Bills moving through the Louisiana Legislature aim not only to forestall potentially harmful policy decisions driven by faith in catastrophic anthropogenic global warming, but also to reverse the chances of such policies inflicting harm.

For years, Europe has demonstrated the costs—both in price and reliability—of government-subsidized or -mandated moves to increase the share of nondispatchable energy in the overall portfolio, primarily “green” sources like wind and solar power – as part of an overall portfolio of energy provision. Permanent spikes in average pricing, along with recent man-made crises, highlight the economic and political pitfalls of state-sponsored favoritism toward less reliable—if not outright more expensive—renewable energy forms.

Fortunately, the federal government appears to be exiting that inferior policy option, but some states in their policy agendas continue to cling to the mythical, evidence-free view that fossil fuels cause significantly negative climate change. This religious faith often manifests in official renewable portfolio standards (RPS), where about half have some mandatory standard to be met sometime in the future–some as early as five years from now–specifying what portion of a state’s energy must come from renewable sources.

Even though Louisiana doesn’t have an RPS, the actions of others can still inflict harm. The vast majority of Louisiana ratepayers get their power from companies operating in multiple states and participating in multi-state power pools. As a result, other states’ insistence on higher proportions of renewable energy can drive up costs across the board, with those increases passed down the distribution chain to Louisiana consumers.

So even if the state eschews an RPS, its citizens still bear the costs of others’. That is, unless Louisiana fights back with legislation like HB 692 by Republican state Rep. Jacob Landry. The bill, which has passed the House, mandates that energy regulators prioritize the most reliable and cheapest dispatchable sources—namely fossil fuels, especially natural gas. It also grants natural gas and nuclear power the same preferential treatment under state law currently afforded to renewables. (It further gives preference to domestically produced sources.)

In effect, the bill establishes an “anti-RPS” framework of sorts. It not only blocks the imposition of an RPS in Louisiana but also elevates natural gas and nuclear to equal standing with renewable sources. This will compel providers like Entergy and American Electric Power to pause—or even ratchet back—their renewable energy expansion efforts, at least until the true cost of these (factoring in reliability and out government subsidies) falls enough to become competitive with fossil fuels.

In conjunction with this, SB 127 by GOP state Sen. Adam Bass would facilitate construction of nuclear fission sources of power—whether for utility-scale or private use—though these may be years from deployment. That bill is expected to come before the House later this week.

Both measures need to become law to ensure Louisianans pay the lowest possible energy rates and to keep local businesses from becoming uncompetitive, as these increasingly have become in Europe (which has less latitude to avoid the problem, as it has much less domestic fossil fuel production, although some like France wisely have embraced nuclear power).

Rather than remain at the mercy of short-sighted policymaking in other states, Louisiana needs to seize control of its energy future.