Deck 13: Energy, Environment, Transportation, and Trade Policies: Transforming Texas

Question 1

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) estimates that for every billion it borrows, it will have to pay $______ million in annual interest rates.

A) 30
B) 45
C) 60
D) 75
E) 90

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Besides building and maintaining roads, the Good Roads Amendment demands that road user fees will be spent on ______.

A) public safety
B) health care
C) education
D) the promotion of tourism
E) state parks

Answer 2

C

Question 3

In what year did Texas open its first light rail system?

A) 1996
B) 1990
C) 2000
D) 2004
E) 2010

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Although oil was discovered in other parts of the state earlier, the Texas oil boom began with a massive oil find in ______.

A) Nacogdoches
B) Fort Worth
C) Corsicana
D) Beaumont
E) Houston

Question 5

Which city's light rail system has the greatest number of operated miles not only in Texas but in the nation as well?

A) Fort Worth
B) San Antonio
C) Austin
D) Houston
E) Dallas

Question 6

Which of the following is a correct description of air quality in Texas?

A) Texas ranks among the lowest states in the nation in measured air pollution.
B) The air quality has improved in recent decades.
C) Texas ranks third in carbon dioxide emissions.
D) Texas has been a leader in implementing national limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

Question 7

What was the most prominent concern the authors expressed about the Andrews County radioactive waste site?

A) The site is close to several K-12 public schools in the area.
B) Its proximity to the Ogallala Aquifer creates a risk for water contamination.
C) The cost to sustain the waste site is projected to exceed the revenue it will generate.
D) Transportation of the materials creates new risk along Texas railroads.
E) Other states that expressed interest in contracting with the site have backed out of their promises.

Question 8

Which of the following is the best description of a negative externality?

A) an economic transaction that favors the buyer
B) an economic transaction that favors the seller
C) prices for a product that taxes force beyond the affordable reach of those earning an average income
D) an unintended cost imposed on someone not involved in an economic transaction

Question 9

How many nuclear power plants does the state of Texas have?

A) one
B) two
C) three
D) four
E) five

Question 10

The Texas economy is larger than that of each of the following countries EXCEPT ______.

A) South Korea
B) the Netherlands
C) Russia
D) China

Question 11

The authors mention the recession of the ______ as the beginning of the diversification of the Texas economy away from oil.

A) 1950s
B) 1970s
C) 1980s
D) 1990s
E) 2000s

Question 12

Texas leads the country in the production of each of the following EXCEPT ______.

A) oil
B) coal
C) wind
D) natural gas

Question 13

How are water rights connected to land ownership in Texas?

A) Property owners own the water below their property.
B) Property owners own only the water that lies on the surface of their property.
C) Land ownership is irrelevant, and only governments maintain water rights.
D) Land owners must provide an accounting of water usage related to need.
E) Ownership of land carries water ownership only outside of city limits.

Question 14

The power of a government to take private property for public use, generally for public functions such as roads, is called ______.

A) judicial review
B) common law
C) writ of certiorari
D) eminent domain
E) stare decisis

Question 15

What was the main incentive Texas offered railroads for increased development?

A) The state provided generous amounts of land to railroad companies.
B) Texas subsidized passenger rail on a dollars-per-passenger basis to attract service to major cities.
C) The state placed strict restrictions on oil development to facilitate routes.
D) The state placed strict restrictions on the grazing of public land to facilitate routes.
E) The legislature exempted the railroad companies from most assessments.

Question 16

How has the funding for Texas roads changed since the twentieth century?

A) Taxes account now for a larger share of the funding.
B) The U.S. Congress ended the subsidies that were central to construction.
C) Tolls and fees have become an almost irrelevant part of funding.
D) Lottery revenue is now the primary source of revenue for road maintenance.
E) Funding is now based more on fees and bonds issued by the government.

Question 17

How does modern fracking differ from traditional fracking?

A) Modern fracking uses more water than did traditional.
B) Traditional fracking was more reliant on horizontal movement of wells.
C) Modern fracking is much less labor intensive.
D) Modern fracking is not yet subject to any federal regulations.
E) Traditional fracking was unable to extract natural gas.

Question 18

In 1981, oil and gas made up around what percentage of gross state product (GSP)?

A) 5 percent
B) 10 percent
C) 15 percent
D) 20 percent
E) 25 percent

Question 19

Which of the following is true about wind power in Texas?

A) Wind power production in Texas peaked during the 1990s.
B) Wind power accounts for about one-fourth of all electricity in Texas.
C) Federal taxes on wind energy have slowed its development in Texas.
D) Texas leads all states in wind power production.

Question 20

Which of the following is NOT true regarding Texas and environmental regulation?

A) The Texas agency responsible for environmental regulation is the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality.
B) Texas has a history of favoring business interests over environmental protection.
C) Governor Perry's focus on environmental protection made Texas decreasingly friendly to big business.
D) Texans prefer little regulation of business and have doubts about the value of environmental regulation.
E) The interests of Texas's influential industries coincide with the frontier attitude of keeping government minimal.

Question 21

What is the significance of Spicewood Beach?

A) It is the first Texas town to regulate fracking.
B) It is the first Texas town to refuse to educate illegal immigrants.
C) It is the first Texas town to run out of water.
D) It is the first Texas town to adopt solar energy.

Question 22

What percentage of road-user fees may be spent on education?

A) 75
B) 55
C) 25
D) 45

Question 23

Rule of law means that Texans who own land also own the water that lies beneath.

Question 24

The Good Roads Amendment requires that ______ percent of road-user fees be spent on building and maintaining roads.

A) 75
B) 55
C) 95
D) 100

Question 25

The Federal Aid Road Act allowed states to receive ______.

A) matching funds for road construction
B) hot tar for road construction
C) funds to employ highway patrol
D) concrete at a discount from the federal government

Question 26

What source of energy is being squeezed out by wind in Texas?

A) coal
B) oil
C) natural gas
D) solar

Question 27

The Texas law that says property owners own the water below their property is known as the ______.

A) water rights act
B) rule of capture
C) stewardship act
D) dominion rule

Question 28

Who was responsible for the creation of the Texas Railroad Commission?

A) Sam Houston
B) Rick Perry
C) Edmond Davis
D) James Hogg

Question 29

The Texas Highway Department depends on revenue from a tax on what product to build new roads?

A) cattle
B) soybeans
C) solar power
D) gasoline

Question 30

Texas has led the country in wind energy since ______.

A) 1985
B) 2000
C) 1996
D) 2006

Question 31

Continued fracking is jeopardized by which natural limitation?

A) water shortages
B) declining natural gas resources
C) hurricanes
D) erosion

Question 32

Which type of alternative energy has Texas excelled in developing?

A) coal
B) soybean
C) nuclear
D) wind

Question 33

Who is primarily responsible for protecting the environment in the state of Texas?

A) the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality
B) the Environmental Protection Agency
C) oil and gas companies
D) the Texas Legislature

Question 34

All of the following have contributed to the water shortage in Texas EXCEPT ______.

A) dried up lakes
B) dried up rivers
C) declines in the aquifer
D) selling water to other states

Question 35

Eminent domain is the power of government to take private property for the public use.

Question 36

The Texas Commission for Environmental Quality commissioners are elected for four-year terms.

Question 37

An unintended cost imposed on someone who did not participate in an economic transaction is a negative outcome result.

Question 38

The Federal Aid Road Act was passed in ______.

A) 1920
B) 1950
C) 1916
D) 1996

Question 39

The cash-poor Texas government originally paid for the extension of the railroad with what resource?

A) barrels of oil
B) water resources
C) cattle
D) land

Question 40

The first paved road in the state of Texas was built in ______.

A) 1895
B) 1940
C) 1930
D) 1918

Question 41

The oil crisis of the 1970s decreased the ability of the Texas Highway Department to build new roads.

Question 42

Texas is last among states using wind energy.

Question 43

In 2014, almost twenty towns in Texas came within ninety days of running out of water.

Question 44

In 2012, Texas opened the first low-level radioactive waste site in thirty years.

Question 45

Although Texas has been an early adopter of wind energy, the state has lagged behind in other forms of alternative energy.

Question 46

The rule of capture comes from English common law.

Question 47

Texas has the only site in the country that accepts B and C classifications of radioactive waste.

Question 48

Discuss the costs and benefits of fracking.

Question 49

The rule of capture applies to escaped livestock.

Question 50

How did the ending of the pay-as-you-go rules for transportation budgeting change the way Texas pays for roads?

Question 51

Texas allows the dumping of radioactive waste in a site located above the Ogallala Aquifer.

Question 52

The state of Texas is number one in the use and investment in solar energy.

Question 53

The Texas Highway Department originally relied on a tobacco tax to fund road construction.

Question 54

The water shortage in Texas has been brought on by drought.

Question 55

Funding for Texas roads has changed substantially in the past couple of decades. What have the changes been, and how have Texas legislators' views on taxes been a primary cause?

Question 56

Public-private partnerships allow government infrastructure to be built by private entities.

Question 57

Texas's environmental policies tend to be less strict than those found in other states. What is it about Texas politics and culture that explains this?