After centuries of fighting back water in a low-lying nation, the Dutch have become the world leaders in flood control. And their expertise is helping Texas design what would become the nation’s most ambitious — and expensive — coastal barrier.

The judge determined this week that the Taiwanese-owned company has been in "enormous" violation of its state-issued permits and federal clean water laws for discharging plastic pellets and other pollutants into Lavaca Bay and other waterways from its plant in Point Comfort.

For the past year, an influential conservative think tank has lobbied to make wind and solar projects ineligible for a popular local property tax abatement program. A measure to do that has stalled, but renewable advocates are watching for last-minute changes to other legislation.

The Senate Committee on Water and Rural Affairs took public testimony on a bill that would strengthen state oversight of above-ground tanks that hold hazardous hydrocarbons.

Several bills meant to protect Texas landowners facing condemnation for oil pipeline construction and electric transmission projects generated heated debate on Thursday at a Capitol committee hearing.

During the first legislative session since Hurricane Harvey, state lawmakers are poised to make an investment in storm recovery and flood mitigation that some have described as unprecedented. But it's more complicated than that.

In recent weeks, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has swiftly sued two companies over major fires at their Houston-area plants. It's a dramatic departure from the state's usual approach to environmental enforcement.

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Executive Director Toby Baker told a special panel of state senators on Thursday that first responders are still actively managing an incident at a Houston-area petrochemical facility that began last month.

Both chambers now want to put $9 billion toward public schools and levy reductions. But they disagree about how to spread it out.

Attorney General Ken Paxton filed an environmental lawsuit against Intercontinental Terminals late Friday seeking tens of thousands of dollars in damages.

The upper chamber cast three, 31-0 votes on Wednesday to approve disaster recovery and preparedness legislation that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick named a top priority.

A fire that broke out Sunday morning at a petrochemical storage facility in the industrial Houston suburb stopped burning overnight.

In a statement Monday afternoon, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said air quality monitoring "had not detected any immediate health concerns at ground level" amid a multi-tank fire at a petrochemical storage facility near Houston.

Even if President Donald Trump gets his way, eminent domain lawyers say a variety of legal issues would arise surrounding private land seizures that could delay wall construction for years — and even derail it entirely.

In the first session since Hurricane Harvey, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and three top senators are pushing a legislative package aimed at preparing the state for natural disasters.

At a public hearing on Monday, state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst — who has long tried to strengthen protections for landowners facing condemnation — challenged officials from fossil fuel groups who said her latest legislation would drag down energy production.

State leaders have all thrown support behind tapping the rainy day fund to help with Hurricane Harvey recovery. But a year and a half after the storm, they haven't offered many specifics.

The state has been waiting a year for the federal government to set rules for how $4.3 billion in disaster recovery grants can be spent.

An analysis by the research arm of Environment Texas found that 275 companies across the state reported emitting 63 million pounds of hazardous and climate-warming pollutants from their facilities in 2017.

An analysis of government satellite data by the Environmental Defense Fund shows that the amount of natural gas that energy companies burned off in 2017 is twice as high as what they reported to state regulators.