Representative Jon Rosenthal: Texas State Representative District 135
Building Texas - Jon Rosenthal - Episode 34
Welcome to Building Texas with Justin McKenzie and Somer Baburek, sponsored by the Boerne Kendall County Economic Development Corporation and Das Greenhaus. And now here's your host, Justin McKenzie.
Justin McKenzie: Welcome to Building Texas. My name's Justin McKenzie. You're listening to Boerne Radio 103. 9 FM. Today, I'm thrilled to have a guest here with us that wasn't expected.
This was the benefit of what we do at Das Greenhaus and how we bring people together. So I'm here with State Representative Jon Rosenthal. He's been a state representative for a while now, three races.
Jon Rosenthal: that's right. I'm in the middle of my third term, so about five years.
Justin McKenzie: Two practicing engineers in the House of Representatives, and the only mechanical engineer.
Jon Rosenthal: And the only oil and gas technical professional.
Justin McKenzie: Which is really surprising in the state of Texas. With as much as oil and gas does [00:01:00] around energy, we need that expertise in policy and lobbying. So I
Jon Rosenthal: actually, on one hand, I understand. I can now understand better why engineers and people that you think of as being thoughtful and thinking things through don't want to work in a political environment.
But on the other hand of that. Energy is such a large part of our, not just our economy, but our culture in Texas, that I'm surprised we don't have more energy professionals.
Justin McKenzie: Well, we're coming together today on an energy purpose. You're here at Das Greenhaus. Working with the wind chaser team on our vertical windmill project that's going through the Das Greenhaus program.
Jon Rosenthal: That's right. I'm actually very excited about, about the windchaser project.
Justin McKenzie: We talked earlier and you have a background and you were in the House of Representatives during winter storm Uri, which Texas will remember is 2021 winter event. And we're very dependent on oil and gas today. We're really looking for alternative energy in [00:02:00] so many ways at an industry level, but at a state policy level, are we thinking about wind energy, solar energy as real sustainable solutions?
Jon Rosenthal: You know, it's a really good question and I definitely appreciate you asking it in that way because of the way that we have these conversations.
Folks will assume either we want to have oil and gas, some people want it, and some people don't. And while that may be so on the fringes, I think the answers that we're looking at moving forward are, need to be an all of the above approach. For anybody listening out there who's lived in Texas for a while, especially after the winter storm Uri event, Where a large part of the state just went dark, including my house.
Like we lost power for, for almost a full week. We know now what ERCOT means, the Electric Reliability Corporation of Texas. We now know that we have an electrical grid and power generation and distribution infrastructure that is at risk in [00:03:00] the state. All the time. So whenever demand starts peaking, like, especially when it gets very, very cold and we're all running our heat and all that kind of stuff, or if it gets very, very hot, we're all running our air conditioners.
The state has a remarkably fragile electrical infrastructure. And so anything that we can do to shore that up, I believe we should be enacting policy that promotes. A stronger grid also addressing on the demand side, like efficiency, or if you can have these mobile wind generators in neighborhoods, it lowers the stress on the system.
So it makes more energy available at lower cost for all of us. And so I feel like without discouraging anybody, we should be promoting an all of the above approach.
Justin McKenzie: And that's the way the wind chaser team's looking at it as well. As this is not a end all be all, but it's an addition to other options that are out there.
And it just gets us thinking about it because it is a fragile grid in Texas. ERCOT, I think everybody [00:04:00] now knows what ERCOT is. If you don't have the ERCOT app, I would tell you to go download the ERCOT app. It's really interesting and fun to watch. But innovation is where I think I want to go in the conversation around who's solving that problem?
Who's really investing in the future of oil and gas? The future of power? In the state of Texas today, you know,
Jon Rosenthal: that's really a good question. So obviously we have large scale investors in a number of areas in our state. I think people would largely be surprised to know that some of the largest oil and gas operators like Exxon, Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips are all making monstrous investments in renewables and green energy because we've got a shifting landscape with regards to how we produce and consume energy on this planet. And once again, if we want to stay relevant, if we want to stay ahead of the curve, if we want to be an energy capital and energy resource, and especially for me from Houston, [00:05:00] I think we're the energy capital of the whole world of Houston, Texas.
In order to maintain our relevance and our profitability and our ability to keep people employed and contribute to the larger picture, we're going to have to shift along with the rest of the planet.
Justin McKenzie: And what does that look like? Because Houston, in my mind, is the capital of energy in the world. Always has been from the early days of the oil and gas industry to today.
But who's coming in and shifting that outside of Houston? Where is the world going from a sustainability standpoint? Is London coming in and making different investments? Is it the Middle East, or is it still Texas just looking
Jon Rosenthal: differently? So, for my position, I want to promote Texas maintaining that role and doing the things that we should be doing, both in industry, business, and legislatively to promote those things.
Right now You know, you always have the producers from other parts of the world, Russia, the Middle East, [00:06:00] even Mexico, but really some of our neighbors are starting to jump on and get with this. So like Oklahoma, Louisiana have some large resources that they're developing. And even as you get towards New Mexico, that same underground formations that feed into the Permian Basin.
That's our area in West Texas that produces tons of oil and gas that extends farther beyond the Texas border because geographic formations don't care about political boundaries. But really for us, the staying relevant is going to take a very intentional effort for all of us, whether we're in industry or not.
Justin McKenzie: Well, you're listening to Justin McKenzie on Building Texas, and I'm here with state representative Jon Rosenthal, you're in Boerne working with an entrepreneurial group and wearing your engineering hat. As a mechanical engineer, help me understand what are the projects that you're looking at and how [00:07:00] does that help you in your world today as a legislator?
Jon Rosenthal: It's nice to be seen as a voice of reason inside of the legislature. So no matter what your partisan bent is, when me and my colleagues in the Texas House are working through problems, Most of the stuff that we talk about are not partisan issues. So like energy production is not a partisan issue in Texas.
That being as it is, there are opportunities for us to learn from each other. For me in particular, I have really been leaning into a role as a leader on As far as being a credible source of information for my colleagues and in the crafting of policy in general. Now, I would like to see us taking more of an all of the above approach.
Much more than a sane voice, if you could call it that, much more than a lone, sane voice in your state legislature. There are big money interests who lobby your government in order to push policy and directions that are profitable [00:08:00] for them. I don't think it would surprise anybody to learn that oil and gas interests are one of the largest lobbying firms, one of the largest lobbying influences in your state capital, along with some others.
I mean, insurance, doctors. The large constructors, you can think of big money stuff. I think it's important, even for their benefit, for all of our benefit, that we balance the way the policy approaches this.
Justin McKenzie: As you think about the future of work, not just in energy, but the future of work in Texas, what is your district looking for?
Where are you investing in the kids that are being raised in your school districts from a statewide representative level? Wow,
Jon Rosenthal: what a question. So my area of Northwest Harris County, so I'm outside of the Houston corporate limit, although my address says Houston, Texas. What we have out there are a lot of folks like me.
We've got a lot of oil and gas workers at different levels of industry and in administration and we've got welders and chop [00:09:00] hands and even CEOs and planners, schedulers, all kinds of professionals out there. But the leading employer in my area are the schools. I'm in the heart of the Houston Independent School District, which is the third largest school district in the state, and the largest A rated school district in the state.
So we start talking about education, education opportunities for our kids. I think while a lot of people have a lot of emotional attachment to what we're teaching in schools, I would like to see us strengthen our STEM programs, the science, technology, engineering, math, and actually STEAM if you incorporate arts into that also, but to have people who are well informed, creative thinkers who can process information towards being productive in society, and I think by improving our public schools and working with our, our kids, especially to bring them up in an environment where they're innovators, where they have an ability to understand and process what's going on around them.
And I know that we [00:10:00] want to lead this conversation into entrepreneurship, and I think the ingenuity backed by some technical know how can really go a long way. So, like, on this project I've come out here to work on. This week where we've got a vertical windmill that can be transported and power up, let's say a neighborhood or a business or something, you know, driving in there on an 18 wheeler, set it up and get it spinning and, and, uh, shore up our grid in places where it may have failed.
These folks are innovative and contributing to the strength of our energy infrastructure. Like that's the goal here. So, bringing up kids with a solid background, hugely important. One of my big pushes in the legislature, of course, is for public education. I have more education workers in my district than anything else.
Then everything else combined, actually.
Justin McKenzie: Well, you're listening to Building Texas on Boerne Radio 103. 9 FM. We're visiting with Texas State Representative Jon Rosenthal [00:11:00] from District 135. After the break, we're going to come back and dive deeper into education, entrepreneurship and the future of work.
This is Justin McKenzie from Building Texas. Today's segment is brought to you by Das Greenhaus. Das Greenhaus is a business incubator launched here in Boerne to serve our local community. Das Greenhaus is a place where you can come to grow your idea. Our goal is to make Boerne accessible to people who are looking to grow a business, expand a business.
or learn more about what's out there in their community and get involved. Visit us at DasGreenhaus. org or come visit us at 7 Upper Balcones Road, Boerne, Texas. Das Greenhaus.
Welcome back to Boerne Radio. This is Justin McKenzie with Building Texas and today we're having an interesting conversation with Texas State [00:12:00] Rep. Jon Rosenthal from District 135 in northern Northwest Harris County, and we're talking about energy, energy policy in Texas, and then moving into education because you have the third largest district in Texas.
That's right. We do a lot here at Das Greenhaus with our local school districts because we value the entrepreneurial mindset and the vision of kids can really do anything. It's not what their parents have done. It's not just what they've seen their family doing. The world is big and new and they can go do things that.
Jobs that don't exist today are what they're going to be working on in the future. That's right. So our, our big mission is to help educate and show people those opportunities through mentorship and entrepreneurship. How do you see economic development in your district working with the school to prepare the workforce that you're going to need?
You were talking about oil and gas heavy, but there's the trades, there's school professionals, there's all kinds of things that we need in every county. So
Jon Rosenthal: it's a, it's a great question. And [00:13:00] I'm, as the son of a academician, my father was a university professor and actually both of his parents were like small town teachers in a very rural, remote part of North Dakota is where my dad's family came from.
But when we look at modern schooling and modern education paths, I think we have to recognize that it's pretty much equally important that children be able to follow their inspiration, whether it leads to pursuing higher education, college degrees, or even advanced degrees, or whether it leads them into professional trades.
I don't need a PhD coming to my house when my pipes are frozen during URI. I want a qualified plumber to come out. And I don't want someone who pretends at that. I want someone who's a professional. And that's just one example. We can set paths up in our schools so that children have the ability to pursue their goals, pursue their inspiration, no matter which direction it takes them.
Business and Industry partnering with our school [00:14:00] districts has been a great model all across the state. In our area, we do it. We have work study programs for these kids. We have college readiness courses, you know, so the ones that are advancing faster can move towards more advanced work while they're still in high school.
We have internships and programs for these kids where they can interact with business, with industry, with projects. We have A number of companies right around me sponsoring like robotics programs and robotics competitions at these schools, which is super cool. And I actually visited a school just a couple of weeks ago and they were engaged in a drone competition, you know, super cool stuff, but the kids get inspired when they can put hands on when they can start learning about how to program flight for a drone or build a better robot that does this or that the hands on exposure for them as invaluable.
Justin McKenzie: I want to take the moment to just say if you're a business owner in any community, your [00:15:00] school wants you involved. They all have their career and technology education program, CTE, and they're needing corporate sponsors and volunteers to come in and participate and show the kids those opportunities. So, I appreciate that at your level, you're thinking about that, and you're seeing it, you're involved in it, and engaged with it.
As we look at programs and entrepreneurs around the world, where did you find your entrepreneurship spirit? Because deciding to move from a professional engineering role to state legislator, I mean, I imagine that's a decision you had to work through.
Jon Rosenthal: It, it is, you know, for those that don't know, there's a, uh, monstrous income difference between a senior 30 year offshore subsea engineer and a state legislator.
Just trying to figure out how I was going to pay the bills if I take on this new role and pretty much recognizing I wasn't going to be able to keep steady work in the industry while I was doing it, so. To me, it was [00:16:00] just taking a break. When you ask about the entrepreneurial spirit, you know, and you're asking a design engineer that, you know, I was always a tinkerer as a kid growing up, and I still do, like my personal hobbies, I build stuff and tweak on equipment around the house, it stresses my wife out no end, but she has learned that most of the time I can keep stuff working.
Justin McKenzie: Every now and then it's a surprise.
Jon Rosenthal: Every now and then I have to hire a professional but usually not because I mess something up but because I want to be cautious around working on electrical wiring or plumbing that sort of thing I understand in theory but again I want to qualify professional when it comes to working on dangerous stuff around my house.
Justin McKenzie: With a background in power the scariest thing to me was an electrical engineer with a screwdriver in his hand. We also talk about the, the, the political sways, the election cycles that swing school boards. They swing local city councils, commissioner’s court, and those play a key role in investment [00:17:00] in the future.
Whether that's economic development investment, school district investment, policy programming, everything. We're in a world where a lot of what we see politically is fear. We, on this show, we like to talk about curiosity and getting people involved and getting people engaged in the process locally, where you can really understand how it works.
And that it's not just the sausage at the end of the day, it's, it's everything that goes into it that makes it a special city, district, whatever it might be. Where did you step into the politics? What role did you first run for elected
Jon Rosenthal: office on? What an interesting question and an interesting way to lead into it, because one of my favorite quotes about fear is ignorance and fear and hate walk hand in hand.
So if you want to dispel these things, the first place to dispel fear and hate is by addressing the ignorance, because ignorance provides the space where people can learn to hate each other without even knowing [00:18:00] them. In a political space, we see that all the time. No matter what side of the aisle you may be on, you will see conversations online or maybe amongst your friends in the office vilifying the other side, whatever side that happens to be.
And you come to a point where you believe folks that subscribe to A side or B side to be evil. Or true and pure, you know, just depending on what their politics are. It's super important, inherently important to understand each individual person. So I work in an environment that obviously is politically charged at times.
But we don't, most of us don't force our relationships to align with political boundaries. So it's important to engage in conversations, especially reasonable conversations with folks you may not agree with. If you want to ask me how I came to run for political office, people ask me that all the time.
Have you run for stuff before? And the truth is, last time I won an election before 2018 was, was [00:19:00] 1980. I was elected as the president of my high school science club. So I never ran for office before that. I was so happy with my little life as an offshore engineer. I mean, fascinating work, good pay. Right people that I worked with all over the planet.
It was the rise in ignorance and hate That was one of my main motivating factors. And the other part of that was during 2018 we saw rising concern about public education Teachers across the nation were striking for better pay The teachers in Texas don't have the ability to do that because the state will revoke their teaching credential But really, being a product of an education household and an education family, I thought public education being very important to me and really under distress in this state.
That was the majority, really the fundamental part of my platform was opposing discrimination and bigotry in any of its forms. [00:20:00] Promoting public education in Texas and then the regular kitchen table issues about economic development, access to health care. I don't know who's listening, but if you are happy with the way that insurance and health care works in this state, maybe it's just because you've never had to go to a hospital or see a doctor.
But we have a lot of work to do to make all those things better for our constituents. And so in 2018, I just came to a point where I felt like I need to stop just complaining about stuff to my friends. And because I have the motivation and the means that I was going to try to do something about it. And so here I am.
Justin McKenzie: I'm sure glad you're in office because I do value a professional engineer. Being at the table when we're determining technical policy, it doesn't surprise me at this point, but I think it should surprise everybody that those experts and resources aren't always in the room to help fight the ignorance, right?
We might be talking about how stuff comes out of the earth. [00:21:00] You've got to understand a lot of mathematics and science to say this is what our real problem is that we're trying to control and manage versus. Oh no, all this hot stuff's coming out of the earth and what are we going to do with it? I, I just think there's a bigger gap than people realize around how policy's written and implemented in the state, even at the local levels, and what that means to their day to day life.
It's a trickle, because we'll see decisions made in one session have a big impact five years from now. Because they're now implemented. And the group think is, well, the person today implemented this change, implemented this policy. No, it really happened five years ago, and you're just seeing the result of it.
And that's confusing to the masses too. How do I get involved? How would I have prevented it? How would I have had a voice in that
Jon Rosenthal: decision? Yeah, and a lot of this policy work gets done kind of in a vacuum, so people don't Often people don't pay [00:22:00] attention to what kind of policy is being enacted by your state legislature.
So even though it may have a direct impact on your life, or your business, or your business, people don't know who their legislators are or what we're working on. So I definitely encourage folks to, in Texas, you can Google who represents me, put in your address in the quick form. And know who all your representatives and like from United States Senate, congressional rep, your Texas House representative and your Texas state senator and go maybe look at at who those folks are and what they're doing and let them know if you agree with them or disagree with them, give some feedback to our offices.
I know I value that the whole notion of having state and county and city governments is to bring the policymakers closer to the people. And so we should always be listening to our constituents as far as informing our views on what, how to enact policy or what we should fight for or fight against. So in the energy picture here, and I keep [00:23:00] talking about all above approach.
I want to incentivize all the development in Texas, not just some slice of it. So, when you have powerful lobbying interests in the Capitol building, directing how policy works, and then we have a multibillion-dollar investment trying to bring industry into Texas. But it's only going to work if you're doing oil and gas work then all the other stuff that I would hope to incentivize is kind of left out of that and it's because of these lobbying interests and the best way to counter that is to talk to your state representatives and your city council people and your county commissioners are the ones who have this policy in their hands and they should listen to you before enacting it
Justin McKenzie: as we wrap up today's conversation, I want to thank you for being an expert in the room and representing the all of the above strategy here.
I appreciate your call for people to reach out to their representative and to know who their representative is. [00:24:00] And that it is all accessible. As a reminder, and Ellen Troxclair, Representative Ellen Troxclair said the same thing. Her coming into office, the biggest thing she's learned is that a singular voice really has a big impact in our system.
That's right. If that voice knows where to start and get into the conversation and is willing to be in the conversation. So, like you, you ran because you got frustrated with some things and wanted to make a change. We'd encourage everybody to get involved in that process. At minimum voting.
Absolutely. If everybody's voting, we're getting better candidates. We're getting better results. And I think we should encourage all Texans to think about at the local level where, where's work happening? What's going to impact their kids and their business? And who's really in charge of that? And that's an educational process and journey that you'll learn your school board.
Your city council, your commissioner court, all the way up to [00:25:00] your state representative.
Jon Rosenthal: Absolutely
Justin McKenzie: right. Well, Representative Rosenthal, thank you today for what you're doing and the way that you're Building Texas. Thanks so much.
This is Justin McKenzie from Building Texas. Today's segment is brought to you by Das Greenhaus. Das Greenhaus is a business incubator launched here in Boerne to serve our local community. Das Greenhaus is a place where you can come to grow your idea. Our goal is to make Boerne accessible to people who are looking to grow a business, expand a business.
or learn more about what's out there in their community and get involved. Visit us at DasGreenhaus.org or come visit us at 7 Upper Balcones Road, Boerne, Texas. Das Greenhaus.[00:26:00]
