 The Writing’s on the Wall for Oil and Gas We’re watching the rising temperatures this month in Texas to see whether the grid withstands the heat. Months after the winter blackouts exposed the need for weatherizing our energy infrastructure, not much has changed.
Meanwhile the days of oil and natural gas are numbered in Texas. According to a new independent report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, the oil and gas industry has dropped from 21% of the Texas gross state product in 1981 to just 10% now.
State leaders have a chance to invest in shale communities and diversify their economies. This shift in investment requires acknowledging that oil and gas are in decline, rather than hanging onto wishful thinking.
Let this new report be a wakeup call for state leaders. It’s past time to plan for an energy landscape mostly reliant on wind and solar, with declining oil and natural gas. From economic incentives to industry oversight, energy policy needs to reflect this changing dynamic so that we remain key players in the energy space and are prepared for a bright future.
Read Commission Shift’s Op-ed in San Antonio Express News (full text below).
Voting Access Letter-Writing Party a Big Success! Last week Commision Shift joined the Texas Campaign for the Environment and the Sierra Club at a letter writing party focused on protecting voting rights in Texas. Sierra Club representatives shared an analysis finding that big oil and gas companies gave over $40 million in campaign contributions to Texas officials from Jan. 2017 through Dec. 2020, with more than half this figure going to the officials who have been leading the charge against voting access. It’s time for Texans to fight back and protect the right to vote.
For more information and tips on how to write a letter to the editor, check out our slide deck from the event. Let us know if you want help writing or submitting a letter to the editor at your local newspaper.
 Major Corporate Donors to Texas Elected Officials Made Billions off Winter Storm Strong reporting by The Texas Observer showed that an oil and gas company executive whose company made billions of dollars during the February power outages recently donated $1 million to Governor Greg Abbott’s campaign. The Observer raises the question of whether the Governor’s leniency on gas system companies like Energy Transfer Partners may have anything to do with the massive donation.
The Houston Chronicle editorial board subsequently called out the conflict of interest, saying “We froze and Abbott got paid.”
The Texas Tribune wrote that “for some energy experts, the increase in donations for the officials at the close of the session looks like a reward for not passing more stringent regulations.”
Find more media coverage on the Commission Shift website.  Commentary: Oil and gas are fading from Texas energy landscape Virginia Palacios, For the Express-News Aug. 5, 2021 It has been a big year for energy in Texas, though most of the headlines have been grim. The winter power outages and summer grid alerts had more Texans questioning the stability of the electric system in a state that always boasts about its energy prowess.
Beyond the headlines there’s an even bigger story — oil and natural gas are fading in prominence and no longer driving the state’s economic growth. This has been true for some time already, but new data show the significance of fossil fuels’ decline.
According to a new independent report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, the oil and gas industry has dropped from 21 percent of the Texas gross state product in 1981 to just 10 percent now. Tax revenues tell a similar story. Oil and gas made up 28 percent of revenues in 1991 before bottoming out at 3 percent in 1999 and then staying below 10 percent ever since.
Optimists will point out this means the state’s economy is diversifying, which is true. But rather than seeing the writing on the wall, and making decisions to further support economic resiliency, state leaders and regulators have continued to adopt policies that prop up uneconomic oil and gas. At the Railroad Commission of Texas, which despite its name, oversees oil and gas in Texas, commissioners have consistently voted for loopholes that allow companies to evade rules, penalties, and fees under the guise of supporting jobs. Similarly, the Legislature has voted for high-cost gas tax exemptions and the like that cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
It’s not just data. Drive through the Permian Basin, Eagle Ford, or other shale regions of Texas. Where drilling jobs once boomed, rural hotels that housed out-of-state oilfield workers are vacant. With ephemeral upticks in the price of oil, our communities occasionally see a resurgence of workers pulsing through local businesses when drilling activity rebounds, but these boom-and-bust jobs don’t last. Here in Webb County, one of the highest gas-producing counties in the state, our 30 percent poverty rate remained stable during the most active years of the Eagle Ford Shale boom.
State leaders have a chance to invest in these shale communities and diversify their economies. This shift in investment requires acknowledging oil and gas are in decline.
Beyond the jobs, the decline in the oil and gas sector has also meant huge cuts to revenue for local services. From 2010 to 2014 oil and gas companies contributed on average $3.1 billion annually in property taxes to local governments. From 2015 to the present, average annual collections to local governments fell to $2.3 billion, even as total statewide property tax collections increased.
The good news is Texas is already a leader in renewable energy and can be doing even more if we release our historic tethering to oil and gas. Trade schools, colleges, and universities can boost the study of renewables and face the reality that oil and gas are in decline. Texas leaders can prepare the oil and gas industry for a transition and manage the retirement of existing assets instead of holding it together with duct tape and toothpicks.
Let this new report be a wake-up call for state leaders. It’s past time to plan for an energy landscape mostly reliant on wind and solar, as oil and natural gas declines. From economic incentives to industry oversight, energy policy needs to reflect this changing dynamic so that we remain key players in the energy space and are prepared for a bright future.
Virginia Palacios is executive director of Commission Shift, a nonprofit focused on reforming oil and gas oversight in Texas. She lives on and co-manages her family’s ranch in Webb County.
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