Kathleen Hartnett White Distinguished Senior Fellow-in-Residence and Director, Armstrong Center for Energy & the Environment Kathleen Hartnett White joined the Texas Public Policy Foundation in January 2008. She is a Distinguished Senior Fellow-in-Residence and Director of the Armstrong Center for Energy & the Environment. Prior to joining the Foundation, White served a six-year term as Chairman and Commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). With regulatory jurisdiction over air quality, water quality, water rights & utilities, storage and disposal of waste, TCEQ’s staff of 3000, annual budget of over $600 million and 16 regional offices make it the second largest environmental regulatory agency in the world after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Prior to Governor Rick Perry’s appointment of White to the TCEQ in 2001, she served as then Governor George Bush appointee to the Texas Water Development Board where she sat until appointed to TCEQ. She also served on the Texas Economic Development Commission and the Environmental Flows Study Commission. White is also co-owner of White Herefords and a partner with her husband in a 125 year-old ranching operation in Jeff Davis and Presidio counties. She also is Vice-Chairman of the Texas Water Foundation and sits on the board of the Texas Natural Resource Foundation. She recently received the 2007 Texas Water Conservation Association’s President’s award, the Colorado River Foundation’s Friend of the River Award and the Texas Chemical Council’s Leadership Award. A writer and consultant on environmental laws, free market natural resource policy, private property rights, and ranching history, White received her bachelor cum laude and master degrees from Stanford University where for three years she held the Elizabeth Wheeler Lyman Scholarship for an Outstanding Woman in the Humanities. She was also awarded a Danforth National Fellowship for doctoral work at Princeton University in Comparative Religion and there won the Jonathan Edwards Award for Academic Excellence. She also studied law under a Lineberry Foundation Fellowship at Tech University. White was Director of Private Lands and the Environment for the National Cattlemen's Association in Washington, D.C. She has served as director of the Ranching Heritage Association, and was a special assistant in the White House Office of the First Lady Nancy Reagan. She is a member of the Texas and Southwestern Cattleraisers Association, the Texas Hereford Association, and the American Hereford Association. She is a former commissioner of the Texas Strategic Economic Development Planning Commission, a former board member of the Texas Wildlife Association and the National Cattlemen's Legal Defense Fund. A long-time breeder of National Champion Jack Russell Terriers, Kathleen Hartnett White lives with her husband Beau Brite White in Bastrop County Texas outside of Austin and in Presidio County Texas on the far southwestern border of Texas. Click here to email Kathleen

Kathleen Hartnett White's Publications

Congressional Response to the Gulf Spill	July 29, 2010
What It Could Mean for Texas
Although the investigations into what caused the Deepwater Horizon accident are still ongoing, and the presidential commission on the oil spill has only begun its work, Congress has been busy with legislative initiatives that could significantly alter the landscape of energy production in America. Unfortunately these early measures (principally H.R. 3534 and S. 3663) may cause more problems than they solve, especially for Texas.
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Administration Using Oil Spill to Force Radical Energy Policy	July 08, 2010
The federal government has enlarged the destructive aftermath of the explosion at BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico. With the oil flow’s increasing coastal intrusion and an inept response by the federal government to containment, government edict now adds a greater blow to the regional Gulf economy.
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The 72 Hour Rule: Read the Bill	October 14, 2009
When we elect people to serve in Congress, we send them there as our representatives. In exchange for giving them our authority to make national decisions, they have the responsibility to provide us with sufficient information so that we can provide feedback on their decisions and gauge how well they represent us. Unfortunately, our current national leadership has scotched that understanding.
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Wind Industry Blowing Away Our Tax Dollars	October 01, 2009
Renewable energy may provide a welcome contribution to the Texas and national energy portfolio. Consumers, however, must demand the hard facts of the matter. Wind power must shed the government supplement and meet the tests of the free market place to find its appropriate niche.
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Carbon Audacity	February 26, 2009
Legislation creating this colossal carbon tax would be the biggest tax increase ever, surpassing in real dollars the 1942 law providing funds for World War II. If included in budget reconciliation bills – which cannot be filibustered – it would only require 50 votes in the U.S. Senate.
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Texas Water 101	February 13, 2009
On February 13, 2009, Kathleen Hartnett White conducted "Texas Water 101," a briefing for legislative staff that provided an independent overview of Regional and State water plans and major water rights issues affecting timely implementation of water supply projects. This document contains her PowerPoint presentation. Click here to listen to her remarks.
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EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Blueprint for Disaster	December 18, 2008
This unprecedented reach of EPA authority disproportionately hurts Texas because we are the nation’s leading energy producer, the most productive economy, and the second largest state population.
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A Change in Climate for Climate Change Policy	November 05, 2008
In less than a year, many unanticipated developments have complicated the political dynamics of “ending the era of fossil fuels” through the enactment of carbon reduction mandates. Consider six such developments that may give pause to policymakers otherwise inclined to support these measures.
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Economic Damage From Ethanol Mandate Will Continue	September 30, 2008
U.S. energy policy has been supplanted by counterproductive environmental policy. Built on mandates, subsidies, trade restrictions, and bans on production, federal energy policy operates like slipshod energy central planning. Let ethanol compete in the market without government preference.
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The Folly of Food as Fuel	May 02, 2008
Federal Ethanol Policies Damage Texas Consumers and Businesses
Texas is the appropriate state to call for a change in federal ethanol mandates. The indirect costs of ethanol hurt Texans in the grocery store as well as key agricultural sectors of the state economy.
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Invited Testimony to the Select Committee on Electric Generation Capacity & Environmental Effects	April 10, 2008
Texas' growing economy requires a growing supply of energy. This testimony examines how we can meet future energy demands while addressing federal clean air regulations and concerns about global warming.
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Choppy Waters	August 25, 2004
Understanding The Challenges To Texas Water Policy
A collection of three papers on state water policy, written specifically for the Foundation. The authors include Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Chairman Kathleen Hartnett White and Katharine Armstrong, former Chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. The papers explore the history of the state’s water policy while examining how the market can better meet the ever increasing – and contentious – demands for water.
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