rice to the rescue

Rice University's Baker Institute in the running for prestigious $10 million prize

Rice's Baker Institute could change the fortunes of rural Texans.

Rice University is once again in the spotlight for innovation, this time for its work in potentially assisting rural communities across the Lone Star State. And this idea could score the university a $10 million prize.

A new project proposed by the Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy is among five finalists for the coveted Lone Star Prize, the school announced. The Baker Institute project proposal, titled “Texas Dirt: The Key to Environment, Economy and Resilience,” aims to transform the state’s environment “through implementation of a soil carbon storage market while growing new economic opportunities for rural Texans” according to a press release.

Atmospheric accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) contributes to climate change, which disproportionately affects poor and marginalized populations, according to the Baker Institute team.

“Rural communities have long been disadvantaged relative to the urban and industrial centers that are focal points for economic activity and CO2 emissions,” the team wrote in a project description. “A soil carbon market is a Texan approach that addresses both of these issues as part of a long-term solution.” The team aims to “implement a Texas soil carbon storage market that utilizes photosynthesis to abate atmospheric CO2 by storing it as organic matter in soils of prairies, farms, ranches and grasslands of Texas.”

Beyond an economic boost, say the team, benefits the Texas water supply, regional flood resilience, and the restoration of local ecosystems.

As for the prestigious prize, the Texas-based, statewide competition was launched in early 2020 by Lyda Hill Philanthropies and Lever for Change to improve the lives of Texans and their communities, per a statement.

Project members include attorney Jim Blackburn, a professor in the practice of environmental law at Rice and co-director of the university’s Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center (SSPEED); Caroline Masiello, a professor of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Rice; and Kenneth Medlock, the James A. Baker III and Susan G. Baker Fellow in Energy and Resource Economics and senior director of the Baker Institute’s Center for Energy Studies.

Other statewide finalists include Austin's JUST Community, which invests in low-income, female entrepreneurs to create more resilient communities in the U.S.; Dallas-based Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, which will will improve quality of life and mental health access; the Dallas location of Merit America, which will will build new pathways to upwardly mobile careers for low-wage Texans without bachelor’s degrees; and Austin's Texas Water Trade, which aims to deliver clean water to households most in need.

More than 172 proposals were submitted for the Lone Star Prize. A final grant recipient will be announced in late spring 2021.

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Jobs report

Texas clocks in as No. 7 best state to find a job, new report says

Photo by The Jopwell Collection on Unsplash

It's easier to find a job in Texas than in nearly any other state.

If you’re hunting for a job in Texas amid a tough employment market, you stand a better chance of landing it here than you might in other states.

A new ranking by personal finance website WalletHub of the best states for jobs puts Texas at No. 7. The Lone Star State lands at No. 2 in the economic environment category and No. 18 in the job market category.

Massachusetts tops the list, and West Virginia appears at the bottom.

To determine the most attractive states for employment, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 34 key indicators of economic health and job market strength. Ranking factors included employment growth, median annual income, and average commute time.

“Living in one of the best states for jobs can provide stable conditions for the long term, helping you ride out the fluctuations that the economy will experience in the future,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says.

In September, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas led the U.S. in job creation with the addition of 195,600 jobs over the past 12 months.

While Abbott proclaimed Texas is “America’s jobs leader,” the state’s level of job creation has recently slowed. In June, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas noted that the state’s year-to-date job growth rate had dipped to 1.8 percent, and that even slower job growth was expected in the second half of this year.

The August unemployment rate in Texas stood at 4.1 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Throughout 2025, the monthly rate in Texas has been either four percent or 4.1 percent.

By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate in August was 4.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2025, the monthly rate for the U.S. has ranged from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Here’s a rundown of the August unemployment rates in Texas’ four biggest metro areas:

Austin — 3.9 percent
Dallas-Fort Worth — 4.4 percent
San Antonio — 4.4 percent
Houston — 5 percent

Unemployment rates have remained steady this year despite layoffs and hiring freezes driven by economic uncertainty. However, the number of U.S. workers who’ve been without a job for at least 27 weeks has risen by 385,000 this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in August. That month, long-term unemployed workers accounted for about one-fourth of all unemployed workers.

An August survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed a record-low 44.9 percent of Americans were confident about finding a job if they lost their current one.

This story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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