State of Texas: Governor and Attorney General announce investigations into the Texas Lottery

  

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — On Thursday, the Texas Senate unanimously voted to ban lottery courier services, as allegations of money laundering and fraud prompted investigations from the Texas Rangers and the Attorney General’s office.

Senators and investigators are primarily concerned with two drawings. The first was a $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot, where a foreign entity named Rook TX spent around $25 million to play nearly every number combination. The second was a $83.5 million Lotto Texas jackpot from Feb. 16 where the winning ticket was sold at Winners Corner.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick visited the store the following day and found it was owned and operated by the courier service Jackpocket, with 47 lottery terminals in the store. Nearly all were hidden in the back to process Jackpocket orders, prompting Patrick to say “If it’s all on the up and up, what are they afraid of showing the public?”

During a Senate State Affairs Committee hearing on Monday, Lottery.com Chief Operating Officer Greg Potts acknowledged his company played a part in the Rook TX scheme, but said they did so with the full blessing of the Texas Lottery Commission.

“We were surprised when we contacted the… Texas Lottery Commission,” Potts said. “We were very surprised that the answer was yes. We fully expected that they would laugh at us and say, ‘Well, no, of course, you can’t do this,’ so we only did after we were told that we were able to move forward under the lottery license that we had.”

Senator Paul Bettencourt, R – Houston, pressed Potts on who exactly at the Lottery Commission approved the operation.

“I believe the ask was made to the executive director,” Potts said.

“Who was by name?” Bettencourt questioned.

“Gary Grief,” Potts replied.

Bob Hall, R – Rockwall, then said “It was not clever people on the outside figuring out how to beat the system that that within our state government, this thing was hatched and implemented, a conspiracy, a criminal conspiracy inside our state government.”

Hours before Monday’s hearing, the Texas Lottery Commission issued a policy update announcing they’d start to ban courier services despite previously arguing they had no power to do so. On Thursday, Hall called the sudden change “a confession of wrongdoing.”

The Coalition of Texas Lottery Couriers (CTLC), consisting of three courier services that are regulated in other states and have not been tied to the Rook TX scandal, was also upset by the sudden change. “We believe it’s legal but obviously the commission had a change of perception,” Jackpocket Founder Peter Sullivan told lawmakers on Monday. After the Senate vote on Thursday, they had stronger thoughts.

“Responsible lottery couriers exist to securely expand access to lottery games, ensuring the ability of the state to fulfill its promises to future recipients of lottery proceeds. Responsible lottery couriers are private businesses employing hundreds of employees across the nineteen U.S. lottery jurisdictions where they currently operate, and contributing tens of millions of dollars to the states that they serve,” the CTLC said in a statement. “We are disappointed that a pro-business state like Texas would consider shutting down companies that have for years followed the guidance and instruction of the Texas Lottery and honored the trust of millions of Texas customers.”

Courier services argue Texas should regulate them instead of banning them, throwing their weight behind a bill filed by State Rep. John Bucy III, D – Austin.

“(Couriers) are a safe and secure way (to play the lottery). I just want to make sure that everyone’s playing by the rules, that we have standard rules and that we don’t throw away a program that is raising money for important Texas causes,” Bucy said. “I don’t know why we would be telling adults that they can no longer have this access. We’re a booming state when it comes to technology and advancement. When the lottery rule was written, people didn’t fathom using a smartphone to buy an app like this.”

In the last legislative session in 2023, the Texas Senate passed a very similar law with a 29-2 vote, but the bill never made it to the Texas House floor. Bucy hopes the House will take a close look at this Senate’s attempt to ban couriers.

“Just because Dan Patrick and the Texas Senate have acted, the Texas House is a deliberate body,” Bucy said. “We’re gonna work through this issue, we’re gonna be able to talk about it. I think everyone will slow down in the House instead of rushing it, and really look at the matter of ‘well, we use so much through our smartphones, why can’t we do this?'”

While the CTLC and Bucy fight for the future of courier services in the Texas House, the Texas Senate eagerly anticipates the results of three investigations into the pair of controversial drawings: an ongoing internal Lottery Commission investigation, a Governor Greg Abbott-led Texas Rangers investigation announced Monday and a Attorney General Ken Paxton-led investigation announced Wednesday. Patrick even called for the investigations to broaden their scope.

Concerned with money laundering and fraud coming from within the department, the Texas Senate is still considering giving the Lottery Commission the death penalty.

“I strongly believe that the only legislative change that would have a meaningful impact in eliminating the organized crime syndicate embed in the Texas Government is legislation that completely and permanently abolishes the lottery commission,” Hall said.

On Tuesday morning, Grief’s attorney Sam Bassett emphasized his position that the former lottery director did nothing wrong, and is planning to fully cooperate with any formal investigation.

1965 strangulation death certificate updated as bill filed to expand medical examiner access

For nearly six decades, Darlene Oostermeyer had waited for movement in the stalled case of her 13-year-old cousin’s tragic death. In 1965, Darlene was a few years older than Daynon Lewis, a shy, blonde eighth grader from Marble Falls.

“You have helped clear some confusion from 60 years,” Darlene recently told KXAN. “The fog is thinner now.”

Darlene last saw Daynon when she visited her family that summer. On a Thanksgiving trip back to the little Hill Country town northwest of Austin, she learned Daynon had mysteriously died.

Just days earlier, the girl’s lifeless body was found in a shed behind her home. She was hanging from a rafter by a jump rope tied around her neck, according to her death certificate and newspaper archives.

A local, elected justice of the peace, C.B. Wall – who had no medical background and did not order an autopsy – ruled Daynon’s death an accident and quickly closed the case.

In the description on the death certificate, Wall wrote: “I hereby certify that I held an Inquest over the Remains of Laniece Daynon Lewis and found that death was due to Strangulation, Accidental.”

He continued, indicating Daynon caused the fatal injury herself: “Child tied a rope around her neck and tied it to a rafter in a shed behind the home where they were playing and it was too tight and strangled her to death before she was found.”

“There was just no way that it was an accident,” Daynon’s classmate, Ronnie Lewis, told KXAN. “And it just led me and many others to always question it.”

Following KXAN’s investigation surrounding discrepancies in the case and others from the same timeframe, a new Burnet County justice of the peace reviewed the evidence our team uncovered and submitted a request for the Texas Department of State Health Services to amend Daynon’s death certificate.

This month, the agency released that revised document, which now officially says the manner of death “could not be determined” and clarifies Daynon “was found on her knees with a rope tied around her neck” – an update both Darlene and Ronnie felt honors her dignity.

“It just kind of resolves things a little bit just knowing she didn’t do it to herself intentionally or otherwise,” R onnie said, acknowledging the truth behind what happened to Daynon may never be fully known after so much time has passed. “When I was contacted by you, it just kind of got things more in focus again.”

Many who knew Daynon, including scores of followers on Ronnie’s blog reflecting on this case and other Marble Falls history, never believed she was responsible for her own death, instead suspecting someone else killed her.

“I think, for me personally, (the amendment) takes away the shroud of any thought of suicide,” Darlene said. “It removes it totally.”

Daynon’s case helped KXAN highlight an antiquated, 200-year-old death inquest process still used in nearly all Texas counties where around 900 justices of the peace preside and carry out an array of court-related duties.

They hold civil, criminal and traffic trials. They sign misdemeanor and search warrants, conduct truancy court and perform marriages. They oversee complaints in many areas, including parks and wildlife and the health department. They conduct bail examinations, issue emergency protective orders and hold several other magistrate hearings, including those about stolen property, driver’s license suspensions, towing, animal cruelty and even dangerous dog determinations.

When first elected, a justice must undergo 80 hours of training, plus an additional 20 for each subsequent year through live courses, webinars and other workshops on a variety of topics, including inquests – the process of investigating death. That is a responsibility for justices serving counties with no medical examiner like Burnet. Today, just 14 of Texas’ 254 counties have medical examiner offices.

That obligation comes from the portion of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure known as the “Inquest Law,” allowing justices to investigate deaths, including those that are: unattended, unnatural or unidentified; in prison or jail; caused by unlawful means; suspected suicides; and children younger than six.

As part of an inquest, justices may request an autopsy be performed by another county or private medical examiner, but that often doesn’t happen. It can be a costly order, as a KXAN comparison of county audits shows some spending as much as $4,700 on a single autopsy – which can vary depending on transport expenses and location in the state.

There is no record of why Wall chose to forgo an autopsy for Daynon. He could have asked a local doctor to perform one or even sent her body to Bexar County, which then had the closest medical examiner office a hundred miles away.

Based in San Antonio, it became the state’s first such office in 1956 following the passage of the Texas Medical Examiner Act. That measure allowed counties of more than 250,000 to change from the justice of the peace system for investigating “violent and unexpected” deaths to a medical examiner system.

Updates to state laws and the census have since increased that population threshold, now only requiring counties with 2.5 million people or more to establish a medical examiner office. Critics say the larger benchmark lets some counties avoid taking that critical step and continue relying on less-experienced justices when someone dies.

While justices do have more training in conducting inquests today – including how to best decide when an autopsy is warranted – concerns still exist surrounding the state’s system. Recent reporting has highlighted problems resulting in in unnoticed murders and suicides, flawed COVID-19 death findings and unidentified migrant remains. Academic studies have pointed out failures related to nursing home foul play and oversights with state death data.

Plus, as the state’s population increases, so does its death count. Some observers have suggested justices in some counties may be overworked and overburdened with massive caseloads, ready to relinquish the inquest part of their jobs to medical examiners completely.

Experts have long suggested more medical examiners in the state could alleviate some of those pressures and problems. After KXAN’s reporting, state lawmakers are now looking at ways to make that a reality for the future.

“For my side of the family, we appreciate your efforts and what you have uncovered and what you have done, especially toward possible new (legislation),” Darlene said. “That’s awesome. Thank you.”

According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control’s Collaborating Office for Medical Examiners and Coroners, 23 states and the District of Columbia primarily use medical examiners to conduct autopsies to investigate and certify deaths. The majority of counties in 20 states utilize elected or appointed officials called coroners, who have some training for that purpose. (Several of those states have a mixture of the two systems, and in Washington State there is no majority between the roles.)

Death investigations in six states, including Texas, fall mainly on other elected county officials, like the county attorney or sheriff. Texas is the only one to use the multi-faceted role of justice of the peace.

But new legislation introduced this month at the State Capitol could mean more medical examiners sooner. Senate Bill 1370 filed by Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, would lower the population from 2.5 million to just 1 million people – the new threshold requiring counties to establish a medical examiner office.

Today, there are only seven counties in the state with a population of a million or more, and they all already have medical examiners serving them. The Texas Demographic Center predicts at least five more counties will surpass a million people by 2060. Those include Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, which already made the decision to establish medical examiner offices before hitting any statutory requirement.

Williamson County on the north side of Austin will also hit the million mark by 2060, according to the center. After KXAN’s reporting about overworked justices doing death inquests there, the county recently purchased property for $18 million to establish a future medical examiner office, which could still be a few years from opening. In the meantime, the county also hired supplementary death investigators to help justices with inquests. They began work last month and are currently in training, according to county officials.

A handful of other Texas counties that now sit below a million people but are not predicted to meet that threshold by 2060 have proactively chosen to establish medical examiner offices – a discretion clarified in Parker’s bill.

“Under current law, counties already have the authority to establish a medical examiner’s office,” Parker told KXAN. “This bill simply removes any ambiguity and makes it abundantly clear that commissioners courts have the ability to create and maintain these offices should they choose to do so.”

The bill also solidifies the opportunity for neighboring counties – no matter their population – to share costs and resources by establishing a medical examiner district. In recent years, Parker has worked to ensure such a cost-saving, resource-sharing collaboration could continue between Denton County in his home district near Dallas and three nearby counties.

“By making this authority explicit, we are empowering counties – particularly rural and mid-sized counties – to work together and establish regional medical examiner districts. This is about giving local leaders the confidence to act on a tool they already had.”

Years ago, Tarrant County, with its own established office, launched a regional partnership with bordering Parker, Johnson and Denton counties, which each have their own satellite offices. A recent report showed Denton County paid $662,000 to take part in 2023.

“Accurate and timely death investigations are critical for public safety, criminal justice, and public health,” Parker added. “By making it clear that counties can establish medical examiner offices, we are ensuring that local communities have the tools necessary to conduct thorough investigations, provide closure for families, and uphold the integrity of our justice system.”

Parker’s bill awaits a committee assignment before receiving a hearing, but it could already have early bipartisan support this legislative session. His Democratic colleague, Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, told KXAN she is open to discussing the measure as part of a larger conversation about justices of the peace and death inquests in Texas.

“It’s frankly far cheaper to have one high-quality medical examiner’s office with the capacity to do many counties than it is for each county to have their own,” Eckhardt said, referring to the anticipated expenses a county would endure by opening its own medical examiner office.

As a former Travis County judge, Eckhardt said she is well aware of the need for forensic specialists in Texas. Travis County has a long-established medical examiner office based in Austin, contracting with dozens of other counties for autopsies statewide – sometimes the only option justices have if they want medical expertise in an inquest.

“Our JPs are really struggling,” she said. “We’ve seen way too many errors, relying on individuals who – God love them – they’re not equipped to make these calls. This is leading to unjust results in the criminal justice context.”

Eckhardt also acknowledged the U.S. is experiencing a “dearth of certified medical examiners.” The National Association of Medical Examiners told KXAN there are fewer than a thousand doctors with this specialty actively practicing nationwide.

“It’s a field that just doesn’t pay like other medical fields do,” Eckhardt said. “If you want to make six figures, you’re not going to become a forensic medical examiner.”

To carry out an autopsy, the state’s criminal code specifies the strict requirements and expectations of a medical examiner. Anyone appointed to that role must be a physician licensed by the state, and “to the greatest extent possible, the medical examiner shall be appointed from persons having training and experience in pathology, toxicology, histology and other medico-legal sciences.”

This all comes after earning college and medical school degrees, then spending additional years on various types of pathology and practical experience, supervised by others in that role. One must also pass an examination by the American Board of Pathology to become certified.

Eckhardt said, if Parker’s bill passes, staffing would be the next challenge to address – but one Texas can’t ignore.

“We continue to look at it, because we are working in the dark with regard to public health and the policy ramifications on unwarranted deaths,” she said.

As political winds shift, Austin braces for renewable energy impact

As Valerie Paxton describes it, the solar array at the La Loma Community Solar Farm is performing a sort of “magic” – the panels quietly transforming the sun’s rays into power delivered to the grid for Austin residents.

“Even on a day like today, they’re generating electricity,” she said, looking at the cloudy, gray sky.

In February, Paxton guided KXAN on a tour of the east Austin facility tucked, practically unseen behind a fence, in a residential neighborhood blocks away from an elementary school. La Loma represents just a fraction of Austin Energy’s renewable energy portfolio. 

The city-owned utility buys wind and solar energy from far-flung West Texas, the Panhandle and the South Texas coastal plains. Solar and wind combined, harnessed from 17 locations, account for 49% of the power the utility purchases. Natural gas and nuclear account for 38%, according to Austin Energy.

Austin Energy’s investment in renewables reflects – rather than diverges from – Texas’ energy market. With abundant sun, wind and space – and years of dedicated investment – Texas leads the country in renewable energy production by a long shot. 

On one mild, partly cloudy mid-February day, for example, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas’ real-time energy load chart showed wind and solar power combined were providing almost 50% of the state’s power at noon.

But the proverbial winds of change appear to be shifting – and not in a favorable direction for solar and wind.

From Washington, D.C., newly sworn-in President Donald Trump has been blunt in his disapproval of wind and solar. On day one, he took executive action to pause new leases for those energy sources on federal lands and waters citing concerns it “degrades” natural landscapes and fails to serve energy consumers.

“We’re not going to do the wind thing. Wind – big ugly windmills,” Trump said at his inauguration. “They ruin your neighborhood … If you have a house that’s near a windmill, guess what? Your house is worth less than half.”

Not everyone shares his feelings. Industry experts KXAN spoke with said renewables are relatively cheap, increase our energy independence, improve grid reliability, lower carbon emissions, and provide thousands of jobs and billions in economic impact nationwide.

But headwinds facing the industry are coming from within the state, too. More than a dozen bills have been filed at the Capitol that could impact permitting, regulation, expansion and taxation of wind and solar power, a KXAN investigation found.

One of those bills, Senate Bill 383 by Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, would prohibit connecting an offshore wind energy facility to the grid if it would “negatively impact previously established industries,” like tourism, fishing and shipping, or would violate “community values” relying on those industries.

Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, filed multiple bills targeting renewables. Patterson’s House Bill 1897 shares similarities with Middleton’s offshore wind energy regulation legislation. 

Another one of Patterson’s, House Bill 560, would require certain electric utilities or wind power generators to apply to the Federal Aviation Administration to implement light pollution mitigation technology. 

Another piece of legislation, Senate Bill 819 by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, would add permitting, fees and regulatory requirements on new solar and wind generation projects over 10 megawatts, which is enough to power roughly 2,500 homes during peak hours, according to ERCOT.

Renewable projects existing before Sept. 1, 2025, would not need to be placed under the permitting rules unless they increased power output by 5 megawatts, or “materially” changed the placement of the generation facilities, the bill states. An additional nine state senators have joined Kolkhorst as authors on the bill. All the authors are Republicans except one, Juan Hinojosa, a Democrat whose district is primarily in the Rio Grande Valley but stretches up to Corpus Christi Bay.

Kolkhorst’s bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce. If passed, it would require notice of applications and a public meeting on new projects, Public Utility Commission permitting and environmental impact reviews by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Fees would go into a “renewable energy generation facility cleanup fund.” Unless a neighbor agreed to a waiver, wind turbines would have to be at least 3,000 feet from property lines. Solar arrays would have to be set back at least 100 feet from property lines and 200 feet from habitable structures.

“Balancing private property rights, the need to increase electric generation, and the need to mitigate unreasonable impacts of renewable energy generation facilities on wildlife, water, and land in this state is in the public interest,” the bill states.

For comparison, the “statewide spacing rule” requires oil and gas wells be drilled at least 467 feet from property lines, although exceptions can be granted, according to the Texas Administrative Code.

Kolkhorst’s bill provides a look at the myriad of competing interests battling in an ongoing legislative tug-of-war over how, and to what extent, renewables should be regulated.

In an interview at the Capitol, Kolkhorst told KXAN her bill is about protecting the environment and landowners. Solar and wind are also intermittent, she said, not always “reliable” and are “causing a strain on some of our resources,” she added.

“You cannot put solar panels over thousands of acres and not think that there’s not a natural resource issue out there,” Kolkhorst said.

She pushed back and told KXAN to “tap the brakes” when asked about whether her bill would create more red tape for wind farms to operate.

“It’s not red tape,” said Kolkhorst. “It is a protection for landowners. It is the right thing to do for Texas.”

She told KXAN she supports the president’s pause on new federal wind projects saying, as a coastal lawmaker, she doesn’t want to “see them out in our bays and estuaries, these big windmills.”

“We’re number one in wind, number one in solar; I’m not sure that’s something to brag about,”

State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst

Proponents of renewable energy disagree. A trade industry executive and university professor – both experts in renewables – told KXAN the Texas grid, and customers, benefit from power that is cheaper to produce. The environment benefits from clean energy production, and landowners and local governments reap the financial rewards.

This is Kolkhorst’s second crack at the bill. She filed similar legislation in 2023 that passed the Senate but stalled in the House. Numerous people testified for and against the bill back in 2023, illustrating how regulating renewables doesn’t divide neatly along party lines.

Kolkhorst noted a rift on the issue between some environmental and conservation groups.

“A lot of times … we think the two actually mesh; environmental and conservation, they should come together,” Kolkhorst said at the 2023 hearing. “On this issue it is going to be a little different.”

Kolkhorst mentioned the Devil’s River Conservancy, a group representing interests around that remote spring-fed river widely considered the most pristine in Texas. The group has opposed a wind turbine project near the river for multiple reasons including foreign ownership and impact on the environment.

Money is also at stake, both for governments and landowners, Kolkhorst acknowledged at the 2023 hearing. She mentioned a constituent of hers received a proposition to provide 30 acres of their land for a solar project. In return, they would receive nearly $50,000 a year for the next 40 years.

“That is really good money,” Kolkhorst said. “That is mailbox money.”

Kolkhorst also noted billions of federal dollars come to Texas for renewable energy products through the Inflation Reduction Act.

She said her 2023 bill was “not meant to at all stop, because it will not stop … renewables. I do think that it is time that, with all of the billions of dollars of federal money that is moving our way, that we take a moment to make sure that we know what is going on and that our beloved Texas is not harmed.”

Jeff Clark also attended the 2023 hearing and testified against Kolkhorst’s bill. He is president of the Advanced Power Alliance, a trade group that advocates for renewable energy development and investment.

“I’m a believer in unlocking American energy,” Clark told KXAN. “And I think that you have to unlock all American energy.”

In February, Clark met with KXAN at the Helena Energy Center about 150 miles south of Austin in Bee County. About 50 miles farther south is the Karankawa wind farm by the town of Mathis, one of the places where Austin Energy gets its power.

Bee County, the location of the Helena Energy Center, is strongly conservative. Nearby, a TRUMP flag waved outside one home with the windmills visible in the distance. Trump easily won this county in November by a margin of 70-30% over Vice President Kamala Harris. In 2022, Gov. Greg Abbott won re-election by a vote of 68-31% over Beto O’Rourke.

Against that backdrop, the 18,000-acre Helena Energy Center’s towering wind turbines turn out 268 megawatts of energy, while the solar array pumps another 250 megawatts onto Texas’ grid. In total, that’s enough to power about 110,000 homes, according to Orsted, the company running the facility.

And with power comes money. The facility estimates it will inject $114 million into the local tax base to support local schools and emergency services, according to the company.

Clark led KXAN through the energy center’s solar panels and wind turbines, tracing his hand through the air as the blades arced across the sky hundreds of feet above the ground.

“A lot of the rhetoric attacking clean energy is because it works so well,” he said. “People see it as a threat. They see it as competition, rather than embracing what I believe is the ‘all-of-the above, more-of-everything’ approach.”

For years, Texas’ leadership has largely supported that “all-of-the-above” policy – a strategy not currently shared by the White House.

Over the past 20 years, as Texas solidified its place as the country’s leader in renewables, the state government has been helmed completely by conservative leadership.

“One thing we know about in Texas is energy,” former Gov. Rick Perry told a group at Texas Tech University in 2010. “Thanks to a new generation of hard-working visionaries, Texas is again leading the way on the renewable energy front.”

Perry, who served as U.S. Secretary of Energy during Trump’s first administration, championed Texas’ status as the “largest wind energy producing state” in the country by “a substantial margin.” He said forward-thinking legislation passed in 2005 had set the stage for renewable investment by setting a goal of producing over 5,880 megawatts of renewable capacity by 2015.

“Then we really set our sights high and said we were going to hit 10,000 megawatts by 2025,” Perry told the crowd in 2010.

Texas blew past that goal years ago. In 2022, Texas wind energy alone generated over 40,500 megawatts – a quarter of all U.S. wind-produced energy, according to the Texas Comptroller’s Office.

Last April, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott “touted Texas as the No. 1 state for wind-powered generation and the top state in the nation for utility-scale solar, with fossil fuel power serving as the backbone of the Texas grid,” according to a news release. In December, he proclaimed Texas as the “energy capital of the world.”

“Texas is leading the way with our all-of-the-above energy strategy, with more solar and wind jobs than any other state,” the governor boasted in a post on X. “Texas is also #1 for wind energy and #1 for solar energy.”

Clark says the bottom line is undeniable: renewables provide cheap and plentiful power. They free up natural gas for export to allies, and they inject money into local economies, he said.

“Frankly, that’s the most conservative thing you can do is produce your own energy,” he added. “Not everyone has oil and gas under their feet. But everyone has wind and sun over their heads.”

Across the way, KXAN spoke with Roy Velasquez, 75, whose backyard overlooks the white windmills dotting the landscape. When it comes to his wallet, he said he personally hasn’t seen a benefit.

“It doesn’t bother me,” he said about the view. “But they’re not helping me on anything.”

A Texas Comptroller report from 2023 highlights the economic impact. The average annual wage for wind power generation jobs was over $109,000, and the gross domestic product for wind electric power generation in 2021 was over $1.7 billion.

According to a University of Texas study published in January, the current fleet of utility-scale wind, solar and energy storage projects would generate $12.3 billion over their lifetime in new tax revenue for local communities. The study used a 30-year lifetime for wind and solar, and a half that for battery storage.

Even with tax incentives, the study notes renewable projects can provide significant revenue through taxes to counties and schools – “especially for rural counties that generally have a smaller tax base than others.”

It is not clear yet how state legislation and federal rules will affect renewable energy expansion in Texas.

Trump’s moratorium on federal land use for renewable energy expansion has less of an impact on Texas, where little land is federally owned. The Helena Energy Center, like most solar and wind farms in the state, is leased from private landowners.

In mid-February, Trump established the National Energy Dominance Council to advise him on how to “make America energy dominant,” according to the executive order. The council will recommend avenues for “cutting red tape” and eliminating “longstanding, but unnecessary, regulation.”

America has plentiful natural resources, the order points out, before it goes on to list 11 “amazing natural assets,” including a number of fossil fuels like crude oil, natural gas, coal, as well as uranium, biofuels, hydroelectric energy and minerals. There is no mention of wind or solar energy.

Speaking to a conference in London in February, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Britain’s goal to have net-zero emissions by mid-century was a “sinister” and “terrible goal,” according to Reuters and other published reports.

Wright told those listening that energy-intensive production would simply move elsewhere from the United Kingdom, and the switch to clean energy was only “impoverishing your own citizens in a delusion that this is somehow going to make the world a better place,” according to media reports.

Back in Texas, Clark said this current political climate is creating uncertainty for his industry. He remains “concerned about the immediate future” of renewable energy over the next four years.

“If America wants to remain competitive globally, it’s going to be very difficult to turn our backs on renewable energy,” Clark said.

KXAN asked Clark to respond to Trump’s criticism of his industry when it comes to dead birds and lowered property values.

“I would extend an invitation to anybody in the administration to come out and visit this project with us if they would like,” said Clark, adding that the general rhetoric attacking clean energy, including bird deaths, is overblown.

While there is a potential for a slowdown, renewable energy is far too entrenched, and the benefits too great, for it to be completely reversed, according to Brian Korgel, the director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.

“It keeps prices of electricity down for Texas consumers, helps keep the lights on,” Korgel said. “It’s great for landowners. It’s a great way for people to actually make money on energy in Texas. And it’s fundamental to the energy mix of Texas right now.”

A disincentive to do wind and solar projects could hurt the industry, Korgel said. Still, he expects renewables will “definitely continue to expand” in the state. Consumers typically care more about how much they’re paying – and how reliable the energy is – rather than where it comes from, Korgel said.

Texas is unique. It is the only state in the continental U.S. to have its own power grid, operated by ERCOT, separate from the massive Eastern and Western Interconnection grids used by the rest of the lower 48 states.

In recent years, Texas’ power grid has been strained multiple times, under sweltering summer heat and freezing winter storms, due to high demand.

In February 2021, Texas’ grid independence came under widespread scrutiny when winter storms swept through. Power generators, including gas and wind, were knocked offline. The energy crunch took Texas to the brink of a statewide grid collapse and led to forced blackouts that left over 4 million Texans without power amid frigid temperatures. The Department of State Health Services put the death toll at 246.

Since then, demand has continued to increase dramatically.

Last June, ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas laid out the energy projections for Texas to the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce. Texas would nearly double its peak demand on the ERCOT grid in about six years, he said. Peak demand is when demand for electricity is highest, for example, mid-afternoon on the hottest days of summer or the coldest days of winter.

“It’s a really significant impact,” Vegas told the committee. “We really need to think about how we are responsive to that and support the generation that needs to be developed and the transmission that needs to be developed.”

With demand increasing, renewables are “fundamental to the energy mix of Texas right now,” said Korgel. Over a quarter of Texas’ energy comes from wind now, he added.

“You can’t just take away a fourth of the grid power,” Korgel said.

Asked if wind and solar are needed to keep Texas’ grid stable, Korgel replied: “Absolutely.”

Austin Energy, one of the country’s largest publicly owned electric utilities, said renewable energy is “essential” despite the oncoming national headwind.

“Austin Energy has a long, proud history of leading Texas in renewable energy investments as part of our diverse energy portfolio,” the utility said in a statement to KXAN. “With the projected growth in local and statewide energy demand over the next decade, renewables will continue to

Families push for gun violence prevention legislation

A coalition of gun violence prevention groups rallied Thursday outside the State Capitol, hoping to push lawmakers to act on a package of bills. The groups carried t-shirts with the names of Texans who lost their lives to gun violence.

The groups called for new legislation, including expanding background checks and requiring gun owners to securely store their firearms. Similar legislation was rejected by lawmakers last session, and opposition remains high this session to laws that would restrict gun rights.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D – San Antonio, led a news conference inside the Capitol after the rally. He announced a package of bills aimed at tackling gun violence in Texas. Gutierrez was joined by survivors and families of the victims of the Uvalde and Santa Fe school shootings.

“We will continue to be up here, going and talking to everyone of these people,” Brett Cross said referencing his visits with lawmakers. I don’t care how many times we get told no, we will continue to come back,” Brett Cross said, referencing speaking to lawmakers. Cross was a parent to Uziyah Garcia, who was killed by the gunman at Robb Elementary in Uvalde.

“No matter what we say or do, we can never bring our kids back, but we can help protect other kids,” Cross added.

One bill Sen. Gutierrez proposed would raise the minimum age to 21 to buy semi-automatic rifles similar to the one used in the Uvalde school shooting. Gutierrez acknowledged that any gun legislation faces a difficult path to advance at the Texas Capitol. But he said it’s important to listen to the message the families are trying to send to lawmakers.

“This story, sadly, will happen again in some other school and some other mall and some other place in our state. I hate to say that. I hate to predict that. But while these people do nothing and continue to do nothing, it will happen again,” Gutierrez said at the news conference.

Texas lawmakers did take action last session to improve school safety. Legislation passed to require schools to have active shooter plans, mental health training for staff, and armed guards at public schools. Legislation this session aims to provide more funding for schools to meet those requirements.