Texas Could Win Big Under New Climate Change Rules

Link to a positive report on Texas in a world of climate change.  Four areas of strength for Texas outlined in the report:

"And a new analysis by the Center for Strategic for International Studies goes into more detail about how it could work. Here’s four ways Texas stands to win economically under the proposed carbon rules:

1. Billions of Dollars in Additional Revenue: Thanks to fracking and horizontal drilling, Texas has unlocked massive amounts of natural gas — and could continue to do so, especially if the price is right. In the West South Central region, which includes Texas, the average annual revenue from natural gas production could go up anywhere from $4 billion to nearly $18 billion a year according to the CSIS report. Add in the savings from Texas not having to spend billions to buy coal from other states, and you’ve got a real “shot in the arm” for the Texas economy, Webber says.
2. Renewables Might Get a Boost as Well: In addition to plenty of fossil fuels, Texas is also a leader in wind power and has the potential to do the same with solar energy. “We have a lot of cheap, flat, sunny, windy land that’s connected to billions of dollars of transmission lines, so we can move that power to market easily,” Webber says.
3. Texas’ Power Could Be Sold to Other Markets: If Texas built up enough renewable energy, Webber says it could even sell it to other grids or as credits in a carbon offset market. “So we might be able to make a lot of money in a lot of places,” he says.
4. Tech Hubs like Austin May Drive Efficiency Innovation: A major source of new, carbon-free power that could come out of the rules could be power that we don’t use. Efficiency and consumption reduction programs like demand response could mean jobs and demand for energy efficiency services. “IT, software, automation — with Austin and our tech sector here, we stand to benefit from that demand as well. There should be a lot of winners in Texas from this,” Webber says."