Since 1980, Texas’ population has more than doubled to just shy of 30 million. Expectedly, Texas’ cities ranked among the fastest growing in the country over the past decade, with six of the top 15 being in Texas. Such breathtaking growth, however, can create its own challenges. Husch Blackwell’s Director of Content & Communications, Steve Renau, sits down with Robert Eckels, the former Harris County Judge and current Senior Counsel with Husch Blackwell, to explore the implications of growth and how Texas can sustain its amazing momentum.
Q: In many respects, today’s growth is a backward-looking indicator, suggesting that Texas has gotten a lot of things right in the recent past. What has enabled the Lone Star State to post such impressive growth rates over the past few decades?
A: Texas has benefited from two things primarily: the long-term implementation of pro-growth policies and the good fortune of excellent geography.
Our state has created a business climate that nurtures capital formation and investment by balancing the needs of the state with those of private business, and in the long run, maintaining that delicate balance has paid off. Businesses are moving to Texas in record numbers.
The state’s geography is also a factor. Texas is fast becoming the energy capital of the world, and it’s not just premised on oil. Obviously, we have the country’s largest petroleum-producing basin, but our geography makes Texas a leader in wind and solar energy as well. There’s also a rich variety of regions. Texas is a very large state—we have large port facilities, navigable rivers, a long international border, ample railroads and interstates, and a range of climate zones and geology. All of that leads to a pretty diversified economic base.
Q: Growth is so necessary to maintaining and improving living standards and general prosperity, but it does come at a cost. What do you see as being the major challenge Texas faces in sustaining growth?
A: Growth of the kind we have experienced places stress on existing infrastructure, while at the same time requiring investments in new infrastructure. That is a major challenge that will require thoughtfulness and cooperation. In some sense it’s not just a Texas challenge, but a national one. Engineers and commentators have been warning us for years that our stock of infrastructure assets is in dire need of attention, and that spans asset types…transportation, ports, levees, you name it. We are seeing a more intentional effort at all levels of government to address the issue, and we are also seeing a much more comprehensive understanding of how to address it, particularly in considering the full lifecycle costs of an asset. After all, building an asset is only one part of the challenge—you have to account for the operation and maintenance of the things you build. Addressing the full lifecycle of these assets is where I think we will see some really innovative partnerships between the public and private sectors in the future.
Q: Are there any projects that come to mind when thinking of how to get out in front of the growth curve?
A: The Vista Ridge water project down in San Antonio is a good example of a local government getting in front of an infrastructure challenge. That project will increase the region’s water supply by about 20 percent and diversify its sources of potable water. It’s also a great example of how the public and private sector can partner to bring an asset online relatively quickly, especially one that involves a high degree of engineering and construction expertise. It was seen as an ambitious project when it launched—in fact, it was the largest P3 project of its kind for water infrastructure—but I suspect that, a decade from now, there will be several projects that exceed it in scope.
Another project that comes to mind is the Texas Central Railway, a high-speed passenger train line between the Dallas Metroplex and Greater Houston currently under development. In a generation’s time, I fully expect the Texas Triangle to rival the Boston-New York-Washington corridor as far as size, urbanization and economic activity. It is important to consider now the implications of all that future growth, and that’s the main reason I am a huge proponent of linking Dallas and Houston via high-speed rail. I am a believer in the transformative impact such an asset would have on the entire state of Texas.
And when you consider infrastructure, particularly in Texas, you can’t help but think about energy. And not just oil and gas and green energy like wind and solar we talked about earlier, but also energy security. The recent Colonial Pipeline cyber security breach and related gas shortages from the Mid-Atlantic states all the way up the East Coast reminds us of the importance of securing our energy supply. The International Pipeline Resilience Organization (IPRO) is an organization where Husch Blackwell has been instrumental in bringing stakeholders together to develop standards and help protect Texas and America from both physical and cyber security threats to our energy supply.
Q: Perhaps a more philosophical question: can there be too much growth?
A: Philosophically speaking, I suppose the answer is yes, because any growth that isn’t sustainable will be short-lived and could actually do more harm than good, but the case for growth in Texas is strong. We have a lot of runway for future growth. Unlike Florida, many of our largest cities have no geographical constraints on growth; unlike California, we have maintained a reputation for having a business-friendly environment. By the time today’s college students are my age, I expect Texas to be the most populous state in the country with over 60 million people.
The challenge will be sustainability, and of course, infrastructure has a role to play in that as well. I don’t expect Texans will seek to trade their quality of life for more growth, so there will be ample support for the vital technologies that make growth more sustainable, things like flood control, renewable energy, broadband accessibility, and measures that safeguard clean air and water.
But make no mistake, Texas will see high levels of growth for the foreseeable future. There are long-term trends in place that will see to it.
Q: Is there an infrastructure type that will emerge over the next decade as a top priority?
A: Every type of infrastructure has its own imperatives, and we need to move quickly on a variety of types, but if I had to identify one that has not received as much attention in the past as the others, it would be broadband. It’s hard to imagine today the array of devices and networks that will be in constant communication in the "smart" cities of tomorrow. The backbone for that is broadband; without state-of-the-art data networks, we will fall behind and will be unable to tap into the technological advances that are currently under development that will impact everything from mass transit to garbage collection.