If there is a silver lining to the intensifying drought, it is that after years of hand-wringing from water experts, Texas seems poised to get serious about financing water projects. Competing proposals are floating around the statehouse.

A veritable flurry of rule-making is under way at the Texas Railroad Commission, involving everything from how oil and gas wells are drilled to the recycling of fracking water.

A report published Monday forecasts that the Texas power grid will be a little shakier next summer than previously projected. Thanks to the anticipation of slower power demand, the grid will be a little less shaky in 2014 and beyond.

A major overhaul to oil and gas drilling rules is under way at the Texas Railroad Commission. The initiative has received a cautious welcome from both environmentalists and some industry groups.

The board of the Dallas-based utility company Oncor recently authorized a $17 million payment to its chairman and chief executive, Robert Shapard, according to an SEC filing on Nov. 21, the day before Thanksgiving.

Some Texans in rural areas face double- or even triple-digit rate increases from private water providers. On Wednesday they urged the Senate Committee on Natural Resources to address the problem, and lawmakers seemed receptive.

Though Texas has been promised at least $100 million for coastal restoration after the BP oil spill, the process of disbursing funds for projects like protecting marshland is facing delays.

Millions of "smart" electricity meters have been installed in homes, but now some Texans say the program should be optional. And some lawmakers are listening.

Despite its “Keep Austin Weird” slogan and passion for clean energy, Austin is increasingly attracting oil and gas companies thanks to its entrepreneurial bent and reputation as a fun place to live.

Whether the Legislature will take action to shore up the state's water supplies, and what that action will be, are the questions that everyone in the water world is asking. The Speaker of the House appears ready to push.

Ongoing efforts to fix the strained Texas power market will almost certainly have an effect on the monthly power bills for ordinary Texans. But there has been little discussion, or study, of the impact on ratepayers.

Texas schools have gotten creative about water education, sometimes even giving students low-flow shower heads and other water-saving devices to install at home. But funding is a perpetual challenge.

Wholesale electricity prices on the Texas power grid will be allowed to go twice as high as is currently possible, following a vote Thursday by the Texas Public Utility Commission. What this move means for Texans' electric bills is unclear.

In West Texas, the dry desert air makes for bright stars. But light pollution remains a problem as fast-growing cities, plus a distaste for regulation, mean that light diffuses into the night sky. A few towns in West Texas and the Hill Country are trying to change that.

Bryan Shaw, the TCEQ chairman, told an Austin conference he has already had two "productive" calls with Ron Curry, the new regional head of the Environmental Protection Agency. The two plan to meet within about a month, Shaw said.