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Hector Uribe is a Democratic candidate for Texas Land Commissioner whose goal is to lead the General Land Office from the 20th Century hydrocarbon-based energy sources to 21st Century renewable energy sources. Uribe will vigorously battle global warming by promoting renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, while preventing any negative impact to revenue streams that flow into the Permanent School Fund.
Uribe has extensive experience in legislative and governmental advocacy having served almost a decade in the Texas Senate and 3 years in the Texas House. Equal educational opportunity, economic development, and job creation were the hallmarks of Uribe’s tenure as a senator.
He authored the bill to merge Pan American University into the UT System providing graduate programs to previously underserved college students in the Rio Grande Valley and the border, and the Texas Enterprise Zone Act designed to create new businesses and jobs in economically depressed areas. His varied committee assignments, prepared him in a broad range of areas, including the protection of our environment. He chaired the Senate’s standing sub-committee on Water as well as vice-chaired the joint subcommittee on Oil Spills and Water Pollution Abatement. He was the first modern-day sponsor of the Texas lottery, and he authored Protective Services for the Elderly.
Since leaving the senate and as a lawyer and legislative consultant, he has represented clients before the legislature and numerous state agencies. With over 37 years experience as a lawyer he has represented a variety of clients, including political subdivisions, trade associations, business enterprises and non-profit organizations. As legislative consultant to Zapata County he helped draft and managed the successful passage of legislation to protect the environment, Falcon Lake and the Rio Grande River by providing the county with ordinance and zoning authority.
Uribe has served on the four-member board of directors of the Texas Senate Hispanic Research Council. The non-profit corporation, inspired and supported by Hispanic members of the Texas Senate, sponsors a legislative-intern program designed to provide exceptional university scholars an opportunity to experience a legislative session in the office of a Texas senator.
As adjunct faculty at the University of Texas’ Center for Mexican American Studies, Uribe has taught two upper level courses, Mexican Americans and the Texas Legislature and Mexican American Legal History. The courses have drawn key legislative leaders and former legislators to participate, including Lt. Governor Bill Ratliff, former Speaker of the House of Representatives Billy Clayton, and former Chairman of the Mexican American House Caucus Pete Gallego.
Uribe, a graduate of the University of Miami, School of Law in Coral Gables Florida, continues to litigate, claims to manage a small family ranch in Zapata County, and brags that he is, at the very least, a sixth-generation Texan.
The Christmas Mountains, in the heart of the Big Bend region of Texas, were given to the state in 1991. They should have been transferred to the National Park Service (NPS) and been made part of Big Bend National Park a long time ago. However, Republican Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson has prevented that from happening, insisting that he wants to sell the Mountains to a private entity.
The foundation that gave the land to Texas wanted the Christmas Mountains to remain public. Patterson refused to transfer the Mountains to the NPS because he claimed to take issue with any entity that disallows firearms – but in reality, Patterson is just an ineffective steward of Texas’ public lands who is more interested in selling Texas off than preserving it. [Source: NPR, 10/22/07]
Congress lifted the ban on firearms in National Parks and President Obama signed the bill into law earlier this year. Because Patterson claimed his refusal to transfer the Mountains stemmed from the NPS ban on firearms, the hope was that he would finally transfer the Mountains to the National Park Service. However, instead of sticking to what he said, Patterson just moved the goal posts. He now says his problem is that hunting would not be allowed in the Mountains under Park Service control. [Source: Washington Post, 2/19/10; San Antonio Express-News, 4/9/10]
If the ban on hunting in national parks were lifted, would Patterson finally drop the act and transfer the Mountains, or just come up with another excuse?
With Hector Uribe, there are no questions about integrity. On Hector’s first day as Land Commissioner, he will transfer the Christmas Mountains to the National Park Service, so that they can be cared for responsibly and enjoyed by Texans for generations to come.
Uribe’s focus will be on protecting Texas’ rich and wild environment. He will be a responsible steward of our vast public lands – not an ideologue who keeps moving the goal posts however it suits him.
The future of Texas’ energy leadership: renewable energy
By Hector Uribe
I don’t know what’s worse, the danger of Texas losing its worldwide leadership role in energy production, or the current state leadership seemingly being okay with that.
Everybody knows that Texas has long been a worldwide energy leader. If our vast reserves of oil and gas hadn’t sealed the deal, then our “can do” spirit would have. Oil and gas production on state-owned lands has helped fund public education and keep taxes low. The economic activity generated by the energy sector has been key to fueling our economy.
But it’s no secret that on the oil and gas front, our best days are behind us. We can only rely on the wealth a non-renewable asset brings us for so long.
But it doesn’t mean we have to give up our energy sector leadership position.
Texas should be a leader on renewable energy, and we could do so forever, since we’ll never run out until the wind stops blowing and the sun stops shining.
The emerging technologies necessary to harness wind and solar power are approaching wide viability, and yet the state leadership in Austin is only now beginning to talk about it. We can do better.
We must support the entrepreneurship necessary to fully develop emerging technologies to more efficiently capture wind and solar power. We must invest in the power infrastructure to move more of this clean energy out into the open market. And we must move quickly, even as competing markets in other states are also moving.
With over 20 million acres of state-owned land, much of it on the windy Gulf coast and in windy and sunny West Texas, Texas government has “skin in the game,” so we have a big role to play. We could be an economically viable catalyst in putting private industry together with innovative research. With incentives in place encouraging the use of green power, we could become a key part of growing the market for these new products. And with the clout of our millions of acres of public lands, we could supply that emerging market.
It’s a win-win for Texans. Moving quickly into a 21st century renewable energy market would generate additional revenue produced on state lands from energy production, which in turn would help fund public education and keep taxes low. It would produce economic activity in communities across Texas, in both the manufacturing and construction sectors. It would provide jobs in some of the communities in Texas most in need of them. And transitioning away from a petrochemical economy into a renewable clean energy economy would help protect our environment.
The Texas General Land Office should aggressively take the lead on this issue – they’re charged with managing state lands and resources. But instead, they remain focused only on squeezing the very last drop of oil from our reserves.
The fact is, we have to learn to multitask – while we have a responsibility to maximize revenue on our state lands by properly managing our oil and gas leases, we must also keep one eye toward our future, which lies in our unlimited reserves of revenue-producing renewable energy sources: wind and solar.
Energy markets don’t develop themselves. We have the wind. We have the sun. What we need is the leadership.
Uribe, a former Texas state Senator, is the Democratic nominee for Texas Land Commissioner