Latest NEWS
George Mitchell's 17-year mission to crack the Barnett Shale
Everything George P. Mitchell did flew in the face of convention. It’s no wonder that the process he pioneered is commonly called “unconventional” drilling. The wildcatter tried for 17 years to find the right cocktail of chemicals that would crack the Barnett Shale. He did it in... Read More >
Governor, lawmakers honor oil field pioneer George Mitchell
The Texas House of Representatives honored a shale drilling pioneer Monday, calling George Mitchell a man who has changed the world. Mitchell, who will turn 94 later this month, wasn't at the ceremony, although his daughter Sheridan Lorenz and representatives of Mitchell Energy and the Cynthia and... Read More >
George P. Mitchell: Planting seeds of his legacy in Texas
The revitalization of oil and natural gas production in the United States can largely be traced back to one man, George Mitchell, who spent a decade trying to figure out how to employ refined hydraulic fracturing techniques to coax more gas out of the tight Barnett Shale formation. But Mitchell's... Read More >
Scientists see promising blips in underground dark matter search
Three potential signatures of exotic dark matter particles have been found hidden in the readings from an underground lab in Minnesota — and although the results are too tentative to be classified as a discovery, scientists say they provide promising new clues to the solution of a... Read More >
Scientists may finally shine a light on dark matter
Physicists have puzzled for decades about a form of matter that makes up 90 percent of galaxies, including our own Milky Way, but which they've never seen.Now they may finally have solved the mystery of this "dark matter." The answer may come from Sam Ting, a Nobel laureate in physics who... Read More >
OP-ED Texas Should Lead On Gas Drilling Oversight
Rarely do national environmental protests occur in Texas. Our state is a challenging venue in which to highlight environmental issues, especially those related to impacts of popular oil and gas practices. Yet, an anti-oil and gas coalition convened its first national summit deep... Read More >
Controversial 'Fracking' Drills Downs on Energy Question
George P. Mitchell, chairman of The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, addressed the issue of natural gas sustainability in the story, “Controversial ‘Fracking’ Drills Down on Energy Question,” by Tedd Cohen, published in the February 2013 edition... Read More >
Wealth Matters: Family Foundations Prepare for the Next Generation
As parents, we worry about our children. And if we have more than one, we worry about how they will interact with each other, not just when they’re young but when they’ve grown up. Independence is great; interdependence is what keeps them together when we’re gone. Families of... Read More >
In study of next generation donors, good news for start-ups, social entrepreneurs and innovators
Even as there are reports outlining how young Americans could live their entire lives strapped with debt, there is a cohort of the younger generations, particularly Generations Y and X, who stand to inherit an unprecedented amount of wealth — somewhere in the neighborhood... Read More >
The oil man who figured out fracking
He cracked the code. That's what folks in the oilpatch say about George Mitchell. In the 1970s and '80s, the country's conventional, big pools of natural gas were tapped out. Drillers looked in new geologic formations, but found themselves stumped."We knew the gas was there," Mitchell tells... Read More >
A valuable lesson on the birds and trees
This is a story about a family and its love for a plot of land. The fact that the 5,650 acre plot of land is owned by the family of oil-and-gas man, developer and dedicated philanthropist George P. Mitchell is just a matter of scale. There are lessons in this story for everyone. Sarah Mitchell,... Read More >
Q&A with Katherine Lorenz, president of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation
Almost two years ago, Katherine Lorenz took the reins of The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, becoming the third generation of family members to lead and carry on the passion of its founders — her grandparents.The foundation, which focuses on sustainability, funds high-impact projects... Read More >
Mitchell Foundation Makes Additional $20 Million Gift to Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University
A new $20 million gift makes Houston billionaire George P. Mitchell the most generous donor in Texas A&M University's history. The contribution, established through the Texas A&M Foundation and payable over five years, will significantly boost the endowment for the George P. and Cynthia... Read More >
OP-ED Hastings: Ask the right questions about Texas' water future
Inadequate water supplies existed long before last year’s drought and will linger long after the Legislature concludes in 2013. With growing demand for Texas water from increasing population and economic activities, and strained water supplies in times of drought, prominent experts and elected... Read More >
Romney's Empathy Bypass -- and What It Means for Election Day
When Presidential candidate Mitt Romney argued that defunding the Federal Emergency Relief program FEMA was necessary he set in motion his likely defeat on November 6th, 2012. He built upon this narrative with his characterization of 47% of Americans as leeches and self-dealing... Read More >
Will Texas Lawmakers Fund the State Water Plan?
When it comes to the cost of the looming water crisis in Texas, the State Water Development Board is ready with some helpful numbers.They are generally big ones. If the state does nothing to cope with its booming population and dwindling water supply, Texas businesses will lose $116... Read More >
13% of U.S.'s Energy Goes to Collect, Prepare Water: Study
Energy used for treating, heating, pumping and cooling water in the U.S. accounted for almost 13 percent of the nation’s total annual consumption, according to a University of Texas at Austin study. The amount, about 12.3 quadrillion BTUs, is equivalent to the annual energy usage of about 40... Read More >
To Conserve Energy, Conserve Water
So you got your new compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Now you’re wringing your hands over how to dispose of them so that you don’t unleash toxic mercury into the environment. An improvement? Or just another example of politicians and environmentalists trying to push us around? Sure CFLs... Read More >
Meet Philanthropy's Next Generation
Every year a select group of entrepreneurs and business people upset the status quo. Whether their source of wealth is a hot startup like Nasty Gal or Instagram, or savvy leadership at a hedge fund, we deem them each likely to join the future ranks of The Forbes 400. And in a special twist this... Read More >
How The Next Generation of Wealth Is Revolutionizing Philanthropy As We Know It
The next generation of inherited or self-made wealth is being scrutinized and pressured to give bigger, earlier and more efficiently than ever before. And rather than measuring success based on the number of digits connected to a bank account, many of today’s next gen philanthropists also... Read More >
OP-ED Seeking the sensible center
In Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and even Texas, there is a fundamental debate over “fracking” — the hydraulic fracturing of shale rock that, together with horizontal drilling, unleashes abundant natural gas. Mostly, it’s the loud voices at the extremes who are dominating the... Read More >
Gas Works: Shale gas is giving a big boost to America's Economy
PENNSYLVANIA, THE SITE of America’s first oil wells back in the 1850s, is now home to the world’s second-largest gas field after South Pars, on the border between Qatar and Iran. At the turn of the millennium America’s conventional gasfields were in decline. The country was... Read More >
Saving the Woodpecker: How a Texas Oil Billionaire Rebuilt a Forest
One Texas oil and gas billionaire is getting special recognition for what he has done to help a little bird. The Sand County Foundation and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department picked the Cook’s Branch Conservancy for the 2012 Leopold Conservation Award, the... Read More >
George P. Mitchell is one of Foreign Policy's 100 Top Global Thinkers
George Mitchell long ago made our short list of candidates for Houstonian of the century - the 21st century. Mitchell's futuristic achievements in developing The Woodlands alone would have qualified the nonagenarian oilman for serious consideration for the title. His vision of a planned... Read More >
The Shale Gas Revolution
The United States is a country that has received many blessings, and once upon a time you could assume that Americans would come together to take advantage of them. But you can no longer make that assumption. The country is more divided and more clogged by special interests. Now we groan to absorb... Read More >