House Bill 3556 Endangers Valuable Energy Projects

A bill that would effectively give a billionaire veto power over coastal energy projects needed for reliability and affordability will be considered by the Texas House today

For years, anti-energy activists have worked to hobble Texas’s nation-leading renewable resources. These efforts have often been crude — for instance, invoking the police power of the state to restrict private property rights and raise energy bills.

But now, a much sneakier attempt to restrict private property rights and renewables is nearing passage.

House Bill 3556, which will be considered by the full Texas House of Representatives today, would give the Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission veto power over wind projects as far as 70 miles from Gulf Coast national wildlife refuges. The bill applies this big-government, anti-energy authority to entire counties where wildlife refuges are located, as well as adjacent counties.

Because there are nine wildlife refuges along the coast, every single project in all but two coastal counties would have to have the Commission’s approval (see map below). Worse, the bill that’s been set for a floor vote today is written incredibly broadly: the Commission would have as much time as it wants to inform wind power developers of a denial. Government regulators could shut down projects even after they’re substantially complete.

A time requirement for approving or rejecting a project actually fell out of the legislation: as the online bill analysis says, “The substitute omits an authorization present in the introduced [bill] for a person to proceed with construction if TPWD takes no action on or before the 90th day after notice is filed."

The only standard in the bill is that the project “materially impacts” wildlife. There’s no definition of what that means or what as developer could do to meet the standard.

Imagine applying such overreaching government power with such an arbitrary standard to any other form of development in Texas. This is not a reasonable proposal.

And who’s pushing this sneaky, big-government, heavy-handed proposal? Start with Dan Friedkin.

Friedkin is the movie producer billionaire who’s in the midst of a roughly three-year crusade against Texas energy. The Washington Post and the Houston Chronicle have covered Friedkin’s anti-energy work. The Energy and Policy Institute exposed a shadowy group known as Stewards of Texas whose representatives tie directly back to Friedkin. Note that the Stewards of Texas supported HB 3556 when it was up for a committee vote.

Note also that Friedkin is Chairman Emeritus of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, the very entity the bill would give veto power to.

If the Legislature passes this measure, it will let the government shut down wind development in areas with some of the most abundant resources in the state. It will raise energy bills by stymieing growth of the cheapest energy resources. And it will reduce energy reliability, especially since coastal wind plants will typically produce more power than inland projects on both winter mornings and evenings, when ERCOT needs electricity the most.

It’s also incredibly discriminatory. Oil and gas drilling, oil refineries, petrochemical facilities, SpaceX rocket launch pads — which all impact wildlife — will not require any Parks and Wildlife review. Just wind turbines.

Of course, if this bill were truly about protecting wildlife, it would apply to more than just wind. But renewables are in the crosshairs because a billionaire — who doesn’t have to worry about high energy bills — apparently doesn’t like renewable energy.

As state leaders keep saying, Texas needs more electricity to grow its economy and meet skyrocketing demand projections.

HB 3556 would result in less.

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