Moving Toward a Greener Texas

AUSTIN, TX—Mention the word "Texas" and what might come to mind are cowboys, wideopen spaces, dry heat...and oil derricks. Texas is known for bringing oil up from the ground—but experts point out that Texas also has a focus on sustainability initiatives and, to an extent, alternative fuels.

Austin is at the forefront of a sustainable vision for the Lone Star State; in 2007, the city's controversial mayor Will Wynn oversaw passage of a resolution dubbed the Energy Conservation and Disclosure Ordinance. This outlined sustainability mandates for everything from homebuilding to energy use in commercial real estate to use of alternative fuels. The goal is a 35% use of renewable energy by 2020.

John Sutton, BOMA Austin's Energy Sustainability Committee chairman, says that even before these issues were formalized through a municipal ordinance, conservation was on everyone's mind. "Before it became popular, we had groups intent on protecting the Edwards Aquifer," he says.

San Antonio, directly south of Austin, also wrestles with water conservation. The Alamo City, too, draws from the Edwards Aquifer here, and like its other large-city neighbors, has struggled through the recent epic drought. The city has drastically cut its water supply, relying on recycled wastewater to refill the San Antonio River and water public plants and golf courses. Houston, meanwhile, is a partner of the Clinton Climate Initiative and, in 2008, was the first US city to retrofit municipal buildings to reduce energy and water consumption.

Then there are alternative fuels. Anyone driving Interstate 20 from the Dallas-Fort Worth area to El Paso might note the huge wind turbines in West Texas, twirling lazily in the hot sun. "What many people don't know is that Texas is the number-one state for wind energy in the country," says David Ronn, a partner and environmental expert with the law firm of McGuireWoods in Houston. Nor is wind the only sustainable fuel being examined. "Texas, besides being a great place to live, is also hot," Ronn says. "It's a good spot for solar power."

However Jonathan Wilson, manager of client development with Summit Energy Services Inc.'s Houston office, points out that while a lot of cities and municipalities in Texas like the idea of alternative fuels, the abundance of shale gas and other fossil fuels, not to mention the infrastructure in place to transport them, puts a damper on a stampede to wind and solar power. Furthermore, getting all that wind and solar power to the places that can use it can be a real challenge. "We have a lot of capacity, but until the transmission lines are built to transport that power, it's wasted," Sutton acknowledges.