Enron Legacy

By Josiah Neeley -- February 9, 2012 14 Comments

Texas and Europe don’t have a lot in common. But when it comes to government support for renewable energy, the Lone Star state has followed the same course as many European nations.

In the late 1990s, while the European Union was urging member nations to adopt targets for the percentage of their energy produced from renewable sources, Texas enacted a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) mandating that the state’s competitive electric providers buy a minimum 2,000 MW of qualifying renewable energy by 2009. The purchase mandate was part of a broad electricity restructuring bill sponsored by Enron Corp., parent of Enron Wind Corporation, a story detailed elsewhere at MasterResource.

The Texas Legislature, with the support of Governor Rick Perry, later increased the RPS to 10,000-MW by 2025. Texas met this target for installed wind capacity in 2010, a full fifteen years ahead of schedule.…

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Governor Rick Perry (R-TX), T. Boone Pickens, and the Enron Legacy of Windpower

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 24, 2009 15 Comments

Last December, Texas governor Rick Perry, speaking at a Houston fundraiser, sadly noted how President George W. Bush had lost his way in Washington, D.C. His good friend had compromised his principles and left the nation in a lurch, however unintentionally.

But then the governor launched into his Texas-is-great stump speech that included kudos to windpower, a new large industry (no) thanks to a legislative mandate requiring that Texas electricity retailers purchase qualifying renewable energy. (Wind is the most economical of the qualifiers.) The 1999 mandate, enacted with the crucial help of Enron lobbyists, was increased in 2002 with a powerful wind lobby at work. And so at  the point of a gun, Texas became the leading windpower state in the country, passing California along the way.

So it was not surprising that last Saturday night Gov.…

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Sunnova Going Solyndra? (Enron-ex John Berger owes taxpayers a bundle)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 12, 2025 2 Comments

Ed. Note: Just 15 months after receiving a $3.0 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy (Jigar Shaw), Sunnova stock price has cratered with the prospect of bankruptcy. Sunnova founder (and Enron-ex) John Berger’s battle cry–“solar is going to rip apart the energy business as we know it”– is an example of the philosophical fraud committed by political capitalists who are tipsy on taxpayer dollars.

I distinctly remember a Starbuck’s meeting at the request of fellow Enron-ex John Berger soon after he founded Sunnova in 2012. John knew I was adamantly opposed to solar’s government play, and he must have thought I was pliable. I was not. [1]

I stated my objections to John, and rather than try to defend his political bet, he flashed his toothy grin at me.…

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Enron, NYT Declare Solar ‘Competitive’ (1994)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 17, 2024 1 Comment

“Federal officials, aware that solar power breakthroughs have shined and faded almost as often as the sun, say the Enron project could introduce commercially competitive technology without expensive Government aid.” (- Allen Myerson, Solar Power, for Earthly Prices, New York Times, November 15, 1994)

Thirty years ago, the ‘newspaper of record’ excitedly reported atop the business section that a breakthrough with solar energy had occurred with the business genius of the upstart energy company Enron. Formed in the mid-1980s, Enron had just entered into the solar business and was destined to revitalize–if not save–the U.S. wind industry just a few years later.

Good press continues to create an Enron-like illusion of the coming competitiveness and profitability of solar and wind energies for on-grid electricity. Basic energy physics explains why the sun’s (dilute, intermittent) flow cannot compete against the sun’s stored (dense) energy embedded in natural gas, coal, and oil.…

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“THIS AGREEMENT WILL BE GOOD FOR ENRON STOCK!!” (1997 Kyoto memo)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 13, 2024 No Comments Continue Reading

Vineyard Wind: Catastrophic Failure (‘sharp fiberglass shards’ close Nantucket beaches)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 18, 2024 3 Comments Continue Reading

Industrial Wind Power: Infant Industry Not

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 12, 2024 1 Comment Continue Reading

‘Green’ Energy vs. the Environment (Enron to BP to PG&E to Hawaiian Electric)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 30, 2023 No Comments Continue Reading

Notes: 1998 Enron Meeting on Climate Change

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 9, 2023 No Comments Continue Reading

Texas Wind Power: The Beginning (1993)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 18, 2023 No Comments Continue Reading