Texas Climate & Energy
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Texas is the largest energy-producing and energy-consuming state in the nation. Texas produces more electricity than any other state, generating almost twice as much as Florida, the second-highest electricity-producing state. Thus, Texas has a disproportionate impact on the ability of the U.S. and the global community to mitigate climate change. Texas also can be an energy justice leader, ensuring that energy production doesn’t harm vulnerable communities, and energy is available even to the marginalized.
Light and Life
Using the Public Utility Commission of Texas Sunset Review to Safeguard Texans’ Health and Wellbeing
The upcoming 2022-2023 Sunset review of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, offers a unique opportunity for Texas lawmakers to advance public health in the Lone Star State.
NEWS + LATEST UPDATES
Texas Energy Summit
This week I attended the Texas Energy Summit, held at the Legislative Conference Center at the Capitol. The agenda was packed with a great series of speakers and topics from Hydrogen to the Energy Transition to Microgrids, all with an eye towards keeping the...
LNG Exports Threaten Climate Stability
The conflict between fossil fuel operators and corporations and those working for a safe climate has recently coalesced around natural gas, which was once considered a more climate-friendly option to coal. Although burning natural gas releases about 50% the amount of...
How Does Climate Change Affect Hurricanes?
Scientists are working to understand what caused Hurricane Otis, originally forecast to make landfall on the western coast of Mexico as a strong tropical storm or minimal hurricane, to explode in intensity overnight. Most forecast models missed this change, leaving...
Faithful Climate Negotiations Depend on Functioning House
Scientists continue to sound the alarm that deadly climate change has arrived, and that the impacts will continue to worsen if we as a global community cannot find a way to stop emitting greenhouse gasses by producing and burning fossil fuels. This summer, the hottest...
Recent Research Expands Risk of Deadly Heat
Kim Stanley Robinson’s book “The Ministry for the Future” opens with the story of an aid worker struggling to escape an extreme heatwave that knocks out the power grid and kills thousands of people unable to escape the heat. The book is fiction, but it is based on an...
UNFCC Global Stocktake Report: Adaptation
The Global Stocktake is a United Nations Framework Convention initiative in which each of the Parties to the Paris agreement submits an assessment of their current progress in addressing climate change. Parties are required to submit reports on progress toward meeting...
UNFCC Global Stocktake Report: Mitigation
The Global Stocktake is a United Nations Framework Convention initiative in which each of the Parties to the Paris agreement submits an assessment of their current progress in addressing climate change. Parties are required to submit reports on progress toward meeting...
Pope Francis Releases New Encyclical on Climate: Laudate Deum
Pope Francis’s recent encyclical on climate, Laudate Deum, was released October 4. Laudate Deum serves as a follow-up to his earlier encyclical, Laudato Si. The timing of the release of this encyclical suggests that the Vatican hopes to influence the outcome of the...
Tell EPA: We Need Strong Methane Regulation
The EPA is in the process of finalizing new regulations for methane—a potent greenhouse gas that also degrades air quality. Sign the letter from Texans of faith urging EPA to issue strong regulations...for our health and the health of the planet!
How would a federal government shutdown affect Texas?
In a webinar with White House staff this week, officials from the Biden administration presented an overview of what programs will be affected in the event the federal government, and in particular the US House of Representatives, is unable to reach an agreement on...