Office of the Governor Rick Perry

Governor's Initiatives - Energy & Environment
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From the oilfields of the 1901 Spindletop strike to today’s growing wind farms of the west Texas plains, energy has played a key role in the development and prosperity of Texas and Texans alike.

Through incentive and innovation, Texas has successfully diversified its energy portfolio, exploring all energy options from solar and wind to natural gas, nuclear and clean coal. Led by the ingenuity, vision and boldness of Texas entrepreneurs and state support of promising technology, Texas is pointing the way toward energy independence for our nation.

Action Items

»  Governor Perry has made diversifying the energy mix of Texas’ electricity market one of his major priorities, helping to lower electricity prices. In 2012, Texas relied on a variety of fuel sources to meet the growing demand for electricity, including 34 percent of energy produced coming from coal, 45 percent from natural gas, 12 percent from nuclear, 9 percent from wind, and 0.5 percent from other sources such as hydro, biomass, landfill gas, and solar.
»  In 2007, Governor Perry signed comprehensive energy efficiency legislation, House Bill 3693, into law. This legislation created incentives to reduce energy costs through investing in energy efficiency technologies. As a result, Texans reduced electric consumption in 2009 alone in this state by 506,000 megawatt hours. In 2011, he signed SB SB 1125 increasing the energy efficiency goals, including cost caps for those programs to ensure the costs remain reasonable for customers, and allowing consumers to participate in the generation market through demand-management.
»  In 2011, Governor Perry signed House Bill 3328, the first of its kind in the nation, requiring oil and gas companies to disclose chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process. The bill furthers a commitment to ensuring safe energy production in Texas by providing citizens with needed information to better understand this industry practice. HB 3328 illustrates that Texas can lead the nation in oil and gas production while increasing transparency in the process.
»  Governor Perry has stood up against federal energy policies like the offshore drilling moratoria and cap and trade that would make oil, gas, and electricity dramatically more expensive.

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