Houston's Energy Economy

Houston is the energy capital of the western world, and TX-07 is right at the center of it. The energy workers and engineering talents that power our country are not abstractions — these are the paychecks, the pensions, the small businesses, and the people that hold this district together. When Washington treats American energy as a problem or burden to be managed rather than an industry to be unleashed, the cost lands in Houston first: and on the families who watch their job security become a political bargaining chip. Alexander's first commitment in Congress is simple. Houston's energy economy (and specifically, CD7's energy economy) is not a liability to be apologized for. It is a national asset, and it will be defended and promoted like one.

That defense begins with energy exports. American energy exports — crude oil, refined products, LNG, NGLs, and petrochemicals — are a powerful economic and geopolitical tool the United States has, and Houston is the city that finances, engineers, refines, manages, and ships them. Every cargo that leaves the Gulf Coast displaces a barrel of Russian crude in Europe, a ton of Iranian fuel oil in Asia, or a coal-fired megawatt in a foreign economy. Every export deal anchors an allied country to American molecules instead of an adversary's supply. And every dollar of export revenue flows back through the same Houston companies, engineers, and trading desks that built this industry from the ground up. The job of the federal government and the U.S. Congress is not to pick which barrel goes where, which technology wins, or which buyer is worthy. It is to clear the runway and let the free market do what it has already proven it can do — make America the dominant energy supplier of the twenty-first century. To use a recent example, the Biden administration's pause on new LNG export approvals was a foolish strategic error^{11U.S. Department of Energy, "The Temporary Pause on Review of Pending Applications to Export Liquefied Natural Gas" (January 2024) — DOE announcement on January 26, 2024 of a temporary pause on review of pending applications to export LNG…} — and Representative Lizzie Fletcher's record on it tells you everything about how poorly Houston's CD-7 has been represented. In February 2024, with President Biden in the White House and the LNG export pause as official Democratic policy, she voted against H.R. 7176 — the Unlocking Our Domestic LNG Potential Act.^{22U.S. House of Representatives, Clerk of the House, Roll Call 52, 118th Congress, 2nd Session — vote on passage of H.R. 7176, the Unlocking Our Domestic LNG Potential Act, February 15, 2024. Bill passed 224-200. Representative Lizzie Flet…} Twenty-one months later, in November 2025, with a new administration in office and the pause overturned, Fletcher voted yes on H.R. 1949 — substantively the same bill from the same sponsor, doing the same thing.^{33U.S. House of Representatives, Clerk of the House, Roll Call 304, 119th Congress, 1st Session — vote on passage of H.R. 1949, the Unlocking Our Domestic LNG Potential Act of 2025, November 20, 2025. Bill passed 217-188. Representative Li…} The policy didn't change. The politics did…Houston's energy industry needs a representative who supports it when it costs something, not just when it's safe to do so. Alexander refuses to wait for the political weather to be favorable before standing up for constituents in industry that built this city.

Energy projects in America today face an absurd review gauntlet. The average federal permit now takes four to five years.^{44Council on Environmental Quality, Environmental Impact Statement Timelines (2010-2018) (June 12, 2020), Executive Office of the President — based on review of 1,276 EISs, CEQ found that "across all Federal agencies, the average (i.e., me…} Even after a permit is issued, any subsequent legal challenge takes on average another four years to resolve.^{55Breakthrough Institute, "Understanding NEPA Litigation" (2024), analysis of 387 NEPA appellate cases 2013-2022 — found that on average 4.2 years elapsed between publication of an Environmental Impact Statement or Environmental Assessment…} Agencies win roughly 80% of those legal challenges, meaning most of the delay produces no policy change at all: it's just lost time.^{66Breakthrough Institute, "Understanding NEPA Litigation" (2024) — found that federal agencies prevailed in approximately 80 percent of NEPA appellate cases reviewed over the 2013-2022 period. Independent confirmation in Institute for Prog…} Mckinsey and industry analysts estimate $100 to $140 billion in delayed investment every year as a direct result.^{77McKinsey & Company, Unlocking US federal permitting: A sustainable growth imperative (July 2025) — estimates that the four-to-five-year federal permitting timeline results in $100 billion to $140 billion in unrealized annual returns on p…} Alexander will champion permitting reform to put a clock on federal review, restore judicial deference to agency approvals,^{88Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, 605 U.S. ___ (2025) (No. 23-975, decided May 29, 2025), 8-0 decision — Supreme Court held that federal agencies are entitled to "substantial judicial deference" in NEPA rev…} and end the practice of using process as a substitute for policy. Permitting reform is not a technical issue. It is jobs policy. Faster pipelines, faster transmission lines, and faster export terminals mean more middle-class jobs in TX-07.

An honest energy strategy is all-of-the-above. Alexander will defend the oil and gas industry without flinching, but he will also push hard for the next generation of firm, reliable power: advanced nuclear, modernized natural gas, and a hardened electric grid built for the demand decade we are already living in. And with regards to financing and building our energy future and unfolding demand decade: federal energy subsidies should support American energy production, not pick winners and losers. The Inflation Reduction Act's energy tax credits were originally scored by the Joint Committee on Taxation to cost $270 billion over a decade.^{99Joint Committee on Taxation, "Estimated Budget Effects of the Revenue Provisions of Title I — Committee on Finance, of an Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to H.R. 5376, the 'Inflation Reduction Act of 2022,'" JCX-18-22 (August 9, …} By early 2024, the Congressional Budget Office had revised that estimate to roughly $870 billion through 2031^{1010Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, "IRA Energy Provisions Cost Could Double With New Emissions Rule" (February 2024), citing updated Congressional Budget Office baseline projections — energy-related provisions of the Inflation R…} — more than double the original cost — driven by looser-than-expected regulatory implementation, surging EV credit uptake, and aggressive Treasury guidance that expanded eligibility well beyond what Congress originally contemplated.^{1111The Hill, "Greater-than-expected investment in EVs, wind, solar swells cost of Inflation Reduction Act: CBO" (February 9, 2024), reporting on Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel's testimony attributing the cost increase t…} The lesson we can learn from this is straightforward: subsidies on open-ended tax-credit autopilot will always cost more than advertised. Future federal energy policy should be technology-neutral, time-limited, and judged by whether it lowers costs for American families — not by how much capital it can route to politically favored sectors.

But let's end this by going back to the basics: we can't talk about energy dominance and population growth in Houston without talking about Texas's water infrastructure — and the crisis unfolding alongside the boom. The Texas Water Development Board projects the state's population will grow by 73 percent — from 29.7 million to 51.5 million — by 2070, while existing water supplies decline by roughly 18 percent over the same period.^{1212Texas Water Development Board, 2022 State Water Plan, Chapter 4 (Future Population and Water Demand) — projects Texas population growth of 73% from 29.7 million in 2020 to 51.5 million by 2070, and existing water supply decline of approx…} The Texas Comptroller estimates the state would face a 6.9 million acre-foot annual shortage during a repeat of the drought of record,^{1313Texas Real Estate Research Center / Texas A&M, "Texas Water Planning: Preparing for Future Droughts" (January 2026), summarizing TWDB 2022 State Water Plan projections — 6.9 million acre-feet annual shortage during a drought-of-record sc…} and the most recent draft of the 2027 State Water Plan now puts the price tag of the projects needed to avoid that crisis at $174 billion.^{1414Houston Public Media, "Texas needs at least $174 billion to avoid water crisis, state says" (April 17, 2026), reporting on the draft 2027 Texas State Water Plan released by the Texas Water Development Board.} Governor Abbott has taken this seriously: he named water infrastructure an emergency legislative item in February 2025 — the first time a sitting Texas governor has done so in forty years^{1515Texas 2036, "The 'Texas-Sized' opportunity for water" (February 7, 2025) — confirms Governor Abbott's February 2, 2025 State of the State designation of water infrastructure as an emergency item and notes this was the first such designat…} — and signed a $20 billion generational water investment into law that June.^{1616Office of the Texas Governor, "Governor Abbott Signs Largest Generational Water Investment In Texas History In Lubbock" (June 18, 2025) — announces signing of Senate Bill 7 by Senator Charles Perry and Representative Cody Harris, providi…} Now Texas needs Washington to be a partner, not an obstacle. The need is not abstract: Texas's Clean Water State Revolving Fund is nine times oversubscribed,^{1717Water Environment Association of Texas, Executive Director's Corner (July 8, 2025), testimony before Texas Senate Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs Committee — in 2024, the Clean Water State Revolving Fund disbursed approximately $46…} and Houston faces billions of dollars in court-mandated wastewater system repairs that the city has limited financing tools to address on its own.^{1818Water Environment Association of Texas, Executive Director's Corner (July 8, 2025), testimony before the Texas Senate Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs Committee — documents Houston among five Texas cities currently operating under f…} Alexander will fight for federal water investment that flows flexibly to Texas — through the EPA's Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds,^{1919U.S. EPA, "Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF)" program overview, and "Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF)" program overview, Established 1987 and 1996 respectively; administered in Texas by the Texas Water Development Board.} U.S. Army Corps of Engineers civil works projects,^{2020U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District, Addicks and Barker Reservoirs Flood Control Project — Corps-operated flood control infrastructure approximately 17 miles west of downtown Houston, sited at the confluence of Buffalo Bayou…} federal hazard-mitigation grants,^{2121Federal Emergency Management Agency, hazard-mitigation grant programs including the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (Section 404 of the Stafford Act), Flood Mitigation Assistance, and successor programs to the Building Resilient Infrastr…} and HUD Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds^{2222U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program — administered in Texas by the Texas General Land Office (GLO). HUD allocated $5.676 billion to Texas for Hurricane H…} — so Harris and Fort Bend counties can build the infrastructure they need without Washington dictating how. He will support reauthorizing the State Revolving Funds at their expanded Bipartisan Infrastructure Law levels,^{2323Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-58, signed November 15, 2021) — appropriated more than $50 billion to EPA over five years (FY2022–FY2026) for drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure, inclu…} prioritizing Texas's share of Corps civil works appropriations, and the bipartisan Reforming Disaster Recovery Act now moving in the Senate,^{2424Reforming Disaster Recovery Act — included in the 119th Congress as S.Amdt. 4308 and as Division I, Title LV, Section 5505 of S. 2296, a bipartisan housing legislative package. Would authorize CDBG-DR as a standing program with a dedicat…} which would finally authorize CDBG-DR as a standing program with dedicated Treasury funding so Houston is not waiting years after the next storm for Washington to act. Energy and water are the foundations under everything else. Get them right, and Houston's growth story continues. Get them wrong, and the city we love starts to wobble. Alexander is running to get them right.