Clean energy push intensifies in oil-rich Texas
The renewable energy revolution sweeping across America has found an unexpected gateway into 21st-century progress: the proud city of Abilene.
As a whole, Texas has solidified itself as a torchbearer in America’s quest for efficient and clean energy production. The state itself already provides about one-fifth of all domestically produced American energy.
While historically known for its crude oil and coal production, with 1.424 billion barrels of oil emerging from the state in the past year, the state’s plains and desert landscape have made it the number one producer of wind energy in the country.
If Texas were a country, it would be the fifth largest producer of wind in the world.
This massive expansion in clean energy is not due to chance, but rather due to an expansion of markets and consumer choice. In 2002, Texas voted to open energy markets and allow individual energy consumers to choose where their energy comes from. Today, 92 percent of energy consumers have a choice in energy source and cost.
Because of the way Texas implemented its clean energy expansion, energy costs have decreased and clean energy has risen to the top of the state’s energy portfolio.
Seeing the progress, it would make sense that most of the development behind this energy revolution is emerging from bright minds with Texas itself.
Abilene is home to three well-respected higher education institutions that have become an incubator of thought, dialogue and opportunity. The city has turned into a crossroads between energy companies and climate-conscious innovators.
What’s important to note about this relationship is that both political parties are making influential decisions in tandem with each other, representing correspondence between generations not found frequently in American politics. For instance, McMurry University offers a training program for mineral and royalty owners on how to work with large energy companies to make the most effective usages of their resources.
Recently, McMurry launched an effort to establish a new academic program in Sustainability and Renewable Resources. The university has seen the wisdom in recruiting undergraduate students to care for the Earth and develop sustainable patterns of consumption as well as policies and practices that promote a better environment and society.
Across town, Abilene Christian University is home to NEXT Lab, an award-winning research effort that is experimenting with molten salts, rather than water, as a coolant for nuclear reactors. The experiments conducted by students and faculty could lead to global solutions to the world’s need for inexpensive energy, water that is pure and abundant, and medical isotopes to diagnose and treat cancer.
The vital aspect of Abilene’s crossroads position is that these developments are directly flowing into the ears of energy companies and their constituents, helping big ideas transition even faster into realities. While progress is vital, it’s also important to manage the consequences of industrial human expansion.
At Hardin-Simmons University, Dr. Rick Hammer and his Environmental Justice team preserve rare plant species and work on greenifying urban development. The nearby Kirby Lake Nature Park was restored through Dr. Hammer’s Restoration Ecology course, not only teaching students the intrinsic value of nature and how to preserve it, but also doing great acts of public service.
Texas may be the center of the U.S. oil and gas industry, but the latest data shows the state's competitive energy market is increasing clean energy faster than anywhere in the country. The reality is that we don’t have to “favor” one source over another. We should “favor” all-of-the-above energy because it’s the best way to ensure reliability, improve emissions-reducing technology, and keep costs low.
Private sector innovation and free-market competition are powerful economic forces that Texas is using to succeed in the clean energy arena, and this trend does not have to be kept in the Lone Star state.