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, and thank you for joining us for on the record, I'm Randy Beamer, and this week we are starting with tourism in San Antonio.

How's it doing?

And who is new?

The man who is large and now in charge is Mario Bass, who is the new president and CEO of Visit San Antonio for all of two weeks.

That's right.

Thank you for coming in.

Thank you.

You're coming in at a time when it's, challenging, as you would say.

You know, where there are a lot of uncertainties and a lot of things.

But tell us how that's affecting tourism in San Antonio.

Tourism across the country, especially international tourism, is down somewhat.

How is it here?

Yeah.

So in a nutshell, you're right.

San Antonio is an immune to, what's happening on the national landscape.

But with that being said, people are still meeting, and still aggressively meeting, which is exciting to see, but, you know, the economic headwinds and uncertainties that you see in the news every day certainly impact what, tourism, does here in San Antonio.

It's down slightly.

From a national standpoint.

From an international standpoint, it's also down slightly.

The two markets that continue to, bolster, the international performance that we have seen is Canada and Mexico.

So those have always been the, if you will, the bread and butter, for the city of San Antonio.

So albeit they're down, they're still performing.

What about tourism, leisure tourism from this country and from Texas with the uncertainty there.

What kind of numbers of people just driving in?

Yeah.

Flying in.

So so we're very fortunate, Randy, as, as you've alluded to, we are a regional destination for our neighbors.

Surrounding San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Dallas.

But, specifically, we're anticipating, a very good summer.

I'll be cautiously optimistic, right?

Anything can change, during these times.

But hopefully with gas prices, continuing to drop.

And also some of the consumer sentiment surveys that we've seen, regarding folks and their summer plans of, hey, I'm going to take a vacation, but will most likely be within a three hour window.

Of of, getting there.

And that bodes very, very well for San Antonio in addition to this summer.

We started off this summer with about 60,000 more group room nights on the books than we had same time last year.

Some of those have been impacted, no doubt with tariffs and funding at the national level.

But still, even if half of that holds, there's still 30,000 more room nights.

And we had on the books for June, July, August that we had last year.

Occupancy rate is a big question for tourism, and especially with the number of hotels we've had opening up.

How are we doing in occupancy now compared to what we found?

There's an area of opportunity, that that's that's a there's an area of opportunity, that that's that's a good way.

That's that's it.

That's that's the reality of it.

But the focus of mine coming into this role is to certainly get back, to strengthening our core mission of selling and marketing the destination.

Essentially, the way I refer to it is, has embeds, anything that, impacts the hot tax and the sales tax and keeping the 150,000 San Antonians here in San Antonio working.

That's what the organization is focused.

What is the split if you can, ballpark it in terms of international national convention visitors versus the state or national drive in?

Yeah, the focus for us, and we know, as group goes for the destination.

That's really what the, foundation of our success is going to be.

Convention business, no doubt.

Historically, and I've been in and out of San Antonio my entire career, 30, almost 30 years.

But as group goes, so goes the destination.

And that'll be a focus for us.

Once that's laid properly, then you'll see leisure fill in on top of that.

Right.

Kind of fill in where there might be sort of, shortfalls with the group.

And then international comes right after it.

But there's a lot of, competition now, especially with, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Fort Worth building new or expanding their convention centers by the Dallas case, more than 3 billion.

Austin one and a half, something like that.

And we are in the, area right now with Project Marble that the Spurs thing, convention or is part of it the the arena is part of it.

Do you think that's going to hurt possibility for convention center expansion.

Not at.

All.

Being lumped in.

Not at all.

All of that is good for San Antonio first and foremost.

And it's incredible for tourism.

Right.

So that is all a game changing, project for the future landscape of San Antonio.

But is it going to be harder to sell that part of the convention center part?

If the Spurs thing, it's more controversial.

I don't believe so.

We are the fourth largest, economic driver here in San Antonio.

So people understand the power of tourism on our destination.

So I have no concerns about that.

I'm completely excited by the expansion and what it will mean to us, our our convention footprint right now and our walk as a, walkability as a destination puts us heads and tails above those other destinations.

What is the, what's the plan as part of Project Marble for expanding the convention center?

What is it going to look like?

Where are they going to expand?

So we're looking to add another 200,000ft² of contiguous, convention center space where which is, going towards the west side of the building closer to, Civic Park, all keeping it aligned.

The convention center would stay open during that time, which is hugely important, for us, because there's still demand, to fill the destination.

So we're excited by that.

Equally as exciting as walkability and this additional square footage space.

Randy, having grown up in San Antonio and it's home, is, our our truest asset is our people, right?

And you hear that time and time and again, we heard that from the folks that were here just recently for the NCAA men's Final Four.

So we're excited, that we have that a new.

Convention center hotel.

People might be surprised.

Really?

We need another big hotel.

Eventually down the line.

But certainly with the occupancies that we have today, that's not a topic of conversation.

In terms of Project Marble.

Is that going to be that.

That's so part of the conversation.

But I you know, that's probably like phase three.

Certainly not in phase one.

Phase one would be a focus on the convention center expansion and then the Spurs.

And then the marketing that you're doing.

Are you going to be doing more across the country?

As I understand it, and different kinds of marketing, what are you going to be doing?

Yeah.

You know, I want to ensure that we own our own backyard.

Let's start there.

Right.

That Texas Regional Drive market is, essential to the success a San Antonio always has been.

But certainly we want to capitalize it during these uncertain economic times.

So that's, plan one, if you will.

And then plan two is, certainly drive from a national standpoint, business to the number one meetings, a convention destination in the country, which is San Antonio.

What are you how are you going to do that?

What's the main focus?

What do you say?

It's the Alamo, it's the missions, it's the Riverwalk.

It's all of that.

But it's actually for us, just really zeroing in and narrowing our focus again, strengthening our core mission on selling and marketing the destination.

Right.

Fishing where the fish are right is, so to speak.

We know the markets have performed with us, and even though we will keep an eye on the, up and coming international markets, I want to focus on Mexico and Canada for the businesses coming from right now.

And finally, the convention fish out there.

Are there as many or people pulling back in terms of numbers going out?

No.

So you'll see it depends really on the market segments, some market segments.

You'll see that the numbers that are associated with our meetings are off the charts.

If you look at, for instance, our Texas, association market, Texas, High School Coaches Association, that program comes a year after year.

And those attendance numbers continue to shoot through the roof, depending on the segment.

What we see a bit of a fall off shore, but it's nothing that's like, oh, man, the the, industry has fallen off a cliff.

We're nowhere near that.

Well, you can tell some headwinds, some challenges.

It's going to be fun for you in this new position.

Mario Bass, president and CEO of Visit San Antonio.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you.

Randy.

Appreciate the time.

State lawmakers focused some on solar energy this session of the legislature here to tell us about what they did and didn't do is, executive director of Texas Solar and Storage Associates.

Mark Stover, thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you.

Happy to be here.

First of all, what did they do for the industry?

Because I know some people were concerned that they were going to be favoring oil and natural gas over both wind and solar.

And that, putting it on a level playing field would really hurt you.

Yeah.

That's right.

So typically when we're dealing with a legislative session, for those of us in the clean energy industry, we do play a lot of defense.

There are typically a handful of proposals that target our industry.

Either try to slow down development activities, or in some cases, completely, halt our development activities in Texas.

But this session, our association, the Texas Solar and Storage Association, had kind of a two pronged approach.

We had a number of bills that we were pushing this session, five bills and particular and fortunately, because of the work of our industry, we were able to get those to the governor's desk.

And with that legislation, we were really focusing on the consumer and the community.

And this association represents all things solar and energy storage from the residential level.

So rooftop solar in home battery storage to the utility scale level, the big grid scale assets that people think about feeding the grid.

So what were those bills specifically doing?

Were that they will do for, say, residential customers?

Yeah.

So we had, two bills on the residential solar front.

And both of those are designed to better educate and to protect consumers.

When I took this job about a year ago, one of the things that I quickly learned was that there were a lot of bad actors in the residential space.

Space?

Yes, exactly.

A lot of scammers.

My phone, my email was lit up from day one.

Policymakers, staff, general public reaching out to me saying, please help us.

What can we do to to fix these issues that are plaguing, plaguing the industry?

And so we started to work with policymakers, staff and a few, agencies in Texas to to craft and ultimately adopt new regulations around residential solar that are designed to protect consumers.

Now, what went in hand with that was another piece of legislation that will better educate consumers.

So we'll be working with the Public Utility Commission of Texas to craft a educational website, a clearinghouse, if you will.

So if you're a residential consumer and you're interested in installing, solar panels, you will have access to information that will, provide you with things like the right questions to ask these companies, how do you finance these projects?

What would you expect in terms of being out?

And what about the other bills?

So the other bills were focused on, battery storage.

Well, and we did have one more on backup power generation.

So a lot of people since Winter Storm Uri want to have rooftop solar.

They want to have batteries in their homes, the Generac systems, natural gas systems in their home.

And that makes a lot of sense.

And those are what we call distributed energy technologies.

They not only benefit the homeowner, but they do also benefit the grid.

One of the issues is getting those installations approved and installed in a timely fashion.

So we have a bill or worked on a bill with members to streamline the permitting process so people can, not only have, these systems installed more quickly, but at less cost.

And we think to the legislation will also reduce some of the permitting burning a burden on cities.

What about, you know, there was a lot of talk about whether they need to be more reliable that, wind and solar especially are not reliable enough.

There needs to be backup.

And that could hamstring growth in the industries.

If the way Ercot operates the grid right now is that it uses all of the resources that it has available on the generation side and also on the demand side.

And so when you look at generation, the Texas grid, wind, solar battery storage, natural gas, coal and nuke, those are the the technologies that Ercot has available to it.

What we have seen in the solar and storage front over the past four years is tremendous growth.

So if you look at the installed capacity of solar and storage in Texas, over 90% of that has been developed in the past four years.

You're seeing a lot of market driven activity that has increased reliability and has helped to lower power costs for consumers, and much of that has been driven by the growth of solar and storage.

But do you worry, with the focus on natural gas and oil in the section of the legislature and helping them grow, basically that, the focus on wind and solar and storage is it's not going to be what it was.

Yeah.

Well, we certainly had some challenges discussion as, as we often do.

But we came out all right.

And just to circle back on, on some of the other legislation that that we pushed, two of them addressed battery storage.

So one of the things that we have been seeing at the project level, at the field level within Texas communities, is that people have concerns about what do you do with the project at the end of its useful life?

Who who removes that project?

You know, we want to make sure that the community doesn't pay for that.

The landowners don't pay for that.

The state doesn't pay for that.

So we adopted legislation, battery storage, decommissioning or project removal legislation.

And what that bill does is ensure that the only party responsible for, removing the facility and paying for the removal of that facility is the project owner.

So that is designed to protect communities and landowners from any costs or any equipment being abandoned.

And we model that legislation off of solar decommissioning.

And when decommissioning law that we passed in prior sessions.

And some communities we've had stories on just don't watch what they see as solar fields blight, in their community.

What do you say to that and how how is how do you push back against that?

Yeah.

Well, education is key.

At the local level.

And I think, you know, viewers understand, Texans understand this is a private property rights state.

And what we have seen as industry has grown, because typically when you develop a project, whether it's wind, solar or storage, you are leasing land from private landowners.

And it is, their decision to make what they want to do with their land.

And what we have seen as these technologies have grown is, you know, real, meaningful, life changing income opportunities for Texas landowners.

So 25 year lease agreements, good, stable, reliable income, with solar and storage.

You know, storage has a fairly small footprint.

Solar footprint is is fairly large, as is is wind.

But we're seeing a lot of interesting activity right now in multi land use at project facilities.

How about the growth in storage.

We have research at Southwest Research here.

And storage is getting better.

What's the the growth line on that.

How long can you have a battery.

How much energy can it store for how long?

We are starting to see for our batteries on the grid.

Batteries are a dispatchable, an extremely valuable product that are also driving costs down for consumers.

Well, thank you very much for your time.

A lot of good information there.

Mark Stover, executive director of the Texas Solar and Storage Association.

Thanks.

Thank you.

What bill that's been on Governor Abbott's desk since the legislature passed.

It is a ban on THC.

And the man who has looked into all kinds of issues with this is Chris Tomlinson, who is a columnist for the Express News.

And he did a lot of in-depth reporting on just who is behind this and against it, and how big money on both sides.

As you said, it's a civil war, really, with Republicans and with those in the THC industry.

Absolutely.

On the one hand, you have the medical marijuana industry, which has spent millions of dollars trying to comply with the Texas Compassionate Use Program.

And then on the other, you have the hemp industry, which has been able to concentrate THC and their products to the extent that they get you stoned.

And so the hemp industry is stealing business from the medical marijuana business, and they've both gone to the legislature looking for a solution.

And about a decade ago or more, Governor Abbott didn't want anything to do with anything marijuana, even medical marijuana.

Then it was 2017 when that passed.

2019, the hemp bill passed, but that's when, they found loopholes or companies found loopholes to allow you to get, I guess, just as high with Delta eight and Delta nine, parts of hemp, right?

I mean, I don't think anyone disputes that marijuana, medical marijuana, which is basically just hemp with a high amount of THC in it, is beneficial for people with cancer, PTSD, chronic pain.

The benefits are clear.

What gets tricky here is that Texas doesn't want to legalize C or marijuana or or high amounts of these drugs, so they've kept it in a medical program.

On the other hand, they also want hemp, which is cannabis plants that have very low THC.

And the trick here is that the hemp people figured out how to get people high, even on the low THC product, and that is become very popular.

So you have an $8.3 billion industry selling these hemp THC products and a complete collapse of the medical marijuana business.

And so that has led to a big push by Dan Patrick, lieutenant governor, to ban it.

That passed.

And there's some interesting connections behind who's behind that push.

Exactly.

You know, when when you want to change things in Texas, you hire a lobbyist and you go to Austin, Texas, original compassionate Cultivation is the largest medical marijuana provider in Texas.

They provide more than 77% of the medical marijuana, and they hired Dan Patrick's former chief of staff for hundreds of thousands of dollars to push for Senate Bill three.

The second largest and really the only other, seller of medical marijuana is a company called Satara.

They've hired Tom Craddick Jr to be their CEO.

And he took a 12% ownership interest in the company.

He's the son of former Texas House speaker Tom Craddick and the brother of Christy Craddick, who's the railroad commissioner running for state comptroller.

And they hired one of Abbott's former chiefs of staff to lobby for them for over $100,000.

But now the polls say that most Republicans don't want to ban THC products.

So, Governor Abbott, between a rock and a hard place here.

That's right.

THC products are, as I said, incredibly popular.

The industry employs 53,000 people.

They serve hundreds of thousands of customers.

Many of them are older Republicans, particularly veterans who have found that the hemp products help them sleep, help them with chronic pain, and help them with their stress.

And now the the delta eight and delta nine.

These are strains, I guess they're derived from hemp.

You can get them now and up to about to ten milligrams.

So it's as much some people wanted in the legislature to compare this to, alcohol and to have it regulated by the Tabc, but that didn't happen, right?

The the hemp people understood that they had a problem because you can buy these products.

Anyone can buy them at any corner store.

There's zero regulation of where these THC products can be sold.

So they were pushing to treat it like alcohol or to put it through the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission official channel.

Make it a controlled substance.

You have to be 21 to purchase, but Dan Patrick was hearing none of that, and he killed any effort to find a middle ground.

And he called, I guess there was some debate where he he told somebody, are you crazy?

When they brought up this possibility?

And he is dead set on this ban?

What's between him and Abbott now?

Abbott said he's going to be an independent judge on this.

What do you think he'll do?

You know, I am usually pretty good at predicting what the governor will do on things like this, but I honestly don't know.

He will be incredibly unpopular if he signs this bill.

But Dan Patrick also controls the extreme right wing of the party, and there's an election coming up next year.

So, Abbott's in a very unenviable position.

The one way he could split the baby is to veto the bill and call a special session to regulate THC.

But that would be quite a dramatic move.

But there's some big money on both sides here, and, I guess some strange bedfellows, because the liquor industry or the beer industry that you might have thought would be against, marijuana.

So competing with they've teamed up with marijuana or THC advocates.

Well, this is what's so interesting is that where medical where marijuana has been legalized for recreational use, consumption of alcohol has plummeted.

And so liquor and beer distributors both want a piece of the THC business.

If it's legal in Texas, they want to have the sole wholesaling authority.

Now, of course, the liquor people want it to be with them.

The beer and wine people want it to be with them.

And so they're fighting each other.

It's about an $8 billion industry.

It's really not about public safety at this point.

And so do you think some of those thousands, tens of thousands of people in that industry, 100,000 plus, who signed this, petition, do you think there could be some backlash against Abbott and he has to face reelection?

I think he does.

I think he could face, a backlash.

You know, the last time Democrats did really well in Texas was in 2018 during a Trump midterm.

Democrats are salivating at the opportunity of winning back some seats and winning some elections.

Next year.

And so Abbott's got to choose.

Does he want to, you know, stick with Patrick and the hardcore Republican primary voter, or does he want to go for the general, electorate, which is definitely pro THC.

Or will he go with Governor Greg Abbott from 10 or 15 years ago, who was against any form of THC.

That I think is the least likely outcome?

All right.

Well, thank you very much, Chris Tomlinson.

You can read more about this.

A number of stories in the Express News columnist, award winning columnist for the San Antonio Express News.

Joining us from Austin.

Thanks very much.

Thank you, Randy.

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

You can watch this show again or any previous shows.

You can also download it as a podcast.

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