Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Wednesday August 26, 2026
Asterisk (*) denotes news stories that may be inaccessible because portions are behind a paywall
Good morning! Here are today’s Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Oil fell Wednesday, amid easing concerns about military conflict as the U.S. leans towards economic sanctions to pressure Iran.
West Texas Intermediate futures for October dropped 2.56% to $80.25 per barrel.
International benchmark Brent crude futures for October delivery declined 2.62% to $86.26 a barrel.
“U.S. sanctions on Iran were less severe than anticipated,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, adding that lower oil prices helped markets to regain some poise as government bond yields eased back from their recent highs.
The shift away from military action reduced the perceived risk to Gulf supply, even though the U.S. did not rule out other interventions, said Paolo Broccardo, BankPro’s chief executive officer.
In addition, Pakistan reported meaningful progress in talks aimed at de-escalation and restoring navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, Broccardo noted.
Meanwhile, Iran and Oman were discussing a joint temporary shipping route in the Strait of Hormuz and mind clearing mission, a precursor to a permanent arrangement to administer the waterway.
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Top Stories
Inside Climate News – August 25, 2026
Data Center Developers in Texas Plan Massive New Gas Power Projects
The 12 largest gas power projects planned in Texas are all specifically intended to run data centers, according to data released Tuesday by Global Energy Monitor, a global nonprofit that maps and tracks energy infrastructure. The volume of gas power generation planned in Texas has continued to surge, growing by 50 percent in the last six months, the GEM report said—more than any country besides the United States.
Permitting documents show that just a handful of mega-projects in Texas could emit over 100 million tons per year of greenhouse gases, an enormous amount roughly equal to the annual emissions of a mid-sized industrialized country. These projects are also expected to discharge tens of thousands of tons of other pollutants. The latest release of GEM’s Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker shows 81.7 gigawatts of operating gas power generation in Texas, with 99.4 GW in development and another 22.4 GW recently announced.
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Newsweek – August 25, 2026
James Talarico Blasts Ken Paxton for ‘Made With AI’ Texas Data Center Plan
Related: Not even a year ago, state leaders of all stripes were clamoring for data centers, the A.I.-warehouses of the future. Incentives here. Promises of infrastructure there. Sweetheart deals all around. But as voters started to view the centers as a resource suck and potentially job killers, sentiment moved quicker than a ChatGPT prompt; between March and July, public opinion shifted 12 points against new data centers, according to one national poll — Time
Texas Democratic Senate hopeful Representative James Talarico took a shot at his opponent on Monday, accusing Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton of using AI to illustrate a plan to address data centers if he wins in November. Data centers have become a political flashpoint heading into the midterms, with Americans across the party spectrum raising concerns about their construction and impact on local communities, including the potential drain on water and power supplies. Candidates have scrambled to take a stand against the facilities, including some Republicans, despite President Donald Trump continuing to express support for their development.
Paxton shared a data center plan on X on Monday, immediately garnering responses from a number of people accusing him of using AI to create it. Talarico’s campaign responded by issuing a statement saying Paxton had failed to respond to what voters want.
“Ken Paxton has taken nearly half a million dollars from the data center industry, voted to flood Texas with data centers by giving them billions in tax handouts, and has refused to use his power as attorney general to respond to Texans’ requests to block data center development in their communities,” Talarico said in a statement shared to X by his campaign.
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The Guardian – August 25, 2026
US building twice as much gas-fired capacity as China in AI boom, analysis finds
The US has surged ahead of China in the building of new gas-fired power generation, largely to feed a boom in artificial intelligence (AI) that is adding vast amounts of planet-heating emissions, a new analysis has found. For decades, China’s rapid economic growth has seen it outpace the US in the addition of new gas power generation but a recent “frenzy” in datacenter construction for AI has reversed this, said Global Energy Monitor (Gem) in its new report
The US is now building twice as much gas-fired capacity as China, and more than any other country in the world, after a stunning 76% increase in under-construction projects in the first half of this year. When adding announced and pre-construction projects, the US is building nearly three times as much as its fellow global economic powerhouse. Since January, gas power capacity in overall development in the US has ballooned by 50%, rising from 252GW to 378GW – a third of the global total. If all of these projects are ultimately built, the US will increase its gas fleet by around two-thirds at a capital cost of more than $647bn, Gem found.
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Politico – August 25, 2026
The Iran war is already on November ballots
President Donald Trump’s decision to wage war in Iran is on the ballot this November — not as a foreign policy issue, but an economic one. In Ohio and Iowa, Democratic candidates are attacking Republican opponents who backed the war as anti-farmer because the fighting has driven up fertilizer prices. In Texas and North Carolina, Democrats are hammering their GOP opponents over the rising cost of gas. Michigan Democratic Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed released an ad tying the expense of the Iran war to a lack of money to fix potholes in roads around the state.
Democratic lawmakers rode anti-war sentiment to congressional victories in 2006, as a wave of candidates hammered the GOP over the fighting in Iraq. Party leaders are betting that can happen again this cycle — but with mounting economic pain helping to close the deal. “We are worse off than we were before they launched this war,” said Fred Wellman, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and is running as a Democratic challenger to Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.). “We are worse off with our allies than we were for this war. And the economic impact is going to last for years.”
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The Latest TERse Tips
Tracking the money raised and spent in the U.S. Senate race between James Talarico and Ken Paxton — Texas Tribune
Putin decree lets Russia take control of infrastructure damaged in Ukrainian drone attacks…Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said in a statement the decree doesn’t imply the nationalization of companies or a change of ownership — only “involvement of the state in the management of an enterprise to solve specific security problems.” — PBS
It’s almost impossible to wrap your brain around the scale of the cash dedicated to this buildout — now the biggest capital project in human history — the five biggest hyperscalers, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta and Oracle, are set to spend more than $750B on capital expenditures this year. That’s up 67% from last year, and roughly 75% of it is earmarked for AI infrastructure — Axios
Evacuations ordered in rural Texas as wildfire mushrooms within hours — evacuations in Palo Pinto County were being ordered Tuesday in rural Texas where a wildfire has ballooned in size, burning through ranchland and forcing schools to delay or cancel classes — PBS — also see: Map: See where wildfires are burning across Texas from Dallas Morning News*
S&P Global Ratings assigned its ‘BBB-‘ rating to Rio Grande LNG LLC’s $700 million senior notes due 2033, $190 million senior notes due 2047, and $1.115 billion senior notes due 2047 — S&P Global
A subsidiary of China Power Construction Corporation has been awarded a RMB8.925 billion ($1.32 billion) contract to build the water transmission system for Iraq’s Basra Seawater Desalination Project, contract was awarded by Iraq’s Al-Ridha Group to China Water Resources & Hydropower Fifth Engineering Bureau Company, according to MEED.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) expects to see the start of 22 major offshore oil and gas projects between now and 2030, with investment potential of $30-50 billion — IIR
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Oil & Gas Texas
Reuters – August 25, 2026
Gunvor in talks to buy Haynesville shale assets for over $1 billion, sources say*
Commodities trader Gunvor is in talks to buy U.S. natural gas-producing assets from private energy firm Silver Hill Energy Partners, expanding efforts to build an integrated shale gas production and marketing business, four sources told Reuters on Tuesday. If successful, the Silver Hill acquisition would be the latest in a string of U.S. natural gas-focused deals struck by Gunvor since 2024, betting on a boom in demand for power generation from energy-hungry AI data centers and new export terminals opening along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The purchase price under consideration for the Silver Hill assets, spread across the Haynesville shale basin of Texas and Louisiana, is between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion, two of the sources said. Oklahoma City-based Western Natural, an oil and gas producer that Gunvor financially backed earlier this year, will operate the assets if the talks are successful, the sources said. The talks between Gunvor and Silver Hill are at an early stage and a deal is not guaranteed, the sources cautioned. They requested anonymity to discuss confidential matters.
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The Wall Street Journal – August 25, 2026
Woodside Puts ‘Everything on the Table’ in Review of Beaumont Facility*
Energy considers everything to be on the table in a review of its Beaumont New Ammonia facility in Texas, raising the prospect that it could seek a buyer for a project that it agreed to acquire for US$2.35 billion only two years ago. Chief Executive Liz Westcott said the review reflected a shift in international policy positions since it agreed to the acquisition in August 2024 and slack demand for lower carbon ammonia, which has potential uses in power generation and as a marine fuel. “When we took an investment decision, it was a different world,” Westcott said in an interview following the Australian company’s earnings for the six months through June.
The Beaumont project anchored Woodside’s plans to invest up to US$5 billion in so-called new energy projects worldwide by 2030. On Tuesday, Woodside walked away from that target, citing delays to policy frameworks and the slow development of some markets for clean-energy products. Companies producing crude oil, natural gas and other traditional fuels are benefiting from the tailwind of high energy prices resulting from the Middle East conflict and continuing Ukrainian attacks on Russian infrastructure. Disruptions to global energy supply have intensified concerns among governments about fuel security, prompting many to roll back environmental regulations.
President Trump led the way by shredding U.S. climate policies last year, and several U.S. allies have since changed tack by pursuing policies that support output of fossil fuels. The U.K. appears poised to allow new oil production in the North Sea—after banning exploratory drilling last year. Canada dismantled an unpopular carbon tax and is backing new oil-and-gas infrastructure. When announcing the Beaumont deal two years ago, Woodside highlighted lower-carbon ammonia’s potential to replace higher-emitting fuels, citing industry forecasts that it could account for nearly two-thirds of total ammonia demand by 2050 as industries decarbonize and regulations tighten. Beaumont’s first phase targets output of 1.1 million metric tons of ammonia annually. It aims to use low-carbon intensity hydrogen production and carbon-capture technology from industrial-gases group Linde. Linde has agreements with ExxonMobil to transport and store carbon dioxide produced at the site.
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Reuters – August 25, 2026
Woodside scraps clean energy target, posts 7% first-half profit rise*
Woodside Energy on Tuesday abandoned a longer-term emissions target and $5 billion in planned clean energy spending by 2030 to focus on its core oil and gas business after reporting a 7% rise in first-half profit. The Australian company will undertake a strategic review of its Beaumont New Ammonia clean energy asset in Texas as part of plans to sharpen its investment focus and cut $350 million in costs from 2028, CEO Liz Westcott said on an earnings call.
She said the company was on track to meet its 2030 emissions reduction target and would maintain its commitment to reducing its direct emissions, but the Scope 3 target, which covers emissions from use of its products, would be cut. “These targets were established in a different market context,” Westcott said. Speaking to Reuters afterward, Westcott said her company had tried and failed to make clean energy investments economic.
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The Guardian (UK) – August 20, 2026
Trump plan to allow drilling near US world heritage site sparks alarm
The Trump administration’s push to expand oil and gas extraction across the US is set to bring drilling near cherished natural and cultural sites, raising alarm among conservationists and prompting questions from the UN’s heritage body. Unesco said it had received information on the administration’s plan to scrap a drilling-free buffer zone around the Chaco Culture national historical park in New Mexico, a world heritage site and one of the most important cultural areas in the US. A Unesco spokesperson said it had procedures regarding “potential threats” to a world heritage property and was awaiting a response from the federal government as to its impact.
“The world heritage committee has consistently considered extractive activities to be incompatible with world heritage status,” a Unesco spokesperson said. As well as warning about the consequences of drilling within the boundaries of world heritage sites, the spokesperson said the committee had also “emphasized that projects proposed outside world heritage properties should not adversely affect their outstanding universal value – which are the features of the site that justify its inscription, and should be subject to appropriate impact assessments before decisions are taken”.
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High Country News – August 25, 2026
New Mexico’s rising climate-disaster costs are being paid by oil and gas revenue
Days after the Salt and South Fork wildfires ignited in June 2024 near Ruidoso, a mountain town in southeastern New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D, snapped into action, issuing the first in a slew of executive orders to declare an emergency and make state funding available at the earliest stages of the disaster. She issued more in response to the flash floods that ripped through the area just days into the fires.
All told, Gov. Lujan Grisham issued more than 85 executive orders for the region that year, authorizing nearly $66 million in state funds. More followed in 2025. And so far this year, over 30 executive orders have already given the New Mexico Forestry Division funding to prevent and suppress yet more wildfires. New Mexico is among the fastest-warming states in the U.S., and its executive orders have increased by a staggering fivefold since 2021. While some of those orders have gone to food assistance and crime reduction, the majority have been in response to climate-related fires and floods.
Oil & Gas National & International
San Francisco Chronicle – August 25, 2026
California’s water shortages partly due to climate pollution from big oil and gas, study finds*
The world’s biggest oil, gas and cement companies are partly responsible for California’s water shortages, a new study finds, with their planet-warming emissions shown to reduce the state’s snowpack by an annual amount roughly equal to what would fill Shasta Lake.The study, published Tuesday, is one of the first to attempt to quantify the impact of climate change, and specifically industrial pollution, on water supply and demand in the western United States. The results suggest that emissions have significantly undermined water security in the West.
The research appears in the Communications Earth and Environment journal. It comes as part of the growing field of climate attribution, which seeks to disentangle the drivers of various climate problems and pave the way for solutions. While there’s general consensus that carbon pollution has raised global temperatures with far-reaching repercussions, the science of quantifying the particulars of those repercussions is still being perfected. According to the new study, climate change has reduced peak snowpack across 11 western states by 36% between 2014 and 2024 while reducing the amount of water flowing in rivers and streams by 13%. Nearly half of those declines, the study says, are due to the emissions of 122 big fossil fuel and cement companies, and the use of their products, since 1950. (The other half are attributed to a broad slew of sources, from livestock to deforestation to landfills to wildfires.)
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WDAY – August 25, 2026
Petroleum Council leader outlines Bakken efficiency and energy security
North Dakota’s oil and gas industry is operating with steady resilience, supported by advanced technological innovation and sustained capital investment, according to North Dakota Petroleum Council President Ron Ness. Speaking on current industry conditions, Ness emphasized that Bakken operators are adopting a long-term approach to navigate unpredictable market swings and shifting global oil prices. To illustrate how producers view their daily operations, Ness compared oil production to traditional farming.
“Operators in the market have just wanted you to continue with your plan, with your production plan… no different in the oil and gas industry,” Ness explained. “You gotta keep the lights on, you gotta pay the bills… you gotta combine that wheat crop whether it’s a great crop or not, right? You gotta get the bushels in the bin and fill your contracts.” Ness described the modern oil sector as a technology-driven manufacturing process, highlighting three- and four-mile lateral drilling techniques that allow companies to lower production costs while maximizing output per well.
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The Wall Street Journal – August 25, 2026
Trump Sends Nuclear Agreement With Saudi Arabia to Congress*
President Trump has submitted a landmark nuclear accord with Saudi Arabia to Congress for review, but hasn’t dropped his last minute condition that the kingdom normalize relations with Israel, an administration official said. The move is expected to trigger months of intensive debate among lawmakers about how to boost the American nuclear industry while curbing the spread of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. When Trump officials announced the 30-year accord last month they said then that it would give U.S. companies a central role in developing Saudi Arabia’s nuclear infrastructure while excluding foreign competition.
But the deal has proved to be controversial because it would potentially open the door for uranium enrichment to take place on Saudi territory. Under U.S. law, the agreement must be submitted to Congress for review. The deal was transmitted to lawmakers on Monday and will be difficult for them to block. Doing so would require a joint resolution and a two-thirds majority vote to override a potential presidential veto. The Saudi embassy in the U.S. didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Saudi officials have argued that the kingdom needs to develop a civilian nuclear industry, which would draw on uranium ore deposits the Saudis say they want to exploit to meet domestic energy needs. That, they say, would free up more of its oil production for export and boost revenues. As part of the deal, U.S. and Saudi officials would conduct a two-year study to determine the commercial viability of American companies building a uranium enrichment facility in the kingdom. If that study determines that indigenous enrichment is warranted, American companies would build the facility under an arrangement that would preclude sharing sensitive technology with the Saudis.
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Euronext – August 24, 2026
Norway will drill in Arctic regardless of EU’s position, says energy minister
Norway will continue developing its oil and gas resources in the Barents Sea regardless of the European Union’s support for a moratorium on Arctic hydrocarbon supplies, and no longer sees itself as Europe’s “green battery”, Energy Minister Terje Aasland told Reuters.
Following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Norway has become Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas, meeting around 30% of gas demand of both the European Union and Britain. Last year, the country’s gas production was near record levels, while oil output reached its highest level since 2009. Official forecasts, however, show production falling sharply after 2030 unless new resources are discovered and developed.
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Reuters – August 25, 2026
Iran war makes multibillion-dollar Tanzania LNG more attractive, Equinor says*
The disruption to energy flows in the Strait of Hormuz is making it more attractive for Equinor to develop a long-stalled liquefied natural gas export plant in Tanzania, the Norwegian company said on Tuesday. The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran is reshaping the global energy industry, stripping Qatar and other Gulf producers of their reputation as some of the world’s most reliable suppliers as Tehran struck export plants and blocked shipments.
Discovered more than a decade ago, the massive Tanzania gas deposit is expected to cost about $42 billion to develop, the East African nation has estimated, and would provide an alternative source of supply for Asian customers. But Equinor’s talks with Tanzania over detailed investment terms and conditions have been ongoing for years, and hopes for a breakthrough have been dashed on several occasions. “You don’t want to wait too long to put new LNG volumes on the market, so maybe now is a good time to get on with it,” Equinor’s head of international operations, Philippe Mathieu, told reporters at an energy conference in Norway on Tuesday.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
San Antonio Express-News – August 25, 2026
IEM picks San Antonio for $200M plant expected to create 3,000 jobs*
A California company has picked San Antonio for a $200 million manufacturing plant expected to be the largest job-generating project the city has seen in more than two decades. Industrial Electric Manufacturing is building a 1 million-square-foot factory at Brooks, where the Silicon Valley-based company expects to create 3,000 jobs by 2030. “IEM is excited to put down roots in San Antonio,” CEO Clayton Such said. “The city’s skilled workforce, strong infrastructure and collaborative economic development environment made this a natural choice for our next phase of growth.”
The South Side plant will design and build power solutions to meet increasing demand from customers across North America in energy-intensive industries like data centers, healthcare, the energy sector and advanced manufacturing. “Bexar County is focused on creating an environment where employers can grow, invest and create opportunity for our residents,” Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said. “IEM’s investment reflects the type of advanced manufacturing project that aligns with our long-term economic goals.” Industrial Electric sought a 70% tax abatement over 10 years from Bexar County on its real and personal property investments. The incentive value totals $1.55 million, it said in earlier Bexar County documents.
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Canary Media – August 25, 2026
Tesla ditches solar roof — and embraces regular solar panels
A thousand solar roofs per week. That was the pace Elon Musk predicted Tesla would install its electricity-generating roof tiles in 2020, more than three years after he unveiled the product to great fanfare on the set of the TV show Desperate Housewives.
That estimate fell flat. Tesla managed to install a total of just 3,000 solar roofs in the U.S. by the end of 2022 and now appears to be scrapping the product altogether, Electrek reports. As of Monday, the solar roof was no longer featured among the home energy products on Tesla’s website. Tesla did not return requests for comment.
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Bloomberg – August 25, 2026
Data Centers Use More Water Than California Cities, Study Says*
Electric power generation for data centers is a threat to water supplies even in states outside the arid Southwest, according to a report published Tuesday by the think tank Ceres. Data centers in the seven states with the highest concentrations of them use about 3.4 trillion gallons of freshwater for electric power generation every year, but few electric power producers have connected increasing power demand to water supply risks, says the report, “The Water Behind the Watts.”.
That volume of water adds up to 10.4 million acre-feet—greater than the 8 million-acre-foot average annual urban water demand in California that the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office reported in 2021. It’s the equivalent to 12-times the annual water use of Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Washington, DC, combined, the think tank that advocates for clean energy and sustainable development found. Hundreds of data centers are planned around the US to support the expanded use of AI, and water consumption is emerging is one of the top concerns among communities bracing for data center development, especially in water-scarce regions such as Texas and Arizona. Electric generators powering data centers withdrew 1.4 trillion gallons of water in California and 753 billion gallons in Virginia in 2024, the study shows.
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Utility Dive – August 25, 2026
US-Canada trade war threatens electricity imports, prices
An escalating trade war between the United States and Canada is once again threatening to ensnare the electric power sector at a time when consumers are already stretched thin. Canada is expected to announce retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods Tuesday after President Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian goods went into effect over the weekend, with threats of more on the way.
On Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford told the Associated Press that “everything is on the table,” including halting the province’s critical minerals and electricity exports entirely. The BBC reported Ford said he and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney discussed a 25% tariff on electricity to the U.S. In 2025, amid a previous trade dispute, Ontario enacted a 25% tariff on power exports to the U.S. The two sides eased tensions shortly thereafter, and the tariff was eliminated a day after taking effect.
Utility Dive – August 24, 2026
Bills rise when utilities use conflicting forecasts to drive gas and electric investment
Energy bills are rising across the country, and for many households, the pain is coming from multiple directions. Today’s national conversation about energy costs, load growth, aging 20th-century infrastructure and supply chain disruptions has been an unfortunate reminder that the U.S. is facing two affordability crises at once. Even as electric bills rise, the gas system remains especially vulnerable to price shocks in two ways: fuel price volatility and steep infrastructure replacement costs.
Take New York state, for example, where infrastructure costs (aka, delivery costs) make up 75% of New York heating bills and a similar share for electric bills — the largest driver of rising bills and the highest priority for cost containment. No additional dollar of ratepayer money should be spent without due diligence that it is necessary and the lowest-cost option. In New York and many other places, utilities, regulators and stakeholders cannot yet say that this is the case.
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Utility Dive – August 24, 2026
Pipes as power plants: How cities can use their water systems to generate clean energy
Every day water flows through thousands of miles of municipal pipes, arriving at homes and businesses ready to drink and use. As it moves from source to end user, the excess water pressure in the system is dissipated through pressure reduction valves, engineered safety devices that ensure the water pressure is not too high. Across Oregon, a growing number of cities have discovered that this water pressure can be converted into clean, cost-saving electricity.
In 2020, Hillsboro became one of the first municipalities in the U.S. to install an in-pipe hydropower system at an existing pressure reduction valve. This “in-conduit” hydropower turbine generates more than 200 megawatt-hours of carbon-free electricity annually — enough to offset much of the electricity used by the nearby Hillsboro Ballpark.
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Utility Dive – August 11, 2026
Pay-as-you-go batteries: ‘One weird trick’ for the distribution grid?
Until about 10 years ago, homeowners seeking reliable backup power had little choice but to shell out thousands of dollars for a professionally installed standby generator. Stationary batteries added a cleaner, fuel-free choice to the mix, but they can be even more expensive to purchase outright than diesel or natural gas generators, putting them out of reach for most middle-class homeowners. With import tariffs, country-of-origin restrictions and other factors putting upward pressure on component and module pricing for small battery systems, this dynamic seems unlikely to change soon.
Yet distributed battery adoption could still grow, propelled by retailers marketing home batteries for little or nothing up front and a monthly fee that in some electricity markets costs a little more than a top-tier Netflix or Hulu subscription. Company representatives and distributed energy experts tell Utility Dive the model works — at least for now — because small-scale batteries are uniquely positioned to deliver value to their hosts and to the distribution grids that serve them.
Regulatory
Inside Climate News – August 25, 2026
Some of the largest fossil fuel companies on Earth are disproportionately responsible for the water crisis in the American West, according to a first-of-its-kind study published Tuesday. From 2014 to 2024, climate change sapped over a third of the region’s typical annual snowpack and decreased streamflows by about 13 percent, the authors found in the paper, which appeared in Nature’s Communications Earth and Environment journal. About half of those losses are attributable to emissions from “carbon majors,” 122 fossil fuel companies and cement producers, the study concluded.
That carbon-major pollution has drained the West of trillions of gallons of water, about the full capacity of Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the U.S., the study found. “There are millions of people that rely on these water resources,” said Carly Phillips, a senior research scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists and one of the study’s co-authors. “The consequences of these changes are really evident for people on the ground.”