New podcast launches to shine light on changing energy landscape in Texas

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The podcast, called Phases and Stages: The Texas Energy Story , will be hosted by Andy Uhler, who will visit a different Texas location every month to analyze the evolving energy landscape of the state. Photo via Getty Images

The University of Texas at Austin's Energy Institute is premiering a Texas-focused energy transition podcast next month.

The podcast, called Phases and Stages: The Texas Energy Story — a nod to Willie Nelson's 17th studio album, is an hour-long, story-format podcast hosted by Andy Uhler, an Austin-based journalism fellow at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy & University of Texas Energy Institute and former KUT Radio reporter.

In the first season, which premieres Wednesday, September 25, Uhler will visit a different Texas location every month to analyze the evolving energy landscape of the state.

"Today, Texas leads the nation in combined wind and solar production and will soon be home to a Gulf Coast hub promising to expand the clean hydrogen industry," reads UT's website. "New energy ventures are proliferating across the state as entrepreneurs seize the opportunity to leverage Texas’ energy infrastructure and expertise to bring promising new innovations to market. Even oil and gas companies are expanding into nontraditional sectors, as advanced technologies open up new possibilities."

UT estimates that nearly 1.4 million Texans are directly or indirectly supported by the oil and gas sector. The podcast sets out to examine questions about how new energy expansion in the Lone Star State will effect the lives of Texans, as well as how the local economies and job markets are expected to evolve.

"Traveling the state to gather first-hand accounts beyond the oil rig and the boardroom, award-winning public radio correspondent Andy Uhler speaks with farmers, school teachers, community members, and everyone in between to get a sense of what the energy transition means for Texans and their communities," the website continues.

The UT Energy Institute will host a launch event for Phases and Stages with Uhler on Wednesday, September 25, 5 to 7 pm, to celebrate the show's series premiere as part of EnergizeUT.

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Energy startup Base Power raises $1 billion series C round

fresh funding

Austin-based startup Base Power, which offers battery-supported energy in the Houston area and other regions, has raised $1 billion in series C funding—making it one of the largest venture capital deals this year in the U.S.

VC firm Addition led the $1 billion round. All of Base Power’s existing major investors also participated, including Trust Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Thrive Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Altimeter, StepStone Group, 137 Ventures, Terrain, Waybury Capital, and entrepreneur Elad Gil. New investors include Ribbit Capital, Google-backed CapitalG, Spark Capital, Bond, Lowercarbon Capital, Avenir Growth Capital, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Positive Sum and 1789 Capital Management.

Coupled with the new $1 billion round, Base Power has hauled in more than $1.27 billion in funding since it was founded in 2023.

Base Power supplies power to homeowners and the electric grid through a distributed storage network.

“The chance to reinvent our power system comes once in a generation,” Zach Dell, co-founder and CEO of Base Power, said in a news release. “The challenge ahead requires the best engineers and operators to solve it, and we’re scaling the team to make our abundant energy future a reality.”

Zach Dell is the son of Austin billionaire and Houston native Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Round Rock-based Dell Technologies.

In less than two years, Base Power has developed more than 100 megawatt-hours of battery-enabled storage capacity. One megawatt-hour represents one hour of energy use at a rate of one million watts.

Base Power recently expanded its service to the city of Houston. It already was delivering energy to several other communities in the Houston area. To serve the Houston region, the startup has opened an office in Katy.

The startup also serves the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin markets. At some point, Base Power plans to launch a nationwide expansion.

To meet current and future demand, Base Power is building its first energy storage and power electronics factory at the former downtown Austin site of the Austin American-Statesman’s printing presses.

“We’re building domestic manufacturing capacity for fixing the grid,” Justin Lopas, co-founder and chief operating officer of Base Power, added in the release. “The only way to add capacity to the grid is [by] physically deploying hardware, and we need to make that here in the U.S. ... This factory in Austin is our first, and we’re already planning for our second.”

ExxonMobil postpones $10B plastics manufacturing plant

plastics project postponed

Spring-based ExxonMobil is postponing development of a $10 billion plastics manufacturing plant along the Gulf Coast. Construction on the plant, to be located near Port Lavaca, was supposed to begin next year.

“Based on current market conditions, we are going to slow the pace of our development for the Coastal Plain Venture,” ExxonMobil confirmed in an emailed statement. “We’re confident in our growth strategy, and we remain interested in a potential project along the U.S. Gulf Coast and in other regions around the world. We’re maintaining good relationships with community leaders and contractors, so we are ready to reevaluate the project’s status when market conditions improve.”

According to Independent Commodity Intelligence Services, the Coastal Plain project was preliminary, and ExxonMobil had not yet announced its decision about building a plant for polyethylene production. Polyethylene, the world’s most common plastic, is used in a variety of products, such as bags, bottles, food containers, automotive components, medical tubes, IV bags, children’s toys and cutting boards.

The Coastal Plain postponement follows a judge’s ruling in August that invalidated a decision by Calhoun County ISD board members to negotiate tax breaks with ExxonMobil, according to Inside Climate News. The judge made the ruling in a case filed by environmental activist Diane Wilson and her nonprofit group, San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper.

Wilson told Inside Climate News that she thought public opposition played a part in ExxonMobil postponing the Coastal Plain project.

“I think if everybody had just rolled over for them, if they got exactly what they wanted (tax breaks) and there wasn’t a big fight, there would be no delay,” Wilson said.

KBR shifts sustainability focus with planned spinoff

seeing green

Houston-based KBR, a provider of technology and engineering services for government and private-sector customers, is pursuing a tax-free spinoff of its Mission Technology Solutions business as a public company. Following the spinoff, KBR would remain a public company.

The new company, nicknamed SpinCo, would focus on technology and engineering services for the space and national security sectors. The scaled-down KBR, nicknamed RemainCo, would concentrate solely on sustainability technology and services designed to reduce carbon emissions and support energy transition efforts.

According to the company, RemainCo, or New KBR, will is positioned to serve the ammonia and syngas, chemical and petrochemicals, clean refining, and circular economy markets.

Stuart Bradie, chairman, president and CEO of KBR, said that from July 2024 to July 2025, the Mission Technology Solutions segment generated revenue of $5.8 billion. During the same period, the Sustainability Technology Solutions segment posted revenue of $3.7 billion.

KBR has forecast fiscal year 2025 revenue of $8.1 billion, up from $7.7 billion during the previous fiscal year. The company’s 2026 fiscal year starts in January.

In a news release, KBR said SpinCo and the restructured KBR would “deliver long-term profitable growth and value for customers, associates, and shareholders.”

“Our team has successfully built two leading businesses with the necessary scale and strong financial profile to enable us to take this next exciting step,” Bradie told Wall Street analysts.

Over the past decade, Bradie said, KBR has evolved into “a leading provider of differentiated, innovative, up-market science, technology, and engineering solutions with global scale, global reach, and global impact.” The spinoff would create two public companies that’ll “unlock the next phase of value creation,” he added.

Bradie will be chairman, president, and CEO of the newly configured KBR, while Mark Sopp, KBR’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, will transition to oversight of the Mission Technology Solutions spinoff. Effective Jan. 5, Shad Evans will succeed Sopp as CFO of KBR. He currently is KBR’s senior vice president of financial operations.

Bradie said an executive search firm has been hired to identify candidates for the CEO and CFO roles at SpinCo.

The spinoff is expected to be completed in mid- to late 2026.

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