Russell Gold
- Executive Vice President, Strategic Communications, T1 Energy Inc.
Austin
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Rhymes w/ hustle. Slinging words @T1_Energy. Former journalist @TexasMonthly @WSJ. Author russellgold.net/about, flanuer.
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Articles by Russell Gold
Look What You Made Me Do
Abstract We have understood for centuries that crime is both the product of social forces and individual choice. We know now that crime is affected by economic deprivation, addiction, trauma, and mental health issues. But American criminal legal processes hide this reality by coercing defendants into expressing a profoundly simple narrative: crime is solely individual choice to do wrong.
He Predicted the 2008 Housing Market Crash. Now He’s Betting Big on Nature.
We’re standing atop one of the highest hills in Henderson County, but Kyle Bass wants to climb higher still. Be careful, he warns me as we begin our ascent of a fire lookout tower built in the forties. “It’s janky.” Other words that come to mind are “dilapidated” and “dangerous.” I grab hold of the ladder, and it moves a couple of inches, the nuts meant to bind it to the tower’s metal frame having loosened.
Could the Sun Set on the Texas Renewable Energy Boom?
Meteorologically speaking, it was a bad day for renewable energy. A dense fog enshrouded downtown Austin so completely that the Capitol wasn’t visible from two blocks away. Wind was nonexistent. My expectations were low as I took a short walk to the remote operations center of the second-largest wind-and-solar power producer in the state. But Texas, you may have heard, is big.
The World’s Second-Longest Conveyor Belt Is Rolling in West Texas
I rapped my knuckles on the galvanized aluminum exterior to make sure it wasn’t some sort of desert mirage. It was solid: $400 million worth of concrete, electronics, and steel assembled to rotate a thick rubber belt along roughly 66,000 metal rollers. Something on the order of 13 million tons of sand can be carried the entire length of the machine—42 miles—each year.
The World’s Second-Longest Conveyor Belt Will Soon Start Rolling in West Texas
22 hours ago Victims in North Lubbock murder-suicide identified by police LUBBOCK, Texas — The Lubbock Police Department on Wednesday identified the victims involved in a murder-suicide that happened in the 700 block of … 1 day ago El Paso man faces multiple deceptive business practice charges EL PASO, Texas — A 41-year-old man from West El Paso has been arrested on several counts of deceptive business practices and unauthorized use of a … 3 hours ago Smith: Shelters on the Border It’s early...
Texas Boasts Not One but Two Stonehenge Replicas
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How a Texas Oilman and a Saudi Minister May Have Cost You More at the Gas Pump
The oilman who brought the Permian Basin back from the dead was eating a Chick-fil-A salad and feeling persecuted. There were countless things Scott Sheffield would rather have been doing than lunching with his lawyer. Like playing tennis, or teaching one of his eleven grandchildren to fly-fish at his New Mexico ranch. Or attending a meeting of the Exxon board of directors, using the wisdom he’d collected over four decades as a chief executive to help guide the energy giant.
How a Texas Oilman and a Saudi Minister May Have Cost You More at the Gas Pump
4 hours ago Trump’s blizzard of orders gets pushback, questions from GOP lawmakers President Trump’s blizzard of executive orders during the first few days of his presidency has sent Republican lawmakers scrambling to make sense of … 5 hours ago 3 High-Quality Dividend Stocks I Just Bought in My Retirement Account I've been loading my retirement portfolio with high-quality dividend-paying stocks.
Oui-Haw! Let’s Frenchify the Texas Economy
Governor Greg Abbott recently made a bold prediction about how Texas stands to benefit once the Trump administration takes power next week—and presumably begins cutting regulations left and right. While Paris, Texas, might not overtake Paris, France, as a global metropolis anytime soon, the Lone Star State, he said, would soon surpass France as the world’s seventh-largest economy. We’ve got more than a little work to do to make that a reality.
What Energy Secretary Chris Wright Would Mean for Texas
If an airplane hadn’t skidded off the runway at the old Sloulin Field International Airport in Williston, North Dakota, I wouldn’t have stumbled on Liberty Resources’ innovative drilling approach. And I wouldn’t have found myself on the phone with Liberty’s chief executive, Chris Wright, whom Donald Trump has nominated for secretary of energy. The minor aviation mishap shut down the airport, diverting my flight from Houston to Minot, two hours to the east of Williston.
New Hope to Combat Climate Change-From an Oil Giant?
I am standing atop an eighty-foot-tall synthetic lung made of metal and plastic. In its scale and ambition, it’s unlike anything else in Texas, or the Western Hemisphere, for that matter. Its existence leads me to feel something rare in the world of energy and climate: optimism. The machine is a key component of Occidental Petroleum’s nearly complete $1.3 billion direct air capture facility called Stratos.
State Senator Phil King Aided a Utility He Was Doing Business With
Earlier this year, state senator Phil King took the unusual step of wading into a fight between Oncor, the company that owns and operates the electrical wires throughout much of North and West Texas, and its customers—among them some of his constituents. Oncor had asked the Public Utility Commission of Texas, in June 2023, for permission to charge its ratepayers higher fees to make up for $153 million in costs it had incurred for repairs and expansion of its local wires.
A New Trump Ad Cites My Texas Monthly Reporting-And Distorts It
I awoke last Friday to learn that I had been conscripted into the fracking wars. It wasn’t my choice, and it wasn’t the first time. Earlier in the week, Donald Trump’s presidential campaign had released a thirty-second ad in Pennsylvania, which is the second-largest natural gas–producing U.S. state (behind Texas, of course). The gist was that his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, would ban fracking all together if she’s elected.
The Lone Star Lithium Boom
A lungful of hydrogen sulfide nearly killed John Burba a few months into his first job in the West Texas oil patch. He’d grown up in the region, where his dad worked for Gulf Oil as a drilling superintendent. The encounter with the toxic gas left him with headaches for the better part of a year.
Houston’s Geothermal Energy Sector Is Hot-and Steamy
Earlier this week, tech giant Meta—the parent company of Facebook and Instagram—unveiled plans to buy a lot of electricity from an innovative power plant to be built by geothermal energy start-up Sage Geosystems. The location of the new-fangled facility remains sketchy. Somewhere east of the Rockies was all the companies said. But there’s another, even more important, location worth noting: Sage Geosystems is based in northern Houston, not far from Greenspoint Mall.
Houston’s Geothermal Energy Sector Is Hot—and Steamy - Dfwliving.com
Earlier this week, tech giant Meta—the parent company of Facebook and Instagram—unveiled plans to buy a lot of electricity from an innovative power plant to be built by geothermal energy start-up Sage Geosystems. The location of the new-fangled facility remains sketchy. Somewhere east of the Rockies was all the companies said.But there’s another, even more important, location worth noting: Sage Geosystems is based in northern Houston, not far from Greenspoint Mall.
Critics Say CenterPoint CEO’s “Relationship” Influenced $818M Deal
Did a relationship that began a decade ago between a chief executive of a Fortune 500 company and a recent college graduate lead to a controversial $818 million deal that Houston-area residents could be paying off for years?
Why Are Permian Basin Frackers Using as Much Fresh Water as Dallas?
As Texas’s population booms and the state grows hotter and drier, it’s more important than ever to understand: Who’s wasting our water? Without water, there’s no fracking. Without fracking, there’s no twenty-first-century Texas oil boom. Water’s role is evident in the full name of the process—hydraulic fracturing. Drillers pump water, laced with sand and chemicals, deep into the ground to crack open the ancient rocks of the Permian Basin, releasing trapped fossil fuels from their primordial prison.
Our Electrical Lines and Poles Couldn’t Withstand Beryl. So What’s Going to Happen When We’re Hit by a Bigger Storm?
Earlier this year, a decayed utility pole toppled amid high winds in the Panhandle, dropping power lines into dry brush and sparking the largest wildfire in state history. The Smokehouse Creek fire burned more than one million acres and killed two Texans. Then, earlier this month, Hurricane Beryl brought relatively weak hurricane-force winds to the Houston area, wreaking havoc with trees and utility poles. More than two million households lost power.
Parasites Were Killing Bobwhite Quail. Texas Hunters Helped Create a Drug to Save Them.
WHO: A Texas Tech professor and an organization of Dallas-area hunters. WHAT: An FDA-approved medicated feed for wild quails that eradicates parasitic worms. WHY IT’S SO GREAT: The northern bobwhite quail, a game bird once ubiquitous across much of Texas, is struggling. Its population in the Rolling Plains region, which stretches from just east of Lubbock to slightly north of Abilene, is significantly below historic levels.
Parasites Were Killing Bobwhite Quail. Texas Hunters Helped Create a Drug to Save Them.
Parasites Were Killing Bobwhite Quail. Texas Hunters Helped Create a Drug to Save Them. WHO: A Texas Tech professor and an organization of Dallas-area hunters.WHAT: An FDA-approved medicated feed for wild quails that eradicates parasitic …
Which City in Texas Has the Worst Drivers?
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So many cities; so many rivalries. Houstonians seem to view Dallas with contempt, while Dallasites claim not to think about Houston at all. Most San Antonians could happily live the rest of their lives without hearing anything else about Austin. West Texans would like folks along the Interstate 35 corridor to remember that they exist.
By Ben Rowen, Sandi Villarreal Verified, Allegra Hobbs Verified, dan solomon Verified, Michael Hardy Verified, Russell Gold
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Texas Monthly
Verified
Texas Has Basically Legalized Marijuana. We Have the Proof.
The first thing I notice on entering the store is the smell. It is an earthy sandalwood mixed with some type of citrus, perhaps sour lemon. It tells me I am in the right place, because I am here to buy cannabis. On my left sits a smoking lounge with four booths facing large windows that look out on an upscale South Austin shopping center. To my right, behind a glass window, is a demonstration grow room—more for show than large-scale cultivation.
When Is a Pipeline in the Public Interest?
Yolanda Carmona’s job is to market Van Horn to the rest of the world. It comes naturally to her. She grew up visiting family in the small West Texas town, a stop on Interstate 10 between Fort Stockton and El Paso that most travelers know, if they know it at all, as a place to fill your car with gas and your stomach with good Mexican food. She takes pride in—and feels protective of—the hamlet and the surrounding stretch of desert where her family has been raising cattle for a century.
Iowa Is Cleaning Up Its Massive Pile of Wind Turbine Blades. Why Can’t Texas?
The Sweetwater Cemetery welcomed its first permanent resident, an infant, in 1880. That was four years before the incorporation of the city, about forty miles west of Abilene, where the short-grass prairie that sweeps down from Canada peters out. Today the graveyard houses the final resting spots of many pioneers, immigrants, and Civil War veterans, according to a historical plaque on its gate. Across the street sits another graveyard, of sorts.
Permian Producers Will Pay You to Haul Their Natural Gas Away
Imagine a sign by the egg case at your local H-E-B: “Take a dozen home. Please. We’ll pay you $4 per carton. No limit per customer.” Sound outlandish? Maybe, but this is essentially what has happened with natural gas in West Texas in recent days. Last weekend, the price for gas at the Waha Hub, a major pipeline junction near Fort Stockton, was -$3 per thousand cubic feet. That’s negative three dollars. If you sent gas to Waha, you had to pay someone to take it off your hands.
Why Natural Springs Are the State's New Hot Spots Again
The air had turned frigid thanks to an arctic front that had muscled its way down to San Antonio, but steaming hot water beckoned. My wife and I carefully climbed three icy wooden steps and then immersed ourselves in an outdoor cedar tub big enough for two. Submerged up to our necks, we spent the next hour soaking while we sipped wine and nibbled on charcuterie. The tub was filled with water from an underground reservoir that has been soothing Texans for 135 years.
A Deposed Texas Republican’s Lament About Slander and Corruption
State representative Glenn Rogers wants to confiscate your firearms and create a registry of firearm owners. So said the large, red-type message on a glossy mailer sent to voters’ homes in his rural North Texas district in late February. On the leaflets, Rogers’s head is clumsily pasted, via a photo editing tool, onto the body of a man in a suit carrying a leather bag full of assault rifles.
Crypto Miners Sue to Keep Us in the Dark
Lawyers for Texas cryptocurrency miners will appear in a Waco courtroom today with a request: Please don’t let everyone know how much electricity we use. “Mining” is a misleading term. There’s no drilling into rock involved. Crypto miners dedicate thousands of computers to solving math problems of increasing complexity in order to reap Bitcoin—or some other virtual currency—as their reward.
The Billionaire Bully Who Wants To Turn Texas Into a Christian Theocracy
The Billionaire Bully Who Wants To Turn Texas Into a Christian Theocracy Published February 19, 2024 Tim Dunn was fascinated by bees. When he was a teenager, he spent hours studying a colony near his home, learning how it functioned. Each bee knew its role and embraced its work. Scouts found pollen. Guards prevented unwelcome outsiders from entering the hive. He even discovered that the larger drones didn’t sting, creating an opportunity for amusement.
The Oil Industry Keeps Getting Younger
Permian Basin oil grows older and older every day—300 million years and counting. But the Texans aiming to pull that liquid gold up out of the ground? Their ages are headed the other way. Earlier this week, Midland-based Diamondback Energy announced it would acquire rival Endeavor Energy Partners for $26 billion, creating a West Texas colossus. Autry Stephens, age 85, built Endeavor from a single well starting 45 years ago.
The Billionaire Bully Who Wants to Turn Texas Into a Christian Theocracy
Tim Dunn was fascinated by bees. When he was a teenager, he spent hours studying a colony near his home, learning how it functioned. Each bee knew its role and embraced its work. Scouts found pollen. Guards prevented unwelcome outsiders from entering the hive. He even discovered that the larger drones didn’t sting, creating an opportunity for amusement. “I’d tie a piece of thread on them and walk them like a dog,” he said in a folksy West Texas accent.
Farewell to One of the Fathers of Fracking
I first encountered Claude Cooke on the internet, when he and his wife, Joyce, briefly became viral sensations. In a YouTube clip viewed more than three million times since it was posted, in 2007, they dance down a suburban Houston street to a rap song while their canary-yellow car slowly glides—driverless—between them. “Ghost Ridin’ Grandma” would have been a classic of its genre, if there were a genre of such videos. Cooke was 77 years old at the time and danced with youthful enthusiasm.
This North Texas Cannabis Farmer Gets By on His Own Supply
Working Lifeis a monthly column in which Texans talk about their jobs. Eddie Velez, who is 44, legally grows hemp in North Texas and sells CBD products through his Dallas store, Oak Cliff Cultivators. Cannabis has always been part of my life. When I was growing up, my dad was a dealer. He was distributing marijuana, and that’s how we paid the bills. He got put into prison for all that type of stuff, and it kind of destroyed my family. My parents got divorced.
Oxy Deal Could Yield Billions for Tim Dunn’s Political Efforts
Update, December 11: Occidental Petroleum said it has finalized a deal to acquire CrownRock for $10.8 billion, plus take on $1.2 billion of the Midland company’s debt. In a statement issued by Occidental, Tim Dunn said “Occidental’s purchase of CrownRock is a multi-win proposition for CrownRock, our employees and customers, and our community.” Tim Dunn contains multitudes.
The Year the Texas Legislature Changed The Energy Game Forever
Editors’ note: As part of Texas Monthly’s fiftieth anniversary year, we’re offering, each month, a fresh perspective on an important episode from the past half century. If you lived in Houston in 1999, Reliant Energy called the shots. The company owned the power plants that generated your electricity, controlled the wires that delivered the electricity, and billed you for every watt of electricity you used. If you didn’t like that setup, too bad.
Thousands of Old Wind Turbine Blades Pile Up in West Texas – ‘Out-of-state company has made their town a dump’ for discarded wind turbine blades
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/sweetwater-wind-turbine-blades-dump/ Every year since 1958, the West Texas town of Sweetwater has hosted the World’s Largest Rattlesnake Roundup, which is exactly what it sounds like. Thousands of the venomous ophidians are rooted out of their dens and brought to the Nolan County Coliseum to be gawked at, “milked,” and often beheaded and skinned. It started as a way for the region to rid itself of some of its least-welcome residents.
My Brief Career as a Paid Pro-Paxton Propagandist
Do you support Ken Paxton, the embattled and impeached Texas attorney general? Would you champion him online for, say, $50? That’s not just a theoretical question. Before the start of his impeachment trial this week, pro-Paxton political forces were paying for influencers to post on social media in support of the state’s top legal authority, who faces sixteen counts ranging from dereliction of official duty to bribery and conspiracy. How do I know this?
Hundreds of Abandoned Oil Wells Are Rotting Away in Texas Bays
Under overcast skies, a four-seat propeller plane took off from an airstrip south of Houston for a routine patrol of the area’s waterways. Its crew, two volunteers with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, flew low along Buffalo Bayou until they neared downtown. After executing a tight U-turn in their Cessna Skylane, they cut back east, passing north of Baytown, headed for Trinity Bay.
Thousands of old wind turbine blades pile up in west Texas
Every year since 1958, the West Texas town of Sweetwater has hosted the World’s Largest Rattlesnake Roundup, which is exactly what it sounds like. Thousands of the venomous ophidians are rooted out of their dens and brought to the Nolan County Coliseum to be gawked at, “milked,” and often beheaded and skinned. It started as a way for the region to rid itself of some of its least-welcome residents.
Trump’s Digital Guru Is Back, This Time With a Powerful New Texas Ally
Like the apex salesman he is, Brad Parscale is pitching me his new company—which is really his old company, but more on that in a moment. He’s explaining how he intends to use artificial intelligence to supercharge advertising. All kinds of advertising.
Thousands of Old Wind Turbine Blades Pile Up in West Texas
Update, September 25: General Electric filed a lawsuit last week claiming that Global Fiberglass Solutions has failed to fulfill its promise to recycle thousands of blades. GE says it paid the company $16.9 million to recycle about five thousand wind turbine blades, but that GFS instead stockpiled them at facilities in Sweetwater and Iowa.
Trump’s special treatment in the courts highlights failings in our legal system Original
Skip to content Donald Trump and his organization have been sued repeatedly throughout his career. In 2023, the former president has been charged with several crimes of a very different sort. One might think that someone who risks spending decades in prison should get more protection from the courts than someone who risks having to pay money, but the opposite is true for most defendants.
An Oil Executive Wants to Dam a Cherished Texas River
In the midst of record-smashing heat and drought, residents in the Hill Country are battling over who gets to control the flow of a body of water that is running near a . On one side of the fight stands Greg Garland, a wealthy oil executive and donor to Governor Greg Abbott, who wants to dam the South Llano River to create a private oasis. On the other side stands just about everyone else.
We’re Number One in Renewable Energy and Nonrenewable Energy
This story is part of a roundup of the many categories—both good and bad—in which Texas ranks number one. Drive south from the Oklahoma Panhandle and the first thing that greets you, after the large green “Welcome to Texas” sign, is the nation’s largest wind farm. Head south for another five hours until you’re nearly in Midland, and you can take in the nation’s largest solar farm—well, the largest for now.
Donald Trump is right − he is getting special treatment, far better than most other criminal defendants
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Christopher Robertson, Boston University and Russell M. Gold, University of Alabama (THE CONVERSATION) Former President Donald Trump often complains that he is being treated unfairly by the prosecutors charging him with crimes. Trump is now the subject of three federal and state criminal cases – and it is true that he is being treated unlike other criminal defendants.
Donald Trump is right − he is getting special treatment, far better than most other criminal defendants
Former President Donald Trump often complains that he is being treated unfairly by the prosecutors charging him with crimes. Trump is now the subject of three federal and state criminal cases – and it is true that he is being treated unlike other criminal defendants. The prosecutors are treating Trump a lot better than the average criminal defendant.
Donald Trump is right − he is getting special treatment, far better than most other criminal defendants
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)
Donald Trump is right − he is getting special treatment, far better than most other criminal defendants
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Donald Trump is right − he is getting special treatment, far better than most other criminal defendants
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) kAmW%wt r~}'t#$p%x~}X u@C>6C !C6D:56?E s@?2=5 %CF>A @7E6?
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