Kelly Hancock - State Senator (R-District 9 – Tarrant County) Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, state like Texas, where we routinely here from center
point that you know, hey, we're kind of on the
edge here of what we can produce. We would really
like it. Just you know, there's a chance that we
could run out of power. Today, we don't hear that
quite as often anymore, and that's a good thing. But
maybe this piece of legislation proposed by State Senator Kelly

(00:21):
Hancock could help with that. It's a piece of legislation
to reduce electricity and energy wasteed Texas facilities. Senator Hancock joins, us, Now,
how does this work in your bill? Senator? How would
we reduce electricity and energy waste?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
But I think you've kind of started out my point
really well, is that my point? And I guess my
position in the bill is, you know, Texas has a
government ended. We were one of the largest employers in
the state. We have a number of facilities across the state.
And it's my belief that when you lead, you have
to leave by example. And so you know, as we

(00:59):
go out to constituent citizens and you know, more importantly
businesses that are driving our economy, and we ask them
to curtail in other worder to pull back your usage
of electricity, and we just have to think and you know,
what are we doing about that? How are we leading
and making sure that we're maximizing the energy efficiency across

(01:19):
the states as an employer, you know, as an entity
that owns a number of buildings across the state. And
so it's pulling the agencies together and having them look
at that and be more focused and concentrated on it.
Really leading by example before we come to you and say, hey,
we need you to you know, reduce you know, your
thermostatus on your wall or don't do your dishes, and

(01:42):
so to make sure that we're leading by example we're
maximizing that. Also there you know, there are federal funds
towards energy efficiency. Are we utilizing those properly and just
making sure as one of the largest employers in the state,
we're we're doing what we should be doing.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
But you know what, I don't mind the idea, Senator Hancock,
of you know, being more efficient of not wasting energy,
of maybe setting state thermostats at you know, seventy four
instead of seventy two for example. But you know, one
of the one of the areas that you know that
I think Peeves a lot of Texas residents is that

(02:19):
we get these notifications of potential not having enough power,
and of course our question always says, well, then why
don't we produce more power. It's great that we want
to maybe save energy, but shouldn't we also be doing
something as a state to produce more electricity for the state.
We're only going to continue to grow.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Right, exactly, and we've done that. In fact, these last
winter months when we were literally setting demand records, you know,
I track it, and we had anywhere from eight thousand,
you know, I think it's around over eighty five hundred
to eleven thousand additional megawatts available with the demand around ninety.

(03:00):
That tells you how much headroom we had this time
around with the changes the state's already made. And so
that is a market driven generation is because we let
the market do that and investors come and invest in it.
And so the changes that we made you post the
winter storm are having an effect and we are seeing
more generation command of all kinds, and you know, it

(03:23):
is a really a good sign to see when we
were setting record demands that we were also having very
large headroom additional capacity on the system because of the
work that Texas has done, you know, led by Governor
Abbott Lieutenant Governor Patrick, that the changes that we've made
have already impacted and we continue to see investment in

(03:44):
the state and new generation of all kinds.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Well, someone tells me we're going to need a whole
lot more in the not too distant future. But I
will say this, I'm very glad. You know, it does
make sense as a tax payer, does make sense to
me that the state would look for ways to to
save energy because it's by tax dollars and all of
our listeners, taxpayer dollars that are paying those energy bills
to keep those state sites up and running and to

(04:07):
keep those office buildings going.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Oh absolutely, And you know in Texas going to continue
to grow. We are the economic engine of the state.
And what that means is businesses are going to continue
to come here, which means investors into that new generation
you're talking about. In fact, you look at those stock
markets in those sector regarding energy and generation, they've done
extremely well over the last two years, and most of

(04:33):
that investment is looking at coming to Texas because as
businesses grow, as we grow, investors know that they're going
to need electricity, and so they're investing in generation. And
what we have to do as government is make sure
we don't get in their way and let the market work, all.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Right, Senator, thanks as always appreciate it. That is State
Senator Kelly Hancock at seven twenty seven