Kathleen Hartnett White is the Distinguished Senior Fellow in Residence and
the Director of the Armstrong Center for Energy and the Environment (CEE) at
the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Kathleen directs the CEE’s research and
policy development on a range of issues including energy, climate change, air
quality, water quality & water rights and waste.
In August 2007, Kathleen White completed her six-year term as Chairman and
Commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). With
regulatory jurisdiction over air quality, water quality, water rights & water
utilities and waste, TCEQ is the second largest environmental agency in the
world after U.S. EPA. As the final state decision maker, she presided over
complex and controversial permitting issues such as coal-fired power plants,
ozone controls for Houston’s petrochemical complex, climate change, water
right permits and radioactive waste disposal.
Prior to Governor Rick Perry’s appointment of Kathleen Hartnett White to TCEQ
in 2001, she served on the Texas Water Development Board, the Texas
Economic Development Commission and the Environmental Flows Study
Commission. Kathleen now is an officer and a director of the Lower Colorado
River Authority - her fifth gubernatorial appointment.
She has received the Texas Water Conservation Association’s President’s
Award, the Colorado River Foundation’s Friend of the River Award and the
Texas Chemical Council’s Leadership Award. Her writing has been published in
the National Review, Investors’ Business Daily, Washington Examiner, Daily
Caller, Weekly Standard and many state newspapers.
A writer and consultant on environmental laws, natural resource policy, private
property rights and ranching history, White received her bachelor cum laude
and master degrees from Stanford University where she held the E. W. Lyman
Academic Scholarship. Her many academic awards include a national Danforth
National Fellowship for doctoral work at Princeton University, Princeton’s
Jonathan Edwards Award for Academic Excellence, and a Lineberry Foundation
Fellowship at Texas Tech University School of law.
White is also a partner with her husband in a 125 year-old ranching operation in
Jeff Davis and Presidio counties, Texas.