An interview with the director of HBO’s “Gasland”
Kate Galbraith
Kate Galbraith covered energy and environment for the Tribune from 2010 to 2013. Previously she reported on clean energy for The New York Times from 2008 to 2009, serving as the lead writer for the Times' Green blog. She began her career at The Economist in 2000 and spent 2005 to 2007 in Austin as the magazine's Southwest correspondent. A Nieman fellow in journalism at Harvard University from 2007 to 2008, she has an undergraduate degree in English from Harvard and a master's degree from the London School of Economics. She is co-author of “The Great Texas Wind Rush,” a book about how the oil and gas state won the race to wind power.
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Energy
Air Splitting
The battle over Texas’ environmental regulations came to a head as the Environmental Protection Agency shot down the state’s air-pollution permitting regime for large plants. It’s the latest episode in a larger cultural and political fracas pitting Texas against Washington — and business against government — that continues to take center stage in the race for governor.
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Energy
TribBlog: EPA Shoots Down Texas Pollution Regulations
The Environmental Protection Agency has formally denounced the state’s air-pollution permitting system for some of its biggest industrial plants — and reactions are pouring in.
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Energy
The Nuclear Option
Seventeen years ago, Texas turned on its last nuclear reactor, about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth. In another decade, several more reactors could get built here — if events in Washington go the power companies’ way.
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Energy
Seeing Green
The Environmental Protection Agency’s campaign against Texas’ air pollution permitting process is well-known, but federal regulators are also working to tighten a number of other rules relating to power plant waste, ozone and greenhouse gas emissions. Texas businesses fear that the new regulations will dent the state’s fragile economic recovery. Environmentalists are, predictably, delighted.
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Energy
TribBlog: Grading the Grid
A consulting firm’s report on the Texas grid operator, ERCOT, includes comments about “dead wood” among the workforce. It recommends staffing cuts and an independent board.
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Energy
TribBlog: Joe Barton Says Sorry to BP Chief [Updated]
U.S. Rep. Joe Barton apologizes to BP chief executive Tony Hayward, saying that the $20 billion escrow account for spill victims set up by the White House and BP on Wednesday amounts to a “shakedown.” Later Thursday, he retracted his apology to BP, and apologized himself.
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Energy
Panhandling for Water
Within Texas, the Ogallala Aquifer accounts for about 40 percent of all water use, but its levels are declining sharply. In a dry growing season, the High Plains Water District recorded an average drop of 1.5 feet. Meanwhile, the 2007 state water plan projects that the Ogallala’s volume will fall a staggering 52 percent between 2010 and 2060.
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Energy
Crude Concerns
In the wake of the Gulf spill, anxiety is building about a proposed pipeline that would run through East Texas, ferrying Canadian oil to Port Arthur and Houston for refining.