Texas should meet its growing electricity demand by encouraging more power plants fueled by coal and nuclear power, maximizing use of the state's vast wind resources and reducing dependence on expensive natural gas, according to recommendations by a task force appointed by Gov. Rick Perry.

The report was issued Thursday by the Competitiveness Council, consisting of more than two dozen business, consumer and government representatives. It made 36 energy-related recommendations aimed at achieving "long-term sustained economic success." A public hearing on its conclusions is scheduled for Monday in Austin.

Other recommendations include:

Continuing the state's deregulated electricity market.

Working with Texas A&M University and industry to research nuclear-fuel recycling.

Encouraging energy efficiency and reduced demand for electricity.

Requiring technologies, such as advanced electric meters, that encourage users to invest in alternative energy sources.

The report also criticizes federal proposals to tax or otherwise regulate carbon-dioxide emissions, a major greenhouse gas linked to climate change.

"Texas consumers will bear significant costs should the federal government decide to impose draconian, costly carbon regulation," the report says, and it proposes a study "highlighting the cost of carbon regulation versus environmental benefits to Texans."

Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of Public Citizen's Texas office in Austin, criticized portions of the report.

"We agree with the recommendation that Texas develop its enormous renewable energy resources and encourage energy-efficiency but disagree that we should continue to build coal plants and nukes," Smith said Friday. "Texas' enormous pollution has added to the crisis of an overheated climate, and we should plan to reduce carbon emissions from the power sector by 80 percent by 2050," he said.

Smith also said the report, which was released without fanfare, appeared to lack input from consumers and their representatives.

The Competitiveness Council is led by Texas Secretary of State Phil Wilson, who on June 12 said he will resign his post July 1 to join Luminant, the state's biggest electricity generator and part of Energy Future Holdings, formerly TXU Corp. Also on the council is Michael Green, who until June 6 was chief executive of Luminant. Green is now vice chairman of EFH.

Last year, the buyout firms behind EFH, in their huge acquisition of TXU, agreed to cancel eight of 11 coal plants that TXU planned to build in Texas to win over a coalition of mayors and environmentalists. The Dallas-based company continues work on the three remaining coal-fired plants, which are scheduled to open in 2009 and 2010.

Other members of the competitiveness council include Tom Burbage, a top executive at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth; executives with AT&T, Dell and ExxonMobil Chemical Co.; the chairman of the Public Utility Commission; four elected state officials; and the president of the Houston Federation of Teachers.

Greg Wortham, executive director of the West Texas Wind Energy Consortium in Sweetwater, said his group supports a range of electricity-generating methods but also thinks that the state should raise its goals for wind power. The report notes that previous mandates have helped make the state No. 1 in wind power but recommends no change in those goals.

"We set a low goal and met it," Wortham said. "Texas still has a tremendous opportunity not to stop" trying to generate more than its current capacity, about 6,000 megawatts, he said.

"The accepted number is that we'll be at 10,000 megawatts by the end of the year, which is the 2025 goal," Wortham said.

The council also advocates quickly building transmission lines to carry electricity from wind farms to major metropolitan areas.

John Fainter, president of the Association of Electric Companies of Texas, a trade group, said his reaction to the recommendations was generally positive.

"It recognizes that we're going to need a lot of electricity and there's no single silver bullet," said Fainter, whose members include investor-owned generators, retailers and transmission companies. "It's pretty realistic."

Russel Smith, executive director of the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association, said he supports the council's recommendation that utilities install meters that can allow billing by time of day and otherwise let consumers and companies that install solar energy panels to receive the full benefits of their investment. But he wants the state to specifically address net metering, in which electricity from a solar installation not only supplies its building with power but also feeds electricity into the transmission grid, reducing the user's electricity bill.

Changes in Texas law have clouded the precise requirements for net metering, he said.