“If you want to see what the cutting edge of next-gen clean energy innovation looks like, it’d be hard to find a place better than Texas. Amazing companies are breaking ground not just here in Southeast Texas but across the state. Each one represents a huge boon for the local economy,” - Bill Gates
I live in Texas and there is a very odd split that doesn’t get a lot of attention. People outside of the state think it’s only oil and hicks, which yes, there is quite a bit of both, but the downside is that’s a stereotype that we get labeled for because those have been around longer than everything else, but is a majority that is growing narrower every day. If you look at the “future” parts of the state, we have some of the largest wind and solar farms, world class biomedical and technology facilities too to name of some it.
Unfortunately the interia of the old has made it very hard for Texas to shed its backwards look and that ever diminishing majority is going to do everything it can to hold on to their power. Part of the issue is the size of the state vs the demographics. If you look up the “Texas Triangle” there are 21 million people and majority of the GDP generation in the middle of the state, but the rest of the state is vast and adds up. Add to it the sheer amount of gerrymandering and voter suppression, and laws pushed through congress it is a microcosm of what we see on a national level.
I really hope I’ll see Texas flip blue in my lifetime but the “old guard” is going to throw everything they have to prevent that.
It also doesn’t help that oil companies pay average people gobs of money just to look for oil on their land, not to mention drilling. Families can essentially get UBI for the rest of their lives, courtesy of Big Oil.
Voting for politicians that will curtail oil production is effectively voting to cut off your own UBI. I was recently a prospective jurist in a court case between two oil companies, and I can’t tell you how many people in a sample of ≈75 had some kind of history with oil companies regarding mineral or drilling rights.
It’s absurd the amount of influence they have been allowed to accrue.
You’re exactly right there. My exes parents get something like $60K/yr for the oil underneath their land. All they had to do is sign it away and the equipment is about a mile away so they don’t see it and it’s free money for them.
It could flip back to blue! it once was in my lifetime (I remember the lady democrat governor. It’s as though what happened to Boeing also happened there.)
I know there are many fine, sane people there … with some world-class class! and Texas has also been pretty-badly beaten up by film and television … and I wouldn’t want to be a part of any Gates fantasy either.
Not that believe most of this, but posted here for your responses.
I think a lot of people would look at the technologies being developed as putting a band-aid on the carbon issue rather than making other changes which fully addresses the issue.
Quick run-down:
e-fuels: equivalent of $45/gallon gasoline with today’s tech. Might get that down to $15/gallon if it scales up. It’s plausible for aviation, but other choices (eg: electric) are cheaper for surface transport
carbon materials: tiny amounts of CO2 if it can be made cost-effective
DAC: in general, this has the problem of being vastly more expensive than not emitting in the first place. That’s why the IPCC considers it to be a tiny and expensive part of what needs to happen in the next few years.
