On Tuesday, Texas voters approved a measure to create the “Texas Energy Fund” and allocate $10 billion in state budget surplus to constructing and refurbishing natural gas power plants.
The ballot proposition referred to as “Prop 7” passed by a comfortable margin of 65% to 35% with over 95% of the vote counted as of 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Prop 7 received strong support throughout Texas, including in the Houston and Dallas metro areas. Travis County, the location of Austin, was the only county in the state to vote against the measure.
The vote comes after recent high-profile shortcomings in Texas’ energy grid prompted officials to seek expanded capacity for the state’s privately owned and regulated network of generation and transmission facilities.
“Glad to see the voters supported Proposition 7 to ensure Texans have the electric generation they need to keep their lights on during extreme weather conditions,” state senator Charles Schwertner, who sponsored the May legislation, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The newly-established Texas Energy Fund was granted initial authorization from the state legislature in May before receiving final approval from voters on Tuesday.
The Texas state government received a $32.7 billion budget surplus in the previous fiscal year on the back of high global oil prices, as previously reported by International Business Times.
Texas Doubles Down On Fossil Fuels
The creation of the Texas Energy Fund represents a commitment to natural gas-powered electrical generation. This initial allocation is $7.2 billion in low-interest loans for building new natural gas power plants and repairing existing plants, $1.8 billion for backup power capacity, and $1 billion for power supply contracts outside of the purview of ERCOT, the state’s utility provider.
Proposition 7 aims to bolster Texas’ natural gas generation capacity in the midst of the state’s transformation to renewable energy systems, particularly wind energy.
Wind energy has accounted for 29% of Texas’ total electricity generation in 2023, according to the state comptroller’s office, up from 17% in 2019. Natural gas currently accounts for 42% of power generation, down from 53% in 2019.
Over a quarter of the United States’ total wind-sourced electricity was generated in Texas in 2022, the largest share of any state in the country. Texas also has the most wind turbines and wind-related energy projects of any state.
Still, experts have warned that the creation of the Texas Energy Fund and loan allocation to natural gas projects alone won’t solve Texas’ energy supply deficit and could lead to a spike in fossil fuel consumption, so long as external conditions driving lagging investment (namely high interest rates) remain in place.
The IMF estimates that global fossil fuel subsidies accounted for 7.1% of world GDP in 2022.
Proposition 7 was one of 14 measures on the ballot in Texas on Tuesday; 13 of them passed, with the only failing measure being an initiative to raise the mandatory retirement age for state judges.
