Texas solar is all kinds of famous. Whether it is in print papers, the New York Times green blog, classified ads, the nightly news, Mic SoL-o’s sweet rhymes, or Public Citizen staffers with too much time on their hands and a taste for the spotlight… solar is all over the place!
But wait, there’s more. Along with Environmental Defense Fund and Environment Texas, we’ve just launched an ad campaign aimed at getting the Texas Legislature to support measures to make Texas a world solar leader. The commercials will run for a week in the Abilene, Dallas/Fort Worth, Tyler/Longview, and Wichita Falls viewing areas and call on the Legislature to support incentives to install solar panels on the equivalent of a half-million Texas rooftops by 2020.
Check it:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynmERFZzHLg]
So far more than 80 bills have been filed by a bi-partisan group of legislators to promote solar power and other renewable energy technologies, including:
- SB 545 (Fraser), which creates a statewide rebate program which would fund the installation of up to 500 megawatts of solar by 2015. SB 5454 has passed the Senate Business and Commerce committee and is expected to be voted on by the full Senate next week.
- SB 541 (Watson), which requires the development of 3000 megawatts of solar, geothermal and biomass energy by 2020. SB 541 is pending in the Senate Business and Commerce committee.
- HB 3405 (Swinford), which creates a statewide rebate program that would fund the installation of 3000 megawatts of solar by 2020. HB 3405 is pending in the House Energy Resources committee.
