Wyoming Tops Texas As Nation’s No. 1 Net Energy Producer

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By Becky FogelAugust 1, 2017 12:37 pm

The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.

Typically, Texas is second to none. But a new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) found that Wyoming tops Texas as the No. 1 net energy supplier in the country.

How did the EIA figure out which states were top net energy suppliers?

“Just looking at total energy production and subtracting total energy consumption and seeing what the difference was,” says Allen McFarland, an EIA economist.

He says Texas ended up in second place because even though it produces the most energy in the country, it also uses the most energy.

For each state, McFarland says EIA broke down energy production into four different categories: coal, natural gas, petroleum and renewables.

“And renewables are pretty significant for Texas in terms of having more than one-quarter of the nation’s wind powered electricity generation. Overall, they’re about even in terms of production and consumption though because I would say basically all of that wind energy gets used,” he says.

Texas also makes up more than a third of crude oil production and a third of natural gas production in the United States.




A day after the special legislative session began, 18 Texas mayors signed a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott. The mayors expressed concern about the state legislature’s efforts to limit local control and asked for a sit-down with the governor.

Since then, Abbott has met with 12 of the mayors, including the mayors of Fort Worth and Dallas on Tuesday.

But as Texas Public Radio’s Ryan Poppe reports, a few mayors are still waiting on an invite.

For mayors that have been outspoken about the governor’s legislative agenda, like San Antonio’s Ron Nirenberg, well, they haven’t heard back from the governor’s office.

 “The 18 mayors have signed on to a letter to ask for a meeting together and we haven’t received a response yet in San Antonio and I know of several other cities.” Nirenberg says.

Even as the end-of-session countdown nears, Nirenberg says he would still appreciate a meeting with the governor to discuss the legislative issues that concern the City of San Antonio.

 The governor’s office has also yet to set meetings with Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.




The number of abused and neglected children sleeping in state offices and hotels dropped significantly in June, according to recent figures from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

In May, 84 kids spent at least two consecutive nights sleeping in a Child Protective Services Office or hotel. In June, that dropped to 49.

Kristene Blackstone,  the associate commissioner for Child Protective Services said Monday the agency is happy to see this number going down.

“During the past week, there have just been a few children who have spent time in CPS offices, but we’re very pleased we’ve developed some new placement resources for our kids and that seems to be working out,” Blackstone says.

CPS has kids sleep in agency offices or hotels when it can’t locate a foster care provider to place a child with.