Stefanie Bord

I was glad to see Texas State Parks educating campers and visitors about the risks of NWS infections at Lake Corpus Christi State Park this summer. I am hoping that ranchers and farmers are aware of the outbreak and how to stop the spread, and also hopeful that the USDA is doing their part. In Texas, we should be making detection and prevention priorities while also educating the public and stakeholders about the risks and ways to avoid infection. Cases, according to the USDA, have been declining since NWS were detected, but we could have prevented their presence in the first place by following the science that had already been used in the past. We have to make sure lawmakers and decisionmakers are aware of the science already out there and used in the past.

Keywords: Detection, prevention, educating

Water and energy use from these data centers cannot be in direct competition with surrounding communities. According to NOAA, many parts of our state are in a long-term drought status. Corpus Christi was struggling with industry using their fresh water reservoirs almost to having nothing left (luckily, recent rains have brought the levels in the reservoirs up significantly!). Local residents should come first when resources they are dependent on, like water and electricity, are at stake. While data centers could bring jobs, I believe most of them are up front in the building of such facilities and then later in maintenance—not in huge numbers that support an entire town. We need to have laws that outline resource use and planning, noise reduction plans, land use regulations, and then have prospective centers outline the specific ways they believe they will give back to their neighbors and our state as a whole. We also have to make sure that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is ready to monitor these facilities and keep them in compliance.

Keywords: Communities, reservoirs, give back to their neighbors, TCEQ

A program that supports private homeowners in protecting their local waterways would include rain water collection information, education, and resources. Businesses with certain square footages of buildings should have to make rain water collection and mitigation (like rain gardens and investing in permeable surfaces for outdoor walkways) part of their building or renovation plans. We should strengthen our testing at municipal wastewater facilities and tighten some of the quality parameters of the wastewater before it enters our local watersheds, especially in areas where it will eventually enter drinking water reservoirs, like in Houston/The Woodlands/Conroe where we are moving towards using only surface water for drinking water as our area sinks from groundwater depletion.

Keywords: Rain water collection, mitigation, drinking water

Our Texas power grid has to be modernized and, especially in areas prone to hurricanes, local lines moved underground if possible. While this will cost money, as all of these investments will, we can do it over a period of time and prioritize area-by-area. We already have loads of wind and solar power in our state, but it has to be moved from the less-populated west to more populated areas. We should invest in our populated areas with solar cells on tall buildings where possible, and more efficient batteries available across the state. Some of our natural gas lines have been insulated now after Winter Storm Uri, but many of our power plants aren’t fully protected and a loophole that allows facilities to request an exemption from weatherization requirements should be rescinded. We have to make sure our Railroad Commission is checking in on our power plants, that they are winterized and working properly, to the standards in place. We absolutely cannot put all of these costs on consumers either. Electricity is an absolute necessity, as the hundreds of deaths during Uri showed, and it shouldn’t be a burden for the people of Texas to afford.

Keywords: Modernized, invest, solar cells, Winter Storm Uri, loophole, winterized, Railroad Commission, necessity, burden

The federal government needs to step back in and fill this space like they have in the past! But if they refuse, or if this court case doesn’t go the way it should, I would hope the state would be able to jump in and provide some support. We do have billions of dollars in our Rainy Day Fund, and it would take a two-thirds vote to use it in this capacity, but I would certainly see that as an excellent investment. This type of research helps find cures for diseases that cost Texans billions of dollars each year. With so many large, world-renowned healthcare centers in our state, we have to support the research going on in them. It will also save Texans money in the long-term, while also saving lives.

Keywords: Rainy Day Fund, excellent investment, cures for diseases, world-renowned healthcare centers

We must educate based on the scientific facts: vaccines prevent diseases that are painful, costly, and sometimes deadly, and vaccines are safe and effective. We don’t usually see cases of these vaccine-preventable illnesses BECAUSE of our vaccination rate, not in spite of it! We can educate on what these diseases look like in children and adults who aren’t vaccinated so that people are aware of the risks: because we had many vaccines as my generation was growing up, many people making decisions for their kids today never saw someone with Polio or the Measles, and many don’t know the risks of being infected versus the extremely small risks from vaccines for most people. Doctors’ offices are currently required to have all kinds paperwork and show images for different things; the risk of vaccine preventable diseases should be common among them.

Keywords: Vaccines are safe and effective, Polio, the Measles, extremely small risks

Scientific consensus has to be number one. And not from a small group outside of the larger scientific community. There are scientific organizations for every field that we can look to as lawmakers when we’re trying to make policy decisions that can help guide our research into specific topics. I would also look to scientific journals where peer-reviewed work can be read and evaluated. Science plays an important role in so much of our day-to-day lives, whether it’s the engineering it took to build a bridge we cross every day, or the biochemistry involved in the medicines we take, or the environmental science that studies the impact of a changing climate on our natural resources and wildlife alike; it has to be considered when we’re writing the laws that will govern our everyday lives as well.

Keywords: Scientific organizations, scientific journals, peer-reviewed work, engineering, biochemistry, environmental science