During Baker Botts' 39th Annual Environmental, Safety & Incident Response Seminar on January 28, 2026, Partner Matt Kuryla led a session with Toby Baker, Deputy Chief of Staff for the Office of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, on “Texas’ Leading Role in Energy Dominance and Environmental Quality.”

Key Takeaways

1. Texas pairs energy leadership with regulatory streamlining. The state’s growth has been supported by major investments in electricity, leadership in wind, utility scale solar, and battery storage, and a dominant role in domestic energy production, LNG exports, and petrochemicals. Maintaining that trajectory now depends in part on making regulatory systems more efficient so infrastructure and industrial projects can keep pace with demand.
    
2. A new statewide effort is focused on cutting regulatory burden, not just costs. The Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office was created to systematically review state regulations and remove outdated or unnecessarily detailed requirements. Unlike federal cost cutting models, the focus here is on simplifying rules, clarifying language, and reducing compliance friction across agencies. The initiative is intended to support long term economic growth while preserving core environmental and safety protections.
    
3. Permitting efficiency is a central target. Within environmental programs, attention is on identifying bottlenecks in internal workflows, reducing duplicative reviews, and shortening permitting timelines. The effort recognizes that many regulatory requirements are driven by federal law or litigation risk, but still sees room to improve how rules are implemented and how applications move through agencies.
    
4. Industry input and flexible standards will shape the next phase. The review process includes agency staff, technology tools, the efficiency office itself, and direct stakeholder engagement. A key theme is shifting away from overly prescriptive rules toward standards that allow regulated entities more discretion in how they meet legal requirements. Companies are encouraged to submit suggestions for rule changes and to participate early in shaping reforms that could affect permitting and compliance expectations statewide.

Texas is approaching its next phase of growth with a dual focus on energy expansion and regulatory efficiency. As a national leader in electricity generation, LNG exports, and petrochemical production, the state is looking for ways to ensure that regulatory processes do not become a bottleneck to continued development. Recent initiatives are aimed at reviewing and simplifying state rules, modernizing internal agency processes, and reducing unnecessary complexity in permitting and compliance. The emphasis is on clearer, more concise regulations and faster, more predictable timelines, while still operating within the constraints of federal requirements and litigation risk.

For businesses operating in Texas, this represents a meaningful opportunity to help shape the future regulatory landscape. The state is actively inviting stakeholder input on outdated or overly prescriptive rules and is signaling a shift toward performance-based standards that allow more flexibility in how compliance is achieved. Companies that engage early, identify practical inefficiencies, and propose workable alternatives stand to benefit from a system designed to support growth, innovation, and long-term investment in one of the country’s most dynamic energy and industrial markets.