Hill Country Institute Live: Exploring Christ and Culture Hill Country Institute

Doug Lewin, President of Stoic Energy, is a nationally recognized energy expert, particularly in the electric grid, renewable energy, energy efficiency, demand response, utility regulation, and pollution reduction. He is regularly featured in local, state, and national broadcasts and publications on energy issues. In this interview, Larry and Doug talk about the electric grid in Texas - the issues we face, what happened during Winter Storm Uri in 2021 and the winter storm of December 2022; the actions, and inaction, of the Texas Legislature, the PUC-Texas, and ERCOT that impact the affordability and reliability of electricity in Texas, and how our choices on electricity generation impact air quality in Texas. 

Dr. Daniel Cohan, an atmospheric scientist and environmental engineer, is an Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering at Rice University, as well as a Rice Faculty Scholar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy. Clean air, water, and energy are important to the life and health of Texans and people around the world. Larry and Dr. Cohan discuss the health impacts of pollution, how Texas should address the issues we face with increasing numbers of ozone alert days in our major metropolitan areas as well as how we should develop and efficiently utilize clean energy to stop further pollution of our air and to build reliability for our electric grid. Dr. Cohan is the author or co-author of more than fifty peer-reviewed publications, a book on unlocking a clean energy future, and over seventy articles in popular publications such as The Hill, Houston Chronicle, and The Conversation.

Senator Perry represents District 28, which is the largest Senate District, geographically, in the State of Texas. We’ll be discussing water issues Texas is facing such as boil water notices, drought, flooding, and population growth. We'll also talk about  Senate Bill 28, which Senator Perry authored and has bipartisan support as it advances through the Texas Legislature. Due to the severity of the water crisis facing Texas, we encourage our listeners to learn about water policy in Texas and contact your elected officials to actively support a multi-billion allocation to state water resources during this session. The state has a hefty surplus this session, and it is important that lawmakers use a substantial portion of it to ensure safe and ample water supply throughout Texas.

Schuyler Wight is a fourth-generation rancher who has raised cattle near Fort Stockton for decades. Now he's fighting a battle he did not create. Scattered across his sprawling 20,000-acre ranch are more than 100 abandoned oil and gas wells left behind by oil and gas companies. Water is now bubbling up from these abandoned oil wells and is polluting Wight's pasture and killing his cows. Abandoned “dry hole” oil wells are polluting Texas farms, ranches and groundwater. The state and the oil and gas industry won’t fix them. Wildcatters drilled in random locations for decades looking for oil. Many were unsuccessful, but the drilling opened up layers of porous rock, which led to water and pollutants such as benzene and xylene, both carcinogens, flowing to the surface. Rather than cap the holes, the wildcatters and their oil companies — now long gone — often abandoned the wells or transferred ownership of unproductive wells to the previous owners of Wight’s ranch to be used as water wells. The pollution from the wells is killing cattle and ruining pastures, as well as harming the groundwater of West Texas. Texas faces many water issues including groundwater pollution, aging infrastructure, drought, flooding, and population growth. Larry discusses these and many other topics related to Texas water with Schuyler Wight.

Barry Smitherman is an attorney, consultant, private investor, author, and board member for not-for-profit and for-profit organizations. He is the only person to have served as Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Texas (PUCT) and the Texas Railroad Commission. He probably has as much knowledge of the oil and gas and the electricity business as anyone in the U.S. He is now Chairman of the Texas Geothermal Energy Alliance. Barry authored the book,  If Jesus Were an Investment Banker (or Any Other Type of Modern Businessman): Leadership Principles from the Messiah and Personal Reflections of an Investment Banker Striving to Be a Christian.
In this interview, we discuss the Texas market for electricity-the ERCOT market-and changes to that market which are under review, the issues we faced with Winter Storm Uri in 2021, the staggering potential of geothermal energy in Texas, and much more.

Join us as we consider the wisdom and experiences of a Godly man of faith, science, and scholarship. Walter Bradley has been a longtime friend to the Hill Country Institute and is a Fellow of the Institute. He partnered with us to bring Christian leaders together with differing views on faith and science in our Vibrant Dance of Faith and Science Initiative. His statesmanship made it comfortable for people to come together as fellow believers who want to study science, theology, and philosophy, but who disagree on many nuances. Listen as he shares treasured nuggets of wisdom about life in Christ and what it means to live fully for Him.