Students at Fort Bend ISD went back to school for in-person instruction on Wednesday.

A senior at George Bush High School in Fort Bend ISD, Jedidah Udunna said that he was ready to go back to the classroom.

“I’m looking forward to being able to see all of my friends and being able to learn and also for the football season,” said Udunna.

“We are so excited to have our kids back to school in the actual building and not online,” said George Bush High School Principal Felicia James.

James said that administrators have been working diligently to prepare buildings and the schools to make sure the proper safety protocols are in place.

There’s still a lot of questions for some families about how the school year will unfold. On Tuesday, some parents rallied at district headquarters asking for a mask mandate and a virtual learning option for everyone.

Acting Superintendent for FBISD Diana Sayavedra said that the district will continue to comply with Gov. Greg Abbott’s order.

“We are strongly encouraging parents to send students with masks to school because it’s a primary mitigation effort,” said Sayavedra.

Because of the surge of COVID cases, the district announced on Monday that it would offer a limited online program for students in Pre-K thru the sixth grade.

“We started to see the data shift and it was important for us to think about our most vulnerable children ages 5 to 11 who don’t have an opportunity to get vaccinations. It was important for us to figure out what options we might need to provide them,” the superintendent said.

Sayavedra said that, for now, the online option will remain available to those age groups.

“There’s no bills at the state level that are being considered in terms of funding, if those things come thru there may be an opportunity for us to expand but right now we are focused on Pre-K thru sixth grade for virtual.”

The district said 2,000 students have applied for the virtual option.

Source: www.click2houston.com

 Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced Tuesday night that the county has authorized the Harris County attorney to file a lawsuit challenging Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order banning mask mandates.

Abbott’s order, issued in the spring when coronavirus cases were on the decline, limits school officials’ ability to respond to the pandemic, which at the moment is in the middle of what some health experts are calling the fourth wave. With the delta variant being more infectious, cases are on the rise and more children are being sent to hospitals.

Hidalgo said Tuesday that the county is filing the suit following concerns from multiple school leaders, and the fourth wave of the coronavirus.

“First responders and school leaders are speaking out and standing up as Delta ravages our community. We have their back,” Hidalgo tweeted.

Despite COVID-19 numbers increasing, Abbott stated earlier this month that he was past the point of issuing government mandates to slow the spread of COVID-19, even as the delta variant has cases and hospitalizations up across the nation. Instead, he said it is time for personal responsibility, which he emphasized when he took away the statewide mask mandate earlier this year.

“Going forward, in Texas, there will not be any government-imposed shutdowns or mask mandates,” he said. “Everyone already knows what to do.”

Source: www.click2houston.com

Today, Commissioner Wayne Christian wrote a letter to President Joe Biden encouraging him to reconsider discussions with OPEC+ and instead unleash the private sector to produce oil domestically in America. You can view the formatted letter here or below:

Dear Mr. President,

I write to you concerning the Biden Administration’s recent discussions with OPEC+ to increase the supply of oil by expanding production of foreign oil to lower gasoline prices in America.

These discussions tacitly acknowledge the important role of fossil fuels for American families to have access to cheap, plentiful, and reliable energy. While I appreciate your support for increasing the production of oil, quite frankly, we do not need to rely on other countries for natural resources we can produce right here at home.

In recent years, the United States surpassed Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the top producer of oil and natural gas in the world — producing a record 12.4 million barrels of oil in August 2019. Unfortunately, over the last two years, COVID-19, ESG investing, and regulatory uncertainty from the federal government have stripped us of our hard-fought energy independence.

By frequently attempting to weaken the American oil and gas industry you are not reducing emissions, you are merely shipping them overseas while killing American jobs, increasing costs to American consumers, and harming our country’s national security. Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy summed it up well when he recently stated that “cutting production in the U.S. only to see that demand met by dirtier producers elsewhere in the world results in more pollution and more environmental damage. Instead, we should be promoting cleaner production here at home.” It is confusing to me why an American president would be so hostile to American industry, jobs, consumers and national security.

Here’s the truth. The environment in the United States is getting cleaner, not dirtier. Over the last fifty years, the six major pollutants regulated by the EPA have fallen by 77 percent while the U.S. economy grew 285 percent and its population by 60 percent¹. While natural gas production increased more than 50 percent between 1990 and 2017, methane emissions from natural gas decreased by more than 14 percent². According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, between 2005 and 2019, total U.S. electricity generation increased by almost 2 percent while related CO2 emissions fell by 33 percent³.

Meanwhile, China — already the largest carbon emitter on Earth⁴ — commissioned more coal-fired electric generation capacity last year than the rest of the world retired⁵. More than 50 percent of the raw materials required to make solar panels and wind turbines are now mined in China by power generated from fossil fuels⁶. This means wind and solar generated electricity in the United States isn’t reducing global carbon emissions, it is just outsourcing them to China.

Mr. President, I implore you to reverse course on your policy decisions and rhetoric regarding American oil and natural gas. “Freezing” new oil and gas exploration on federal lands and revoking the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline provide negligible environmental benefits compared to its cost. Climate change is not the same thing as a climate crisis, and these public policy decisions are harming real Americans living paycheck to paycheck.

America has proven we do not need to rely on OPEC+ or any other nation for our energy needs. We can produce the natural resources we need right here at home. History has shown us time and time again that oil and natural gas production and a clean environment are not mutually exclusive. America has proven that through technological innovation we can maintain a clean environment AND achieve energy independence.

Thank you,

Source: www.rrc.texas.gov