Never Enough
What to know: The 89th Texas Legislature provided public schools with a massive $8.5 billion funding increase. Despite this spending spike, some education administrators are already complaining that “it’s still not enough.”
The TPPF take: It will never be enough.
“There is no amount of money that will ever satisfy public school spenders. They have an unlimited appetite for other people’s money and their only cry for all-time has been ‘MORE’,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “Public education doesn’t need any more money. The public needs more education for its money.”
For more on public school spending, click here.
Sunset Happens
What to know: What caused the massive blackouts in Spain at the end of April? Their inability to properly manage unreliable solar and wind energy.
The TPPF take: Overinvesting in unreliable energy and underinvesting in needed reliability measures are the root cause of the blackout in Spain and the disaster in Texas in 2021.
“If governments are unwilling to give up subsidizing wind and solar, ratepayers will have to pay more and more money to keep gas and coal plants available when the wind and sun drop off,” says TPPF’s Brent Bennett. “The result is a combination of more outages and spiraling energy costs. Spain is now the poster child for this problem, but it is happening all across the US as well.”
For more on blackouts, click here.
Carbon Capture
What to know: The Trump administration is canceling some contracts for “carbon capture” projects.
The TPPF take: Congress should follow Trump’s lead and eliminate any spending on carbon capture technology.
“If a technology requires permanent subsidies to function, it is not a market-ready solution,” says Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian, writing in The Cannon Online. “That’s not innovation—that’s dependence. And it’s antithetical to the kind of capitalism that built America’s energy sector.”
For more on carbon capture, click here.