Houston energy transition could put 560,000 jobs on the table

Houston could pick up more than half a million jobs over the next few decades, depending on the direction the city goes in the global energy transition.

If the city can take a leading position into a transition to a lower-carbon energy economy, it could create about 560,000 jobs in the region by 2050, said Bobby Tudor, chairman of Houston investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Tudor was speaking at the recent Greater Houston Partnership’s Future of Global Energy conference.

“Houston would have to work aggressively to capture a significant share of the trillions of dollars that will be invested globally in the transition,” Tudor said.

Tudor explained that we [Houston, and the world at large] face an acute dual challenge — to meet the global demand for energy that will continue to grow well into the future, and simultaneously, to protect that future from the threat of climate change caused by ever-increasing C02 emissions.

"That said, even the most ardent advocates for an abrupt transition away from fossil fuels will admit that it is likely that, absent some unexpected technological breakthrough in battery and other industrial technology, global demand for fossil fuels will continue to grow for some time period, though the length of which can be debated," said Tudor.

The upside is that Houston has a number of advantages that make it well-placed to take part in the energy transition. It already has a technically proficient workforce, decades of experience in the energy industry and a high concentration of energy infrastructure, all of which could be put to work in a transition to new kinds of energy.

Houston also has a business-friendly environment and a huge port, rail and air transportation sector, which gives it platforms to implement large-scale decarbonization efforts, Tudor said. And on top of all that, the city is plugged into the Texas power grid, which already has significant investment into renewable power generation.

"The challenge — or rather, opportunity — of our time is the energy transition,” Tudor said. “Houston has both the opportunity and responsibility to lead the transition.”