In Texas, Different Ideas on Fossil Fuels, Renewables

January 25, 2016

California already gets a quarter of its electricity from clean sources, and Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill last year upping the state’s renewable energy mandate to 50 percent by 2030. For Golden State policymakers and activists, the question at this point isn’t how much energy the state should get from renewables: It’s how to get to as close to 100 percent as possible, as quickly as possible.

That’s the narrative I’m used to writing about. So it was fascinating to spend some time last week in fossil fuel-friendly Texas, where I joined a few dozen journalists for a two-day workshop hosted by the University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute. (Full disclosure: The Energy Institute paid for my travel and hotel. There was no expectation I would write anything about the conference.)

The Desert Sun, Jan.19, 2016

Featuring: Scott Tinker, Director, Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences