Issue Position: New Energy for a New Texas

Issue Position

"With our abundant wind, solar, and agricultural resources -- combined with our extraordinary human and financial capital -- we can position ourselves in Texas to be the world leader in renewable energy for the next hundred years, just as we were the world leader in oil and gas for the past hundred years."
-- Representative Mark Strama

Chairman, House Committee on Technology, Economic Development, and Workforce
In his second session in the Texas House of Representatives, Mark Strama championed the most significant legislation of the session to advance Texas' leadership in the renewable energy industry.

Honors:
* Named "Legislator of the Year" by the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association (TREIA)
* Named "Texas Technology Champion" by TechAmerica
* Received the Texas Wind Coalition's "Legacy Award"
* Honorably Mentioned on Texas Monthly "Ten Best Legislators" list in each of the last two sessions of the Legislature.

Mark Strama values the extraordinary prosperity that our state's leadership in the oil and gas industry has generated in the past and in the present. But in the future, it is increasingly clear, the energy industry will be a technology-driven industry, not a natural resources-driven industry. Because oil and gas account for nearly 15% of our state's GDP, this shift is both a threat, and an opportunity, for the Texas economy.
As leaders in renewable energy, we can:

*protect consumers from the volatility in fossil fuel prices
*reduce the harmful effect of energy consumption on the environment and on public health
*reduce our military obligations and costs in the Middle East and Persian Gulf
*reduce our trade deficit and restore our status as a net energy exporter
*create hundreds of thousands of high-wage technology jobs and blue-collar infrastructure jobs that cannot be sent offshore

A few decades ago, a public-private research partnership called Sematech launched Austin's status as a leader in the semiconductor industry, creating tens of thousands of jobs. We need a similar effort in Texas in renewable energy.

"While our natural resources provide Texas an excellent starting point in renewable energy, our greatest competitive advantage is that we are the headquarters of the energy industry as it exists today, with all its know-how and all its capital. The state must work in partnership with business to ensure that Texas protects its leadership in the energy industry. We must lead -- not fight -- the inevitable evolution toward clean, affordable, new energy technologies." -- Representative Mark Strama

Representative Strama's agenda to make Texas the world leader in renewable energy:
Make Texas public universities the premier institutions in the world for research, innovation, and learning in renewable energy fields. Just as for the past century Texas public universities boasted the best programs in the world for those seeking careers in oil and gas, Texas universities should be a magnet for the innovation and intellectual leadership required to meet the challenges posed by the evolution of energy away from fossil fuels.

Attract funding to Texas for a national laboratory in the area of solar power, battery storage, or other fields of renewable energy.

Create a "Solar Schools" initiative, providing Texas public schools access to low-cost financing for solar power, with which they can reduce their utility bills and even generate revenues selling their excess power during the summer, when many school buildings reduce their consumption by 60% or more.

Lead by example, by making sure state government operates at maximum energy efficiency and utilizes renewable energy sources to power state buildings.

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