What We Learned on Study Mission 6.0: Building Bigger & Faster in Texas

We’re thrilled to release the trip report for our Study Mission 6.0: Building Bigger & Faster in Texas!

Why Texas? Because Washington has established some of the most ambitious climate goals in the country, yet we currently rank dead last in renewable power growth. At the same time, electricity demand is projected to grow dramatically as we decarbonize transportation, buildings, and industry. It’s clear that our ambition and implementation are misaligned, and at Clean & Prosperous, we’re committed to righting that ship.

As the nation’s leader in clean energy growth, Texas offers valuable lessons about what it takes to move projects from proposal to construction and bring energy infrastructure online at scale.

*Study Mission 6.0 delegation at RWE Clean Energy’s “Big Star Solar” project*

Here are our key takeaways from Study Mission 6.0:

It’s time for the climate movement to embrace clean energy development

Texas has a dramatically different cultural and political stance towards clean energy development. Their processes are oriented towards saying yes. In Washington, we provide many opportunities to say no. The results are clear!

Proactive Policy Drives Project Successes

Over the last several decades, Texas has made deliberate policy choices, from a “connect and manage” approach by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), to streamlined permitting, to their Competitive Renewable Energy Zones that built out significant transmission infrastructure, to a tax structure that generates local buy-in.

While Washington can’t (and shouldn’t) simply copy Texas, there are clear lessons in their policy and regulatory approaches that can help accelerate clean energy development.

Embrace the Economics

To quote one of our delegation members, “clean energy production moves at the pace of technology and economics.” In Texas they’re showing that pace can move very, very quickly.

As we learned in Houston: It’s all about the green (as in money). When you put renewables up against fossil fuels in a cost-competitive environment, clean energy is going to win out every time. And we’re seeing that play out in one of the most deregulated, free markets in the country.

Don’t Let Perfect Be the Enemy of Good

With clean energy siting – as with all things – it is impossible to identify a location with zero conflict. To generate the clean power we need to meet demand and transition off of polluting, volatile fossil fuels, all involved parties will need to make compromises, both in the siting of specific facilities and in the development of legislation and regulations to expedite needed clean energy buildout.

If we create too many opportunities for appeals in our effort to build uniform consensus where it’s impossible, Washington will risk continued paralysis that exacerbates energy costs, jeopardizes our emissions reduction goals, and further constrains our grid.

Read the full report to learn more, and please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or ideas on how Washington can bring some of the Lone Star State’s clean energy momentum home!

Thank you to our sponsors, hosts, and delegation for making Study Mission 6.0: Building Bigger & Faster in Texas possible!

Discussing the Present & Future of the CCA at PNW Climate Week

We had a great time participating in the PNW Climate Week panel about the present and future of Washington’s nation-leading Climate Commitment Act (CCA)! As the federal government continues to retreat on commonsense, effective climate action, subnational policies like the CCA become all the more vital and impactful.

We were grateful for the opportunity to highlight some of the CCA’s most impactful investments. To-date, the Climate Commitment Act has funded more than 3,800 projects representing over $4.68 billion in investments across Washington.

From left to right: Moderator Becky Kelley, Washington State Department of Ecology Climate Pollution Reduction Program Manager Joel Creswell, Washington State Environmental Justice Council Co-Chair Tatiana Brown, House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, and Clean & Prosperous Executive Director Michael Mann

From launching the Washington Zero Emission Incentive Program (WAZIP) to help businesses transition to zero-emission commercial vehicles, to electrifying Washington State Ferries and expanding thousands of new electric vehicle charging ports across the state, CCA investments are accelerating the clean energy transition while delivering cleaner air, lower transportation costs, and long-term economic benefits.

But as CCA revenue declines, it becomes all the more important that funding is put to the highest and best use. At Clean & Prosperous, we believe funding should be used first and foremost for projects with demonstrated greenhouse gas reductions that have additional impacts on affordability, job creation, air quality improvements, and help facilitate the clean energy transition.

Ultimately, realizing the full potential of these investments will require building much more clean energy, much faster. As electricity demand continues to grow, Washington will need to accelerate the clean energy and infrastructure projects that make it possible to transition away from fossil fuels while keeping energy reliable and affordable.

Thank you again to PNW Climate Week for having us!

Battery Storage Comes to Washington State!

Regular readers of this newsletter will know that we are big fans of battery storage! Batteries can supercharge our clean energy transition by decreasing our reliance on land-intensive transmission infrastructure while making other renewables like solar and wind more viable.

In good Build Sustainable High Impact Infrastructure Together news: A battery energy storage system (BESS) is about to come online in Washington state! The 25 megawatt (MW) facility – which is a partnership between Ameresco and Snohomish PUD – will begin storing and delivering clean power to the grid this fall.

This BESS project is at a smaller scale than what we saw in Texas (which was 200 MW), but it’s a great step forward for Snohomish County and Washington state! Kudos to the City of Arlington and Snohomish PUD for bringing this critical BESS facility online.

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