Climate Action Across the Country – Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico
This month we are looking at three south-central states: Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Each of these states is moving forward with climate action in their own way.
- Texas is interesting from a climate perspective because much of its revenue is generated from fossil fuels industries while it also experiences extreme climate-related disasters: hurricanes, wildfires, sea level rise, extreme winter weather, etc. Despite polarizing public views on climate change, there is a lot of climate action by federal agencies, academia, local governments and committed nonprofits.
- Oklahoma is a state where it is difficult to talk about “climate change” but it is fine to say “sustainability” and to talk about wind power. The state gets 35% of its energy generation from wind, which also brings jobs and economic growth to the state. A few cities and the state university system are also moving forward with climate action.
- New Mexico shows bipartisan support of businesses and community leaders to make a transition away from coal and toward a clean energy economy. And re-election of Governor Grisham in 2022 will allow her climate program, launched by Executive Order in 2019, to continue to develop.
Corinth is a city of 20,000 people located 20 miles north of Dallas. Over the last two years, local leaders in Corinth have become increasingly alarmed about the impact of changing climate conditions on their community and economy.
In an effort to help local leaders build climate resilience at an affordable cost, the Geos Institute announced its Climate Ready CommunitiesSM program at the 2017 ICMA annual conference in San Antonio, TX on Oct 22, 2017.