SAN ANTONIO — Life:Powered today announced new research projecting that San Antonio’s proposed Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) will increase the average family’s electricity costs by more than $1,000 a year—yet provide no environmental benefit.
Despite widespread opposition from the community and local business leaders, San Antonio’s city council is slated to vote on the CAAP on October 17. The program aims to convert the municipal electric provider, CPS Energy, to 100% renewable power and promote the use of electric vehicles and impose zero-carbon building regulations.
“San Antonians shouldn’t be forced into a plan that calls for vast increases in the city’s spending and regulatory reach without a clear idea of the costs and means of execution,” said Life:Powered’s policy analyst, Brent Bennett, Ph.D. “Fostering freedom and increasing our wealth and access to energy—instead of stifling it with more regulations and spending, unreliable electricity, and massive land destruction—is what will enable us to solve the environmental problems of the future.”
“The CAAP is just political posturing,” said former state representative Jason Isaac, senior manager and distinguished fellow of Life:Powered. “Instead of forcing higher energy costs and higher taxes on the people of San Antonio, the city’s leaders should embrace the power of reliable, affordable, abundant energy to continue growing the economy, fighting poverty, and providing a better quality of life for San Antonio.”
In addition to dramatically increasing the cost of electricity, Life:Powered’s research also estimates that the CAAP would require 700,000 acres of land for solar panels, wind turbines, and transmission lines — more than 2.5 times the size of the city limits.
Data models used by the United Nations show the CAAP will have no discernible effect on climate change.
Key Takeaways:
– Transitioning CPS Energy to zero-carbon electricity generation by 2050, with 80 percent coming from wind and solar, is predicted to increase the cost of generation and transmission nearly three times compared to current costs, after adjusting for inflation. Achieving this goal with 100 percent wind and solar would increase costs by almost four times.
– Under the 100 percent wind and solar scenario, the average San Antonio family would pay at least $1,000 more annually for electricity, after adjusting for inflation.
– The land needed for a 100 percent wind and solar electric grid would reach more than 700,000 acres, more than 2.5 times the size of San Antonio and nearly 10 times the amount of land currently used to power the city’s electric grid.
– A comparable scenario that replaces gas and coal assets, based on their current useful lives, with natural gas generation would see the inflation-adjusted cost per MWh of generation and transmission decrease by 5 percent.
To view the research in full, click here: