Severe Weather and the Texas Energy Infrastructure


UT Austin has experts available to speak on severe weather and its impact on the state's energy infrastructure and water resources. 

If you are seeking expertise on other subjects, please call University Media Relations at 512-471-3151 or consult our general Media Experts Guide.



Energy and Water


Carey W King

Carey W King

Research Scientist , Energy Institute
+1 512 471 5468, careyking@mail.utexas.edu

Dr. Carey W King performs interdisciplinary research related to how energy systems interact within the economy and environment as well as how our policy and social systems can make decisions and tradeoffs among these often competing factors. Carey’s research goals center on rigorous interpretations of the past to determine the most probable future energy pathways. He reaches these goals by bridging the gaps between economic and biophysical (or ecological) worldviews of economic growth and structural change. Please visit Dr. King's webpages: [/link] http://careyking.com (Personal Research Page) [/link] http://www.jsg.utexas.edu/careyking/ (Jackson School Research Page:)

Media Contact: Kathleen Harrison, ksharrison@utexas.edu, 512-232-3723

Benjamin D Leibowicz

Benjamin D Leibowicz

Associate Professor , Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering
+1 512 475 9550, bleibowicz@utexas.edu

David P Tuttle

David P Tuttle

Research Associate , Energy Institute
+1 512 796 9771, dptuttle@energy.utexas.edu

Media Contact: Kathleen Harrison, ksharrison@utexas.edu, 512-232-3723

Michael  Webber

Michael Webber

John J. McKetta Centennial Energy Chair, Professor , Mechanical Engineering , Cockrell School of Engineering
+1 512 475 6867, webber@mail.utexas.edu

Michael Webber is the Deputy Director of the Energy Institute, Josey Centennial Fellow in Energy Resources, Co-Director of the Clean Energy Incubator at the Austin Technology Incubator, and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, where he trains a new generation of energy leaders through research and education at the intersection of engineering, policy, and commercialization.

Media Contact: Nat Levy, nat.levy@utexas.edu, 512-471-2129

Energy Policy and Economics


Joshua W Busby

Joshua W Busby

Professor , Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 471 8946, busbyj@utexas.edu

Joshua Busby is a Professor of Public Affairs and a Distinguished Scholar at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law. From 2021-2023, he served as a Senior Advisor for Climate at the U.S. Department of Defense. He originally joined the LBJ School faculty in fall 2006 as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer. Busby is also a nonresident fellow with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a senior research fellow at the Center for Climate & Security. His teaching areas include Environmental and Energy Policy and Policy Process and Institutions.

Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

Sheila M Olmstead

Sheila M Olmstead

Professor , Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 471 2064, sheila.olmstead@austin.utexas.edu

Sheila Olmstead joined the LBJ School as an Associate Professor of Public Affairs in 2013. Before joining the LBJ School, Olmstead was a Fellow (2010-2013) and Senior Fellow (2013) at Resources for the Future in Washington, DC, as well as Associate Professor (2007-2010) and Assistant Professor (2002-2007) of Environmental Economics at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where she was the recipient of three teaching awards. Olmstead is an environmental economist whose current research projects examine the environmental externalities associated with shale gas development in the United States, regulatory avoidance under the U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act, the influence of federal fire suppression policy on land development in the American West, and free-riding in dam placement and water withdrawals in transboundary river basins. She has worked extensively on the economics of water resource management, focusing on water demand estimation, water conservation policy, and access to drinking water services among low-income communities. Climate and energy policy are additional topics of her research, especially with regard to the application of market-based environmental policy instruments. Olmstead's research has been published in leading journals such as the Journal of Economic Perspectives, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Journal of Urban Economics, and Water Resources Research. With Nathaniel Keohane, she is the author of the 2007 book Markets and the Environment. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of the Interior, World Bank, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Olmstead is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, and a member of the Advisory Board of the International Water Resource Economics Consortium. She holds a PhD from Harvard University?s John F. Kennedy School of Government (2002), a Masters in Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas, Austin (1996), and a BA from the University of Virginia (1992).

Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

Varun  Rai

Varun Rai

Professor , Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 471 4697, +1 512 471 5057, rai@austin.utexas.edu

Varun Rai earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 2008 with specialization in energy systems and technologies. Before joining the University of Texas at Austin in July 2010 he was a research fellow at the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development (PESD) at Stanford University from 2008-2010. He holds a M.S. from Stanford and a bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur. His principal research interests are in technological change, innovation and diffusion; economics of climate change/integrated assessment models; and energy and development. His research combines energy systems modeling with the political economy of energy markets to understand how changes in energy technologies, market conditions, policies and regulation, and environment could impact energy generation. The emphasis of his research is on interdisciplinary and integrative research in engineering and policy to ensure that the insights from his policy research are rooted in the underlying technical realties. His past research has concentrated on three problems in particular: incentive policies and rates of technological diffusion for carbon capture and storage (CCS); performance and behavior of national oil companies; and strategies for engaging developing countries in global climate change policy.

Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

Andrew Waxman

Assistant Professor , Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
, awaxman@utexas.edu

Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

For more information, contact: University Communications, Office of the President, 512-471-3151.