Happy Hour 289 - Seawater Desalination In Texas: The Straight Story, With The Sierra Club

Between the Texas data center boom - and Corpus Christi on track to become the first modern city to run completely dry - access to fresh water is a top ticket item for Texans this election year, and also going into the next Legislative session in 2027. Dr. Evgenia Spears, Water Program Coordinator for the Lone Star Sierra Club, joins us for a deep dive on the real state of our state's water supply - and in particular, how seawater desalination fits in as a possible solution. Turns out, even as desal is frequently framed as a panacea, it comes with tremendous costs, significant risks, and ethical dilemmas, especially surrounding access: is all of this about water for people, or is it for industry? It's hard to imagine a more important or existential conversation.Learn more about Dr. Spears and her colleagues at the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter at https://www.sierraclub.org/texas.Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can support our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org/.