Thursday, December 1, 2022

UH Energy and the UH Center for Carbon Management in Energy (CCME) hosted a day-long symposium to discuss pathways and solutions to make Texas carbon neutral by 2050. The symposium was a culmination of a multidisciplinary University of Houston research initiative that aims to meet three concurrent objectives a) ensuring affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy for all, b) preserving and improving the quality of life for Texans as demographics rapidly change, and c) maintaining and strengthening the state’s global leadership in the energy industry. UH experts and our energy industry partners served as panelists to discuss the drivers, opportunities, and challenges for change, quantifying cogent and plausible pathways for carbon neutrality in Texas, cradle-to-grave lifecycle analyses and techno-economic analyses of proposed solutions, and understanding the associated carbon, socioeconomic, environmental, and equity impacts across five focus areas:

• Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage
• Electric Grid
• Transportation
• Financial Incentives
• Workforce Development

Features

CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage)

Symposium Moderator

Dr. Christine Ehlig-Economides is Professor and Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair at the University of Houston. Prior to her current position, Ehlig-Economides taught at Texas A&M University for ten years and worked twenty years for Schlumberger.

While at A&M, she managed research in production and reservoir engineering in conventional and shale reservoirs and helped the petroleum engineering department to grow and evolve to a broader energy scope.

Ehlig-Economides was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2003 and was a member of the National Academy of Science Committee on America’s Energy Future and the NRC Board on Energy and Environmental Systems (BEES). She chaired The Academies of Medicine, Engineering, and Science in Texas (TAMEST) shale task force in 2017. She currently is a Board member for QRI. She became an Honorary Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers in 2018.

Ehlig-Economides earned a Bachelor of Arts in Math-Science from Rice University, a Master of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. in petroleum engineering from Stanford University.

Symposium Speakers

Electric Grid

Symposium Moderator

Gina S. Warren is the A.L. O’Quinn Chair in Environmental Studies and co-director of the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Center. Prior to joining the Law Center in 2016, she taught at Texas A&M University School of Law (2011-2016) and Duquesne University School of Law (2010-2011). Warren also taught internationally at the University of Cologne in Cologne, Germany (2011) and in coordination with the University of Guanajuato in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (2015).

At the Law Center she serves a faculty mentor to 1L students and is involved in the Law Center’s Pipeline program. Warren was voted the Student Bar Association Professor of the Year in 2018 and nominated as faculty graduation speaker by the class of 2020. Her teaching and scholarship focuses on the nexus between the environment, property, social justice, and energy.

Her scholarship has appeared in top 20 law review journals, books, and peer-reviewed journals. She is an internationally-recognized scholar with publications in prominent journals such as the Boston University Law Review, the Maryland Law Review, the Missouri Law Review, the Nebraska Law Review, the Idaho Law Review (peer reviewed), theUniversity of Cologne (Germany) Business Law Journal, and the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law. Warren’s research has also been cited by the Colorado Supreme Court and showcased by the Washington Post, among others.

Warren authored a book chapter on U.S.-Mexico relations in energy and the environment, and her scholarship has been excerpted in prominent energy and renewable energy textbooks. She is the past chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Natural Resources and Energy Law, is a member of the Environmental Law, Property Law, and Women’s Law sections, and has served for the last several years on the sections’ sub-committees.

Professor Warren has also served on many other committees and boards in her career, including being the law school representative for the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, and an advisory board member for the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators. She is currently the chair of academic outreach for the Institute for Energy Law.

Professor Warren was in private practice for several years prior to entering academia. She worked as a litigator in land use, environment, and utility law for the international law firm of Perkins Coie based in Seattle, Washington as well as a litigator in a prominent regional firm Post & Schell based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Professor Warren also completed a clerkship for the Honorable Michael Winkelstein of the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey. She is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Washington.

Transportation

Financial Incentives

Workforce Development

Keynote

Corbin J. Robertson, Jr. is the chairman and CEO of Natural Resource Partners, a master limited partnership that is principally engaged in the business of owning and managing mineral reserve properties . Robertson currently serves on the board of directors for Great Northern Properties, Quintana Minerals Corporation, Quintana Exploration Corporation, Natural Resource Partners, and Western Pocahontas Corporation.

Robertson serves on the board of directors for the American Petroleum Institute and the Texas Oil and Gas Association. He is chairman of the board of the Cullen Trust for Higher Education, and serves on the board of trustees for the Kincaid School. He serves on the University of Houston Energy Advisory Board, The University of Texas Executive Council Advisory Board, the University of Texas Development Board, and the National Petroleum Council. Robertson founded the Corbin J. Robertson Society at the University of Houston.

Robertson earned his bachelor's of business administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

• Netzero Keynote Slides