Election results, pandemic effects may slow climate action in Texas: experts

Various politicians and clean energy advocates favor action toward achieving net-zero emissions in the upcoming biennial Texas legislative session, but the coronavirus pandemic and its resulting $4.6 billion budget deficit may crowd out any movement, attendees of a virtual Texas Energy Summit learned this week.

Organized by the Energy Systems Laboratory at the Texas A&M University Engineering Experiment Station, the online event focused heavily on the 2021 legislative session, which starts Jan. 12.

"The entire session is going to be about the budget and the downturn in the economy, and the fact that we turned a surplus in the current budget cycle into a deficit, and the prospect that we're going to have a significant shortfall in the next two-year budget cycle," said Evan Smith, CEO and co-founder of the Texas Tribune during a Nov. 10 plenary session.

"The second thing is that we are unfortunately seeing a renewed surge in the coronavirus pandemic all across Texas, and that sets up a really problematic time for the state."

State Representative Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat from Austin, said her party's caucus has been developing a report about Texas' current contribution to climate change and working to create a Texas climate plan for the 2021 legislative session.

"We hoped for – dare I say anticipated – a Democratic majority in the [state] House," said Hinojosa Nov. 10, but instead of flipping Republican seats to Democratic seats, the 2020 election resulted in exactly the same 83-67 Republican majority.

The good news, from the perspective of those who favor climate action, is that the GOP's presumptive speaker, Dade Phelan of Beaumont, "has a real opportunity to redefine what the state Republican Party is," Hinojosa said.

"He is young, he is educated, he is open-minded," Hinojosa said. "It's not going to be easy. ... We don't know what the speaker is going to do. ... Nothing gets any air on the House floor if there's no political will for it."

The Biden effect

While the 2020 election's result in Texas may have disappointed Democrats, the result at the top of the ticket may benefit the Texas oil and gas economy, said Michael Webber, who heads the University of Texas Energy Institute's Webber Energy Group and serves as Engie's chief science and technology officer.

Biden's election and promised rejoining of the Paris Accords would likely affect how methane emissions from the oil-and-gas sector are handled, Webber said.

"President Trump softened the methane regulations for oil and gas in the US," Webber said Nov. 10. "That makes our methane less competitive on the international stage, because our customers in Japan and Europe care about those methane regulations."

Webber described how electrification of the Texas economy could move the state toward net-zero emissions. Such an effort would require the construction of 75 GW of transmission capacity by 2050, compared with the 18.5 GW of wind capacity for which the $7 billion Competitive Renewable Energy Zone program, completed in 2013, was designed to move from West Texas to population centers in the eastern half of the state.

Managing this transition would help Texas' GDP grow by $250 billion, Webber said.

Green economic opportunity

In an Oct. 11 session entitled, Electrify Texas, Representative Rafael Anchia, a Democrat who chairs the state House International Relations & Economic Development Committee, asked panelists what legislation should be submitted to encourage the electrification of Texas' building, industrial and transportation sectors.

These suggestions were included:

• Mechanisms for measurement and verification of emissions cuts
• A massive jobs bill and training program to prepare Texas workers for the new clean-energy economy
• Incentives to revitalize manufacturing of heat pumps, electric and alternative-fuel vehicles, and solar panels

"Texas should be the first state in America to have solar at the same low cost as Australia," said Saul Griffith, co-founder of Rewiring America on Nov. 11. "You could grease the skids for that ... with subsidies. We're not going to solve climate change if only the richest 20% of households can afford to do it."

Hinojosa on Nov. 11 touted the benefits of Texas embracing the clean energy economy.

"We can't overestimate the economic opportunity that comes with this transitioning energy economy, and we need to make sure Texas is at the front of that opportunity," Hinojosa said. "As one of my colleagues has said, the future is coming -- there's nothing we can do about it."