Testimony Before the Texas House Energy Resources Committee on House Joint Resolution 107 Regarding Protecting the Right to Engage in the Exploration For and Production of Oil, Gas, and Other Minerals
Heartland Impact
March 17, 2025
Chairman Darby and Members of the Committee:
Thank you for holding a hearing on House Joint Resolution 107, legislation proposing a constitutional amendment protecting the right to engage in the exploration for, and production and export of, oil, gas, and other minerals.
My name is Samantha Vick, and I am the Senior Manager for State Government Relations at Heartland Impact. Heartland Impact is the advocacy and outreach arm of The Heartland Institute. Both are independent, national, nonprofit organizations working to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Heartland Impact specializes in providing state lawmakers the policy and advocacy resources to advance free-market policies towards broad-based economic prosperity.
HJR 107 is a resolution that is crucial to safeguarding Texas’s energy production and ensuring affordable, and reliable sources of energy for all Texans in an era when much of the country is subject to blackouts and brownouts from pushing an eager-to-Green agenda and turning away from the various sources of energy that this resolution aims to protect.
Reliable and affordable energy is essential to our quality of life and the absence of it has the potential to endanger human health and welfare. Electricity demand is growing, yet the availability of reliable, on-demand electricity capacity is not. Energy experts warn that rolling brownouts and blackouts are already an imminent threat, and the strain is only getting worse. Indeed, in August 2023, Texas hit all-time peak energy demand recorded on the Texas grid.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, electricity demand is expected to grow by 15 percent in the next five years. This rapid growth is expected primarily due to the growth of data centers and the power demands of artificial intelligence. Enshrining the constitutional rights of Texans to engage in the exploration, production, and the export of our domestically available energy resources would only solidify Texas’s energy security as well as the energy security of the rest of the nation.
Energy prices in Texas have increased 20 percent over the last five years according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Texas ranks third in the nation for the average electricity bill, only led by Hawaii and Connecticut in costs based on the average electricity bill as of December 2024.
The weight of focusing on oil, gas, and other minerals – as this resolution does – is highlighted even further with much of the nation retiring their previously existing baseload and dispatchable energy plants in favor of solar and wind for energy production.
Proponents of green energy initiatives claim that solutions such as new solar and wind power projects can and will fill the demand gap by turning away from oil, natural gas, and coal. However, they are dangerously mistaken. Even in sunny Texas, solar power facilities provide power at 24.6 percent of solar PV capacity factors—less than 25 percent of their rated capacity according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
This means that most of the time, baseload sources of energy such as oil, natural gas, nuclear, and coal power plants will be required to keep the lights on, the air conditioners running, and critical infrastructure functioning. After all, with the absence of the sun at night, when clouds obscure the sun, or when the wind isn’t blowing, we need to fill in where the energy comes from when Texas consumers flip their light switch.
Ultimately, utilizing the domestic sources of energy Texas is blessed with and Constitutionally enshrining the right to explore and produce reliable baseload sources of energy gives Texas a substantial competitive advantage in a world where energy is becoming less and less secure. The paramount goals for energy production should be affordably and reliability for all Texans. The downstream effects of HJR 107 would absolutely aid Texas in accomplishing and maintaining those energy goals.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
