On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho.

San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving city with something new happening every day.

That's why each week we go on the record with Randy Beamer and the newsmakers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the reporters roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalist behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on the record with Randy Beamer.

Hi, everybody.

Thank you for joining us for On the Record.

I'm Randy Beamer, and this week we start with the big news out of Austin, where the second special session of the legislature began on Monday, a lot of controversy over the Republican redistricting bill.

We're going to be talking here in a moment with State Senator Roland Gutierrez of the San Antonio area to Uvalde.

And first, I want to give you a taste of what the emotions are like up there.

This is one of his dispatch from earlier this week.

As you kind of what's happening right now in the Texas Legislature.

Dustin Burrows has locked up Nicole Collier because she won't sign some permission slip to be followed around by DPS escorts.

A cop following around for the next three weeks to make sure that she comes in and votes for this bill.

Donald Trump redistricting bill.

What's going on in Texas is absolutely, 100% wrong and locking up members of the legislature because they won't sign your book document.

It's just wrong.

It's wrong.

Senator, obviously, a lot of emotion up there at the time.

Now.

By now, the House has gaveled back into session.

And as we tape this, they haven't yet voted.

And you haven't yet voted on the redistricting plan, but you expect to by the time this actually at the very time this airs.

What is the mood up there right now?

And are you working together at all.

Or any of the movies and so good.

I mean, you saw in that, in that message that we put it in Facebook.

I think it was essentially you have a, a sitting state representative that was locked up in the chamber, was not allowed to leave.

She was made to sign a permission slip that would have allowed a DPS trooper to follow her everywhere she went for the next weeks and the next several days and weeks, she refused to do so and they said, that's fine, we're going to lock you up in the room.

And, she was more than a protest.

She at one point didn't even have a bathroom access until, someone finally granted permission to unlock the bathrooms in the chamber.

They're now back working.

Her colleagues that did sign are in the room.

I'm sure she's there as well.

And I know that they're going to vote against these maps.

They've fought the good fight.

I expected that hard bill.

That redistricting bill that's going to disenfranchize, groups of color, minorities, color, that's going to disenfranchize people across the state, is certainly going to pass the house of probably this evening.

You talked about fighting the good fight.

Republicans would say you fought a fight that you knew you were going to lose.

What was the point of it?

And what did you get out of?

Now, you didn't have to, as a state senator to break quorum.

But you went to Boston.

You went to Chicago.

What did Democrats in Texas get out of that national publicity?

Was that basically what it was for?

You know, I was more than that.

Randi, I think you got to look back to 2003 when this happened.

The last time Tom Delay was the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and he asked for these changes, in, in at the state Capitol.

They left to Ardmore, Oklahoma.

You'll remember that.

And indeed, that delay caused federal court challenges, just like this one will, it caused the nation to wake up on this issue and push back against then a rogue administration.

No different here.

It's just that the administration has changed its, And we thought what was crazy then is really crazy now in this president.

With the issue of gerrymandering in front of the country now and California talking about getting more Democratic seats, redistricting there.

What is going to be a you expect the net gain or loss for Republicans or Democrats, because Republican states are talking about doing the same thing and trying to get more Republicans in Congress out of their states.

When you have a state like Indiana that has nine congresspeople, seven of which are Republicans, they're pushing back against the Trump administration.

They're saying, we don't want to do this just to get one more, or maybe all of them.

Maybe that's what he wants.

They don't want to have that kind of pain caused in the state of Indiana.

He's asking Missouri to do the same.

And as you said, you're going to have Democrat blue states trying to do the same thing.

Really get down to a space where we have broken, really one of the last rails of democracy, which is we do gerrymandering every I mean, we do redistricting rather every ten years.

And unfortunately, on both sides, it's led to gerrymandering.

So we need more independent, redistricting commissions like they have in California and other states so that we avoid these types of things.

People should be comfortable in the knowledge that so-and-so is going to be their congressman for ten years, so that they know that that person is going to be there, has the ability to be there, and someone that looks like them and thinks like them.

That's the point.

The purpose of the Voting Rights Act.

Moving on.

Endorsed and right now.

So the bill passes the redistricting.

What is the timeline for work on, flooding and property tax relief and THC and those other issues that you're going to be dealing with?

Obviously, to us, you know, the flood issues were most important.

It's important to note that all of the emergency relief the governor had that at his disposal.

He didn't need a special session to do any of that.

We were passing some legislation on money for dams, money to fix, low lying areas, money to be able to bring in, you know, 100 year old technologies like water gauges and sirens that were lacking in Kern County.

Those things should have been done by Republicans years ago.

And we've been asking to fix the infrastructure problems that are facing.

When you mentioned Uvalde, a lot of what happened in Uvalde, it was infrastructure.

We couldn't have telecom communications properly in place where people were.

Cops were getting the messages that they needed to get.

And so rural Texas is woefully lacking in infrastructure.

And let's face it, the Republicans have had control for the last 25 years, and they've screwed over rural Texas more than anybody has.

The bad blood that's really intensified recently.

Has that, spilled over into the the discussions on things like THC and flooding and property tax relief?

Are you are you working there still together or the two parties?

I mean, I don't think any one of us is going to disagree on the fact that we need to improve the infrastructure of the state of Texas so that we can avoid things from happening.

That's not going to happen.

I mean, the tax everybody's Republicans and Democrats are kind of all over on that, you know, and so I, I think that that needs to be fleshed out.

And I imagine that there will be a bill here in the coming weeks that makes sense of all of that.

And again, I don't think that that's really kind of drawn on Partizan lines.

The big, elephant in the room, if you will, is this redistricting.

And it has divided us more than ever.

And unfortunately, the Republicans that this governor has allowed this president to influence him in such a way that he is, causing great damage to what.

What about some of the lingering effects in Austin about this redistricting battle?

You know, Ken Paxton going after the governor, going after, people trying to get them out of office?

Is that all moot at this point?

Are they still going through with that kind of thing?

And what do you know about the fines for people who who left?

Well, those fines were essentially if you don't have a quorum, the fines are just kind of nice, talking points.

But the fact is that those fines are not going to be they're not enforceable.

You can't enforce which you don't have a quorum to pass.

And so with regard to Paxton and whatever he's done, I know that the governor has asked the Supreme Court to step in to go after that case.

The same Supreme Court has said in the past that, the any any party, Democrat or Republican can go break quorum.

It's in the rules.

And so these are the rules of the game.

Democrats used those rules.

They weren't on vacation.

Hell, they were locked up in crummy hotel rooms, quite frankly, and would rather have been home with their families.

But I think in the end, we have awoke people in Texas and across the United States.

We have pushed back in a way that's going to help court strategies down the road.

And just like in 2003, when we thought there was going to be a number of states jumping into this, right, that stopped.

And it was really only Colorado and Colorado was challenged in court and then pushed back on.

What do you expect now in terms of in the Senate and in the House?

Are we going to see doors locked and permission slips required?

Because there's concern about other bills not passing, maybe THC with Dan Patrick do that.

Yeah.

I'm, you know, unfortunately, you know, we've got two members in the Senate that have already said that they're not going to break quorum.

We could break for.

And if all 11 of us left, I think that the representations of those two members have been clear that they don't want to break quorum.

They don't think it works.

I disagree with them.

I don't think that there will be any permission slips or anybody getting locked up in the Texas Senate.

All right.

Well, thank you very much for your time and your insight.

That is, State Senator Roland Gutierrez.

Appreciate you joining us.

Thank you.

Rick.

There has been a change at the top of one of San Antonio's big economic generators, one of the leaders in recruiting businesses to this area.

Greater Seattle has a new president and CEO, Sara Obvious.

Rush, thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you for having me.

And you are, I guess, like everyone else in terms of business, worried about unpredictability.

But you have in the pipeline for businesses from around the world coming to San Antonio, an incredible amount of potential money and potential businesses.

Where are where are we right now in terms of how many businesses could be coming in and how many more are just out there and gettable.

Sure.

I love that question.

Well, we've been at this for a while now trying to get out, proactively talking to companies.

And we're seeing this convert into active projects.

This year so far, we've already seen about 45 conversions of relationships we've built into active deals.

We have about 45 companies today that are sitting in our active project pipeline ready to make a decision.

Those projects would amount to, I believe, about $7.5 billion and billion billion dollars and at least 20,000 jobs and those and that.

Includes construction job, those construction cost.

Those are direct jobs.

Direct.

Job.

Those are direct jobs.

The the cost does incorporate construction cost.

But it does not account for construction jobs.

And just to make clear, greater sand, not to be confused with the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, who just changed the.

Give us a Venn diagram of what you cover and what they cover, and the different groups cover that's bringing business to San Antonio.

So greater San is focused primarily on jobs.

That is our mission through and through.

Everything we do has that lens on it.

So whether we're out proactively talking to companies and building a pipeline of businesses interested in coming to San Antonio, or we're helping local companies that are looking to grow and expand here, our focus is on that jobs mission.

We work very closely, with partners throughout the community on a variety of issues that impact our ability to win.

So workforce development is as a big portion of what we do as an organization, but we also support things like airport investment and driving a new direct air service here into our into our airport and other, transformational type projects that will help us to compete and win.

What we talk about the airport in just a minute.

Obviously very important to recruiting, but the Spurs, arena project marble in the news right now.

How important is that to getting a business, say, from London or Oklahoma or whatever, to move to a San Antonio?

Sure.

So if you think about it from an individual perspective, if I'm thinking about where I want to live, I'm considering a lot of different factors.

Probably a sports team in and of itself isn't going to drive that decision.

But knowing that I'm looking at a location that has the capacity to have professional sports, that's going to drive those opportunities for me and my family to connect and engage in the community is crucial.

All companies today, when they're making location decisions, are thinking about talent first and foremost.

And it's all about talent.

And talent wants to be in a place that is dynamic, that is diverse, where they know they can find what matters to them, what they what I sometimes call finding their home in a community.

So you're for Project Marvel, and, the Spurs arena would like the term sheet to be signed this week.

Absolutely.

That would be fantastic.

I think our voters also deserve the opportunity to to view those terms.

And prepare themselves for for the public vote that's coming hopefully in November, where.

Our our strength right now in our growing areas, we have data centers coming in.

We have manufacturing, say on the south side.

How much more of that is going to happen?

And and where are we then in tech?

Sorry.

The other side of that.

Sure.

Great questions.

When you look at our strengths today, we're leading the country or in top three in the country when it comes to manufacturing job creation today.

So San Antonio is on the global stage when it comes to attracting manufacturing.

And that's that's new to us.

Right?

That's because we've invested in workforce as a community holistically.

That's because we've invested in our airport.

And, and we're incredibly well positioned for that today.

When you look at the other sectors that are growing and have a lot of potential, we see life sciences, we see financial services and professional services activities, and we also see quite a bit happening in the cybersecurity space.

Those three sectors, maybe we're not seeing, the same volume of growth, but the activity is really picking up for us.

Starting to see some office wins.

We saw guide House announce a thousand jobs, here in in San Antonio last year.

We expect them to continue to grow.

We'll be announcing another thousand jobs cybersecurity project, later this year.

So a lot of good activity in that space now where I think we need to lean in as a community is on that innovation and entrepreneurship side, where we're supporting growing our own in addition to bringing more companies in for growth.

And what about downtown when you talk about office space and office businesses, I know you probably can't say where those offices or those people will be.

How are we looking in the downtown area?

It's been tough in some places across the country.

Sure, office dynamics around the country have been really challenged.

And I do think what's unique here in San Antonio is that we are seeing growth in office, where in other markets it's really been stagnant.

I think though now companies are starting to know what their what again, back to people, what their people need in order to be more in the office and, and so their footprints, they know a little bit better now what that footprint needs to look like and where specifically within a community they need to locate.

So downtown is getting looks, definitely starting to get looks more than more than they have over the last few years since Covid.

And I know that we'll see some continued growth here in downtown and throughout the region.

And office brings us back to Project Marble, not just the Spurs arena, but when you look at the renovation of the convention center, the Alamodome, maybe a new convention center hotel and a new venue in the old John Wood Courthouse.

Tell us about the importance of that and maybe in order.

What do you have to have?

What are you really pushing for out of those?

Sure.

Well, when I think about the potential impact of, we'll call it Project Marvel Downtown Sports and Entertainment, whatever term we're being asked to use these days.

When I think about it, what works as the holistic lens.

And here's why.

When you look at the, the, footprint that all of these properties take up in our downtown right now, a lot of that sitting empty, not generating tax revenue, we don't have residents that are, that are living in that space.

We're not seeing that economic energy that comes from these type of investments.

And I believe if we come all in and the development that comes around, this type of investment in a downtown environment is going to really push up that level of energy, it's going to make downtown a place that's not just for visitors, but it's for residents, and it is for our San Antonians, that want to come downtown.

So it's it for me, it's about the the entirety of the project.

And then the Spurs are so much a part of our identity here in San Antonio.

We really when we're out selling San Antonio, for example, in France, what do you think they want to talk about?

They want to talk about the Spurs.

They want to talk about when they want to talk about the the seven players from France that have been through the Spurs over time.

So, you know, a huge part of who we are as a community and so really want to see them, be successful here in San Antonio.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Sarah is Rush, president and CEO of Greater Seattle.

Thanks very much for coming in, and good luck in your new job.

Thank you.

On the reporters roundtable this week, we haven't heard about it much, but wind and solar are playing a big part in power generation in this hot summer.

More than you'd think.

With us to talk about that is Chris Tomlinson, columnist extraordinaire for the Express-News, the Houston Chronicle, the Austin American-Statesman.

I could go on and on, but thank you very much for coming in.

Oh, thanks.

And tell us about the wind and solar and records that are being set when some people have thought, oh, we're going to be stressing the grid.

That's not been the case.

No.

In fact, the enormous amount of solar power and battery, facilities have been added to the grid just since last summer means that we can have these extraordinarily hot days.

We can set a record for demand for electricity.

And we have so much available power that prices are staying below $50 and megawatt hour, which is extraordinary compared to past years, where we've seen those prices go up to two, three, $4,000.

Now, the the lobbyists for, natural gas and oil at Austin, they this session, had pushed for some bills that would, you know, limit the preferences for wind and solar, as they put it.

But they didn't get as much as they wanted for wind and solar didn't get as much as they wanted.

What happened in the legislature this year affecting all of this?

Well, Texas Republicans still rely heavily on the oil and gas industry for donations and political support.

So it's no surprise that they're going to respond to the lobbyists who are feeling the pressure of cheap solar and wind and battery facilities, frankly.

Solar energy is now the cheapest form of electricity in Texas.

Natural gas is losing market share.

And so the market, so the the lobbyists went to Austin and did their best to try to wipe out as much new solar and wind power as possible.

As they put it, support for that, that wasn't, reliable.

And they say it may be cheap, but it's not as reliable.

And it needs to be.

I'm not sure of the word be able to turn on like that, right?

The term of art is dispatchable.

That you're able to just call it up and say, turn it on, turn it off as you need it.

The problem is that natural gas is not that dispatchable.

Natural gas power plants fail on a remarkable, basis.

They go out, they shut down unexpectedly.

They are not any more reliable than the solar and the battery facilities.

We have gotten up to 50% renewable energy on the grid on the hottest days this summer, with 50.

Percent between 50 wind and solar.

And, well.

And nuclear and battery.

Right.

And so that, is not the story that we hear, at least in terms of from some lobbyists.

Where is that going?

Is that curve only going upward or because of the demand in Texas?

It's going way up.

Is that going to stay about the same?

Well, the most the more extreme, versions of absolute bans on new solar and battery facilities.

Those did not pass, but there have been a lot of restrictions placed on them.

And we've seen the federal government cut tax incentives and impose really ridiculous regulations to try to kill solar and battery facilities.

So that natural gas can fill that space.

The the bottom line, though, is that corporations know this is the cheapest form of electricity they can purchase.

And so we're relying far more on private companies, and far less on tax incentives or public policy to encourage this stuff.

It's going to be a race to see whether or not natural gas can get steel in the ground quicker than we can put up new solar panels.

And right now the solar panels are winning, even with all the roadblocks thrown in their way.

Data centers are going to be using a lot more.

We have a lot in San Antonio, a big one going up, in Medina County soon more.

And they some of them are going to be using, I understand, small nuclear at least down the road plants.

Yeah.

And small nuclear smart what they call them small modular reactors.

They are nuclear power plants.

They're, 10% of the size of the nuclear power plants that we tend to think of.

Those power plants, though the soonest we might see one is 2032 and more likely 2035.

There is no operating small modular reactor today that we can point to and say this absolutely works.

So I think that is a long term plan, but certainly it's all about the natural gas industry doing their best to throw roadblocks in front of their competitors so they can be the ones to supply the power we need.

What about the growth in the battery industry and their ability, the hours that they actually can store wind and solar or how what's that, timeline, that growth curve, like.

So these large scale utility batteries are becoming better and better.

You know, I mean, right now, they can guarantee about four hours worth of power.

Some of the new chemistries and the new, ingredients that go into the battery are extending them to up to six, maybe eight hours in the near future.

So we do kind of see a race to see who is going to improve quicker.

Are we going to see these small nuclear reactors kick in, or are we going to see the batteries improve to to a degree that we don't need the nuclear reactors?

It's a really an exciting time to be in, in the energy business.

And the technology's really remarkable.

Speaking of time, during the day, the wind is at night, mostly solar during the day.

Are there gaps in there still?

So the tightest period is at 8 p.m. at night, after the sun has gone down, before the wind is kicked in.

And when we've all gone home and turned up, turned down the AC and turned on our television set.

That's that's kind of the crunch period.

And it only lasts for an hour.

So these four hour batteries are filling that gap right now.

If you we're setting new records for gigawatts of battery power at the 8 p.m. hour.

That's enough for over 1.2 million homes.

And that's that's all relying on batteries.

So it's about being efficient, about using the cheapest, most readily available source of energy at any particular hour.

It's not about being able to turn solar panels on at 4:00 am, or turning on wind at 4:00 pm.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Fascinating.

This kind of power that you cover, I know you cover Austin and the legislature.

That's going to be fun for a while for you.

And just as hot as the sun.

Absolutely.

Thank you very much.

Chris Tomlinson, columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, Houston Chronicle, Austin American-Statesman and more.

Thanks.

Thank you, Randy.

And thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can watch this show again.

You can watch any previous shows.

You can also download them as podcasts.

Just go to KLRN.org I'm Randy Beamer and we'll see you next time.

On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho.