Phases and Stages: The Texas Energy Story

For the season finale, we're back where we started: Austin. But more than talking about how people in Austin feel about the energy transition and the energy industry more generally, we're considering how the proceedings in Austin affect the energy portfolio throughout Texas. We'll hear from lawmakers, lobbyists, experts, and utilities about how what happens in Austin, changes the state.   Voices f...

At more than 600 megawatts…the Frye Solar Plant has more power capacity than the town it operates in has official residents. Located on almost six square miles, about an hour north of Lubbock in Kress, Texas - population 592 - the project is a microcosm of the energy industry expansion occurring throughout the Lone Star State. In return for a lease to construct huge energy infrastructure projects,...

Matagorda County, with a population of a little more than 36,000 people, has a few working oil and gas wells, but it's also home to a nuclear power plant, several wind and solar farms, and could soon be the home of a hydrogen-based eFuels operation. It's less than a two-hour drive from Houston, but some in town wanted to rebrand this part of the state "The Energy Capital of Texas," and you can't r...

When wildcatters struck oil in Jim Wells County in the 1920s, politicians in Alice, Texas saw opportunity beyond the oil patch. The town, which legend has it was named after the daughter of Richard King, the founder of King Ranch, adopted the slogan, "The Hub City of South Texas" due to its proximity to San Antonio to the north, the port of Corpus Christi to the east, and Laredo and the Mexican bo...

When you think of socialites taking in a performance featuring Ray Charles or James Brown, all the while rubbing elbows with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, the first U.S. city that comes to mind is probably New York, or maybe Los Angeles.  But what if I told you in its heyday, those things and more were happening in a town of some 55,000 people less than 10 miles from the Gulf of Mexi...

The two cities that make up ground zero for oil and gas production in the United States, Midland and Odessa, have been competing for recognition and prestige for as long as a lot of folks in town can remember.  These days that cross-town rivalry has bled over into a competition for emerging industry, a developing workforce, and a boat load of tax dollars. But as Marilu Hastings at the  Mitchell Fo...

Midland, Texas has been known for oil and gas since the 1920s, but there's a new kind of energy popping up in town that has some folks upset about the changing times. Learn more about Phases & Stages⁠ ⁠Learn more about The Energy Institute at The University of Texas at Austin

There's a place in Central Texas, a place once heralded as 'The Town Where It Rains Money'  that's already gone through something of an energy transition. Rockdale, population 5,300, is a cautionary tale of a community trying to figure out how to embrace what's left from the energy industry of the past while courting economic activity that's expecting the benefits of the energy industry of the fut...

Houston has been long heralded as the energy capital of the U.S. But there are some in Space City who want to rebrand the city the "energy transition capital of the world." How come? And how is something like that supposed to happen? Turns out, it's complicated. Learn more about Phases & Stages Learn more about The Energy Institute at The University of Texas at Austin