Opinion: Energy Infrastructure is Essential to Powering the Texas Economy
By Jeff Clark and Elizabeth Caldwell, originally published in the Midland Reporter-Telegram on January 24, 2021: https://www.mrt.com/opinion/article/Free-markets-infrastructure-give-Texas-cleaner-13920301.php
The phrase “everything is bigger in Texas” is especially true when it comes to energy. While it may not surprise many to hear that our state is the top oil and natural gas producer in the country, we also generate more wind-powered energy than any other state in the union, too. Solar power is growing quickly and, when it comes to electric power generation, we produce nearly twice the power of Florida, the second-largest electricity producer.
Infrastructure makes our success possible. Robust pipeline and processing systems carry oil and gas from Texas’s prolific basins to refineries along the coast, LNG export terminals, or other end-use facilities. Similarly, while Texas produced 28 percent of America’s wind power in 2019, much of that clean power would be wasted without a sophisticated network of transmission lines, carrying that power from windy and sunny regions to our population centers.
But energy infrastructure is about more than simply shipping energy from point A to B. Pipelines and transmission lines also create high paying jobs for Texans. A recent Texas Tech study found that Texas’s pipeline industry alone is expected to contribute $374 billion to the state’s economy from 2015 to 2024 while sustaining 171,000 high-paying jobs annually. For state and local government revenues, that means another $19.5 billion for schools, hospitals, roads and bridges. And tax revenue from wind and solar projects is breathing new life into rural communities while providing payments to landowners hosting these new technologies.
Texas infrastructure is meeting the needs of local communities as well as domestic and international energy needs. While some would seek to pit our energy industries against one another, oil and gas producers in this state are more and more often delivering their energy in partnership with renewables.
Today, renewable energy is powering revenue in Texas, and that revenue is only expected to grow. In 2019, the Permanent University Fund (PUF) received more than $1 billion from mineral income produced on state-owned land. That is money that goes to fund programs at the University of Texas and Texas A&M University, keep tuition low, and provide scholarships for thousands of Texans. One study found that PUF mineral income could reach $28 billion over the next 30 years.
Renewables are powering that revenue daily. According to recent reporting, there are currently 45 announced renewable projects in the United States that are intended solely to power oil and gas operations. Occidental Petroleum announcedplans last year to launch a solar-powered facility to power operations in the Permian Basin. Similarly, Exxon Mobil signed a 12-year agreement in 2018 to partner with Ørsted to supply 500 megawatts of wind and solar power in the Permian.
But the oil and natural gas partnership with renewables isn’t limited just to the oil patch. Annova LNG recently announcedplans to operate electric-driven compressor engines “through 100 percent carbon-free renewable energy resources” at its planned Port of Brownsville facility. These are just a few ways in which the oil and gas industry and the renewable energy industry are partnering to reduce environmental impacts.
It’s not just renewables — pipelines and infrastructure accomplish that goal, too. Pipelines eliminate the need for trucks to haul oil and gas from production facilities to their next destination. They are the safest, most reliable, and cleanest way to move these resources. Pipelines also reduce flaring, preventing waste and allowing methane to be used for power generation, heating homes, or as a feedstock for manufacturing. Transmission lines help bring cleaner power to our growing cities, reducing the use of dirtier power, like out-of-state coal, and helping keep air and water clean.
Demand for oil and gas is increasing in expanding markets around the world, and countries are prioritizing imports from regions that can demonstrate a commitment to reducing methane emissions. Texas ranks favorably compared to other global suppliers like Russia and members of OPEC, and expanding pipeline capacity to reduce emissions further will only enhance Texas energy leadership globally. Using Texas renewables to power oil and gas production enhances it even further.
The Texas energy economy would not be the model that it is for the rest of the world if not for our robust infrastructure systems. There are more than 470,000 miles of pipeline in Texas and about 3,500 miles of transmission lines capable of carrying our power from our 25,000 MW wind power fleet across our great state.
The Texas legislature convened earlier this month, and it is critical that those members recognize that essential infrastructure not only powers the Texas energy economy today, but will be critical to meeting demand well into the future.
Jeff Clark is the president of the Advanced Power Alliance. Elizabeth Caldwell is spokesperson for Texans for Natural Gas.
