Ancillary 8: Articles on Renewable Energy in Houston, Texas
In my WP3 I will be discussing and exploring the debate around the usage of renewable energy and how that will affect Houston, Texas. Houston is widely considered the Oil and Gas capital of the world and it's economy may be affected by the adoption of renewable energy.
The first article I will be using to further the debate around my topic is “Houston Ranks №1 in America in Renewable Energy Use — No, Really” from Paper City Mag, written by Charles Rotter. In the article, Rotter explains that Houston has already adopted renewable energy sources to power the city. This is important to my essay because it shows that there is a demand for renewable energy in Texas and that demand is right in the Oil and Gas capital of the world. The article also brings up Houston’s Climate Action Plan that was implemented in 2020, showing that Houston is looking to the future and willing to support the change to renewable energy. And for the other side of the debate, the article mentions that Houston’s reliance on oil and gas is largely responsible for cushioning Houston’s economy when other cities are struggling.
The second article I will be using is a Guardian Article regarding the recent power outages in Texas in February. The article, titled “US conservatives falsely blame renewables for Texas storm outages” was written by Martin Farrer and breaks down conservative’s assertion that the power outages were the fault of frozen wind turbines and other failures of renewable energy sources. The article provides multiple arguments for and against the usage of renewable energy in Texas. This article is important to my essay because it provides a recent event with a connection to my topic.
The third article I will be using in my essay is “Oil Jobs Are Big Risk, Big Pay. Green Energy Offers Stability And Passion” written by Camila Domonoske and published in NPR. The article provides multiple examples of renewable energy’s economic benefits for workers. In the article, fossil fuel and renewable energy workers are interviewed, some who have moved from working in fossil fuels to renewable energy. Those who have worked in oil talk about the boom and bust cycle that creates constant layoffs and rehiring. But the alternative argument provided is that those jobs tend to be higher paying than renewable energy.
After doing some research, I currently agree with the argument that Houston will be able to survive a shift to renewable energy. There seems to be plenty of support for the shift from politicians and independent benefactors. However, there is not enough money in renewable energy yet for renewable energy jobs to be more economically viable than oil and gas jobs.
