TX Legislature Dumps Solar Incentives; Solar Firms Preparing To Shift Mfg. Plant Plans - NYT

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Last-minute maneuvering this weekend at the end of the state legislative session prevented the appropriation of $500 million for solar rebates. Efforts to change Texas’s renewable portfolio standard to create extra requirements for solar, biomass and geothermal power had failed earlier.

Solar had previously appeared to be on a roll, and so many bills flooded the state legislature this session that it was sometimes called the “solar session.” “Is that how hope dies? With a whimper and a bang of a gavel?” wrote one disappointed environmentalist on Twitter.

Texas leads the nation in producing wind power but it is not even in the top ten for producing electricity from the sun, despite being the second-most populous state. (California, with the largest population, is the solar leader.)

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John Berger, the chief executive of Standard Renewable Energy, a Houston-based solar installer, said in an e-mail message that the failure of the solar legislation would have a “bad impact” on the state. He had previously told Green Inc. that the rebates could provide a major boost for business, as had another Texas installer, Meridian Solar. A number of manufacturers, including Suntech Power and SunPower, have been watching Texas’s solar moves and evaluating the state as a possible site of manufacturing plants. Whether the legislative failure would affect their decisions was unclear, but Mr. Metzger was pessimistic.

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http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/solar-push-in-texas-fails/

Don't know where this solar initiative fits in with that, but it looks like (at least last I heard)
that they will have to call a special session. Tx. government is a mess.