For Gov. Rick Perry, who has built a political career running against Washington, no agency more symbolizes the meddlesome and economy-choking evils of the federal government than the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Texas Water Development Board's just-released 295-page report says that if Texas does not spend tens of billions more on water infrastructure, a drought as bad as that of the 1950s could cost Texans $116 billion per year by 2060.

The chairwoman of the Public Utility Commission on how close Texas came to rolling blackouts this summer, what consumers can expect to pay as wind-power transmission expands, and how the historic drought affects the reliability of the power grid. 

We'll be liveblogging throughout the weekend from the Texas Tribune Festival's energy and environment track — which includes panels on the coming crisis over water, big oil and national security, and whether green energy is an oxymoron.

The Texas Tech climate scientist and author of A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions on why why working in Texas, a state full of both prominent climate skeptics and extreme weather, is an "opportunity."

At a board meeting on Wednesday, the Lower Colorado River Authority approved an emergency plan that could cut off water supplies to downriver rice farmers entirely next year if the drought worsens.

Rolando Pablos, the former chairman of the Texas Racing Commission, will fill the empty slot at the Texas Public Utility Commission. Separately, the state's electric grid operator announced that its board chairwoman, Laura Doll, is stepping down.

If the drought continues well into next spring and summer, the electric grid could lose "potentially several thousand megawatts," according to an ERCOT official. That's roughly equivalent to several coal plants.

Fearing that this drought could reduce lake levels lower than ever before, the Lower Colorado River Authority's board will meet next week to discuss reducing or ending its water sales to downriver farmers next year.

Did the federal government drag its feet in providing disaster relief to the victims of the devastating Bastrop County fires? It depends on whom you ask. It's the latest chapter in a dispute between Texas and the feds that began in April. 

Gov. Rick Perry had been expected to appear in Bastrop County today to tour areas damaged by wildfires and hold a press briefing, but after state and local officials spoke at the briefing, aides said that the governor had remained in Austin.

As the worst one-year drought in Texas history wears on, officials at some military installations around the state have banned the use of tracer fire and other pyrotechnics. 

Over the past year, Texas has battled wildfires that cover an area larger than the state of Connecticut. It's straining the budgets of both state and local firefighting units, and as the prospect of a multiyear drought looms, wildfire season is in no way over.

Gov. Rick Perry thanked emergency responders and urged Texans to remain on guard against wildfires, after touring a massive blaze near Bastrop that he described as being "as mean-looking as I've ever seen." 

Even as the Obama administration delighted conservatives last week by pulling back on a broad regulation to combat ozone pollution, the controversial "cross-state" rule that would also reduce smog-forming pollutants in Texas remains on track.