Pulling out of the Paris accord is bad for the planet, and bad for Texas

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Dallas Morning News Editorial

Soon after the president announced last week that he was pulling America out of the Paris climate accord, Texas leaders in Washington and in Austin began a dismal and dishonest chorus of hyped-up hosannas. 

Sen. Ted Cruz called the decision "great news for the Texas economy." Sen. John Cornyn, who has long agreed humans are contributing to climate change, said President Donald Trump was finally removing the impediments to Texas' energy industry that his predecessor imposed. Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian used the decision to cast doubt on the science behind climate change.

What nonsense. What dangerous and disingenuous nonsense.

Conservatives and liberals alike ought to recoil at Trump's decision. We certainly have.

The move will retard international efforts to reduce carbon emissions, of course, given that the U.S. is both the world's largest economy and its second-largest carbon polluter. But in the short term, the decision is also a giant missed opportunity for Texas and its economy.

Texas is home to many of the world's largest and most deep-pocketed energy firms, and to thousands of scientists, engineers and others already deeply embedded in the science and practice of energy innovation. It has six times as many petroleum engineers, to cite one example, as any other state. If the world is going to engineer a future where its use of energy won't imperil the planet, why wouldn't that work be done in Texas?

This is the state, after all, where fracking technology helped spur a giant push away from coal and toward cleaner-burning natural gas.

That's precisely why the Paris accord had played so strongly to Texas' strengths. It's why so many voices — from Exxon Mobil, to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, to SpaceX founder Elon Musk — had urged Trump to remain in the agreement.

Texas' energy industry — from oil to gas to wind power — thrived under the Obama administration, despite an increasingly aggressive Environmental Protection Agency that put carbon emissions in its sights. When it began to slow a few years ago, the trouble stemmed from a global glut of oil and falling prices, not climate policy.

It thrived even as it began to diversify.

Texas' embrace of wind power has been especially noteworthy, triggering a 50 percent increase in electricity produced by renewable fuels from 2014 to 2016. Even giant oil companies are shifting their inventories more heavily toward natural gas, realizing that pressure to reduce emissions is only going to grow as climate change occurs.

These changes have had a profound impact. True, Texas remains by far the nation's biggest carbon polluter. But our carbon emissions are now less than they were in 1997, a remarkable achievement given how much Texas has grown since then.

The Paris accord had kept the nation's focus on continued innovation. Pulling out is nothing to celebrate.

Why Texas is poised to benefit from climate efforts

  • Texas leads the nation in production of oil, natural gas and wind power. 
  • It produces the most, and uses the most, electricity in the nation. 
  • It is by far the largest carbon polluter in the country, mostly because it uses more coal than any other state. 
  • But its reliance on coal is falling. In 2015, coal accounted for just one-fourth of the electricity produced in Texas, down from its more typical one-third. 
  • Texas has more energy infrastructure and know-how than any other state.  

    SOURCES: U.S. Department of Energy; Bureau of Labor Statistics