Looking Internationally May Be the Key to Houston’s Future with Renewable Energy
In Houston, Texas, the world’s energy capital, there is a fear from those connected to the oil and natural gas industry that the decreased use of fossil fuels due to climate change could result in an economic crash. This feared economic crash in Houston would lead to a loss of many jobs throughout the Houston area. However, the reality is that the larger threat to those 250,000 jobs in Houston’s energy industry, predominantly oil and gas, is international competition from organizations like OPEC, which has flooded the market with oil, significantly decreasing the price of oil. Every time this happens in Houston, revenues decrease significantly and layoffs ensue. There will absolutely be some work in the oil and natural gas industry for the foreseeable future, but in order to diversify Houston’s economy and make the city future-proof, the energy sector should focus its workforce on renewable energy. But this can not be expected to happen overnight, as workers need to be retrained or hired to positions in renewable energy that are similar to their current jobs in oil and natural gas, and a large-scale transition to renewables may not be feasible in the first place.
In order to conduct this transition smoothly, it would be productive to turn to other countries that have embraced renewable energy. By examining other countries’ methods of transitioning to renewable energy, we can find out what works and what doesn’t and create the most effective method for transitioning Houston’s economy and workers. For Houston, it would be very effective to review Iceland’s transition to nearly 100% of its electricity coming from renewable energy. The majority of Iceland’s energy consumption was from imported fossil fuels up until the early 1970s when, like Houston, the country experienced fluctuating oil prices. The country turned to renewables as a more stable energy source. Through incentives created by the government of Iceland and developments in renewable energies by people living in Iceland, the country was able to transition a significant amount of its energy generation to geothermal and hydroelectric.
Of course, the circumstances are different between Iceland and Houston. Houston does not have the kind of access to geothermal energy that Iceland does, but Houston is in a prime spot in the United States for renewable energy generation. Houston is located near large open patches of land that are ideal for wind energy generation and is not far from the Gulf of Mexico, which has the potential to be used for hydroelectric and wind power. Further examinations of the exact policies that Iceland enacted could reveal how Houston can direct the energy sector to transition effectively and create a more stable economy.
