Texas

A pocket knife, a diaper bag, a Waterford Lismore Pie Server, a gift certificate for deer processing, a Henry AR7 .22 caliber rifle, candy, a parking pass, and 28 pistols for 28 different legislators are among the items listed in a single fascinating download of gifts from Texas lobbyists. Texas also deserves credit for being the only state whose legislature meets every other year to nevertheless require monthly disclosure reports.

A disturbing thing about disclosure in Texas, however, is a pattern of government websites being used as a tool for legislators to keep tabs on the public, not the public tabs on them. A more than 2,000-page list of people who’ve lobbied in the legislature in 2024 (as of 8/26/24) includes these people’s addresses but not bill numbers or positions.

And in 2021, Texas passed a law prohibiting the state from doing business with financial institutions whose policies were found to be discriminatory against fossil fuels; and in August 2022, a list of “Financial Companies That Boycott Energy Companies” appeared on the State Comptroller’s website above a list of “Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations.” The law defines “boycott” in such a way that even firms that invest in fossil fuels but also offer fossil fuel-free financial products could eventually be caught in the ban.

Case study

Rice University has strong historical ties to the fossil fuel industry and was the only Top 30 school in the country not to endorse the 2015 Paris Climate Accords. Yet even in the heart of fossil fuel country, student activists are challenging these ties. In 2022, Rice updated its goal for becoming carbon neutral from 2038 to 2030. Students are now calling on the university to create a commission to study the issue of divesting from fossil fuels.
Rice’s state lobbyists also have deep ties to the fossil fuel industry. Rice’s lobbying firm Cornerstone Government represents four fossil fuel clients, including Baker Hughes and Vistra, which in 2022 was found to be the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide of all U.S. utilities, emitting 98.7 million tons of carbon dioxide from its owned and purchased electricity generation. Vistra relies on coal or gas for 89% of the power it generates.

Demonstrating the harm being done by Vistra and these other fossil fuel companies would strengthen the case for Rice to divest. But Texas makes it hard to know what, exactly, lobbyists are doing on behalf of their clients. Positions and bill numbers are not disclosed. Gifts are disclosed but usually without listing vendors. Compensation is disclosed, but using the most confusing system of any state, with lobbyists disclosing 13 different levels of compensation, without giving actual amounts.

Best feature: the Texas legislature only meets every other year but lobbyists are required to file monthly activity reports, which is not the case for the other every-other-year states of Montana, Nevada, and North Dakota.

Worst feature: lobbyist compensation is confusingly reported in ranges, from Level One to Level Thirteen, that aren’t obviously defined.

Additional Findings