The Honorable Jason Isaac is the Director of Life: Powered at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, Jason, a fourth-generation native Texan, was elected four times as the State Representative for Hays and Blanco counties in the Texas Hill Country. During his eight years of service, he successfully passed legislation to reduce taxes, strengthen election integrity, improve public education, preserve Second Amendment rights, protect local groundwater, and protect private property rights.
With President Biden wasting little time in office, he has clearly set his sights on Texas’ prosperity — first by canceling the Keystone Pipeline and thousands of jobs along with it, then by rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, and lastly by banning fracking on federal land. Who could expect him to remember his promise on...
Astronauts. Ballerinas. Doctors. Firefighters. Oilfield workers? One of these things is not like the others. When children daydream about what they want to be when they grow up, oil and gas jobs rarely make the list — even in Texas, the country’s top energy-producing state. That needs to change for sake of the future of...
As Texans reel from ongoing blackouts at the worst possible time, during a nationwide cold snap that has sent temperatures plummeting to single digits, the news has left people in other states wondering: How could this happen in Texas, the nation’s energy powerhouse? But policy experts have seen this moment coming for years. The only...
The story of how Texas was brought to its knees by crippling cold weather leaving millions without power is a complex one, yet entirely predictable and avoidable. The details matter, so it is important to know the long story, but let’s start with the short version: For years, Texas’ grid operator (ERCOT) has overestimated the...
The coming inauguration of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States sets the stage for a policy agenda that openly and proudly demonizes the affordable, reliable energy resources we all rely upon. Biden’s energy plans are bad for our national security, economy, public health, and overall quality of life. But the American people’s ingenuity and creativity...
In recent years, climate change activists have increasingly turned their attention from issues like the Paris Climate Accord – which President-elect Joe Biden promises to rejoin – to corporate climate activism. A small but vocal minority of climate catastrophists is pressuring large corporations into making lofty net-zero pledges and promising to divest from fossil fuels....
With little fanfare and next to no media coverage, an obscure rule change from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) could lead to big changes for America’s electric grid. FASB’s proposed changes to federally recognized accounting standards may enable utilities to hide the upfront cost of tens of billions of dollars in bad renewable energy...
A new report projects that it could take as many as four years to recover the 22 million jobs lost at the hands of the coronavirus shutdowns, a devastating blow to too many struggling families. With the stated goal of mitigating economic damages, Congress is deep in negotiations for a new stimulus and spending package. Unfortunately for...
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission recently announced it plans to significantly increase, in some cases quadruple, setback rules limiting where oil and gas can be harvested. Though the regulatory agency claims to be championing public health and safety, its proposed setbacks are completely arbitrary and would all but kill the state’s energy industry...
When it comes to energy policy, there was a clear loser at the last presidential debate: Joe Biden. Our next president’s energy policies will shape America’s future. Biden’s vision of expensive, scarce, and government-controlled energy – energy dependent on the whims of weather, and about as reliable as Obamacare is affordable – would spell disaster...
The clock is striking midnight. The green energy movement is about to lose its gleaming white steeds and glass slipper-wearing princess and turn back into an unimpressive pumpkin. Two massive rounds of layoffs mean nearly 20,000 people will soon be out of work at the hands of climate alarmism, as Royal Dutch Shell and BP struggle to...
Last Thursday, the EPA announced the adoption of new environmental standards that will reduce overburdensome regulations on methane emissions from oil and natural gas operations. While the climate alarmists will scream that the end is near, the EPA estimates the new regulations will increase methane emissions by only a few percent over the next 5 years. And...