Opportunity in Adversity: A New Approach to Energy in Texas

Optimism in West Texas is in short supply these days. But a look back at our recent history of energy booms and busts reveals a lesson in finding opportunity through adversity – and a possible path forward through difficult times.

It was the late 1990s, and energy pioneer George Mitchell’s company was in grave danger. Like today, oil prices were in freefall, and companies like Mitchell were going out of business.

Mitchell Energy’s future hinged on keeping a prized but diminishing oil field profitable. Analysis suggested the field could be saved by extracting gas from a layer of rock deep beneath the company’s existing wells. The only problem was that gas could only be freed through a process that had never been pulled off in a commercial setting: hydraulic fracturing.

The company dug experimental wells, testing different combinations of sand and water to fracture that layer of rock. Many attempts failed, forcing Mitchell to re-invest again and again. But after about a year’s effort, it became clear that one combination of water and sand had worked – and worked extraordinarily well. It’s no exaggeration to say that combination of water and sand changed history, powering the oil and gas boom just now subsided.

Today we’re at a moment of adversity not unlike that which Mr. Mitchell felt studying a failing oil field. This time, the opportunity isn’t a technology breakthrough to save a company – it’s about redefining how energy development happens. 

Like one of Mitchell’s experimental wells, there’s an unconventional effort underway in West Texas, working to design a new, collaborative approach to energy. Respect Big Bend brings together the energy industry, land and mineral rights owners, scientists and communities in an inclusive planning effort.  

The goal is simple: figure out how we develop energy in ways that benefit local economies and communities, making them resilient enough to overcome the next global crisis.

Central to Respect Big Bend’s approach is the belief that inclusive planning is critical whether the energy comes from oil, gas or renewable sources.  

For instance, today’s oil downturn is already creating enormous pressure to build large wind, solar and geothermal power plants “everywhere we can.” We’re hearing calls for new networks of transmission lines to deliver this energy from remote areas of Texas, like the Big Bend Region where our pilot effort is underway.  

“Everywhere we can” isn’t a development strategy that will benefit anyone, including renewables companies, which would set themselves up for a bust like the one oil companies face today.  

A new approach would locate solar farms near the places that require the energy. A good example is Milam County, which is wedged into central Texas between Austin, Dallas and Houston. Milam County will soon be home to the state’s biggest solar plant, an approach which make sense given its strategic location.  

The remote desert of West Texas is a different story. Deserts are both biodiverse and fragile. Once you damage them with solar farms or transmission lines, they take a very long time to recover. But this isn’t just about environmental protection. For Respect Big Bend, the Chihuahan desert is central to the West Texas tourism economy, encompassing Big Bend National Park, which draws nearly half a million annual visitors from around the world.  

You can apply the same thinking to the Balmorhea State Park Swimming Pool, the Reeves County oasis that has cooled off generations of Texas families. The Respect Big Bend model looks to protect sites like Balmorhea pool from energy development damage not for a purely environmental agenda but for the economic, health, and social benefits these Texas heritage sites deliver to the communities surrounding them.  

A new approach would limit methane flaring not simply because methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but because flaring brightens the dark skies precious to remote areas. 

In West Texas, dark skies are critical to the astronomical work that happens at Fort Davis’s McDonald Observatory, which draws 80,000 people to its visitors center each year. McDonald’s impact is felt far more broadly by students around the country who benefit from its education programs and anyone who listens to StarDate radio updates on the universe. The Respect Big Bend model argues that when a resource like McDonald Observatory is put at risk, a sense of balance has been lost, and the costs of energy development outweigh the benefits.

A new approach would carefully consider the central role of ranching and agriculture in the local economy. Working lands deliver economic, environmental and recreational benefits.

The Respect Big Bend model argues that if these lands are turned over for energy development in an ad hoc way, we put at risk the way of life which helps define Texas. This isn’t just Old West nostalgia but a view that working, agricultural lands sustain us. They clean our air and water. They nourish us with the food and fiber they provide. They are home to the wildlife that helps balance our natural environment. Perhaps most of all, they connect us with the land and nature in ways most people never get to experience.

The Texas legislature will reconvene in January 2021, focusing, no doubt, on economic recovery and the energy sector. Let’s hope state policymakers channel George Mitchell, seeking opportunity in adversity, taking steps to soften future boom-bust cycles with a new approach to energy development.