A day after the state’s main electric grid operator warned that a variety of factors including record high demand could lead to pricier and dicier electric service, experts added a grain of salt to the predictions.
Kiah Collier
Kiah Collier was a reporter for the ProPublica-Texas Tribune investigative initiative from 2020 through 2023. She previously worked at the Tribune as a reporter and associate editor, covering energy and the environment through the lens of state government and politics. Kiah has reported for numerous other publications across Texas since 2010, including the Austin American-Statesman and the Houston Chronicle. Her beats also have included government and politics, public education and business. Kiah’s work has been honored with numerous prizes, including a George Foster Peabody Award, a Gerald Loeb Award, the Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism, the National Edward R. Murrow Award for best investigation and the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award. A seventh-generation Texan, she grew up in the Austin area and graduated with high honors from the University of Texas at Austin with degrees in journalism and philosophy.
Posted in
Energy
Audit: Company behind Texas “clean coal” project used federal funds for liquor, limousines and lobbying
The U.S. Department of Energy’s inspector general says that a now-bankrupt company behind a defunct West Texas “clean coal” power plant spent more than $1.3 million in federal stimulus funds on things like spa service, alcohol, first-class travel and limousine services.
Posted in
The Taking
South Texas judge dismisses fraud lawsuit over border fence project
A judge said Hidalgo County’s lawsuit against former drainage district manager Godfrey Garza Jr. wasn’t strong enough to take before a jury. But the county judge says the county will appeal.
Posted in
Politics
At East Texas debate, embattled Texas agriculture chief Sid Miller in hot seat
One of the state’s most prominent Tea Party activists needled the one-term incumbent agriculture commissioner over a variety of perceived missteps at a debate Tuesday night.
Posted in
The Taking
New allegations in border fence lawsuit: racketeering, bribes and money laundering
Recent court filings in a case brought by Hidalgo County against a former employee who oversaw construction of a Bush-era border barrier allege a vast kickback scheme worked out over drinks and steak dinners.
Posted in
The Taking
How a South Texas bureaucrat became a multimillionaire amid the rush to build a border fence
A decade ago as the federal government rushed to construct 60 miles of barrier in the Rio Grande Valley, it entrusted the chief of a little-known local agency to execute a compromise project. What it didn’t know was that he — and his family — stood to make millions from it.
Posted inImmigration
The Taking: How the federal government abused its power to seize property for a border fence
Revisit our joint investigation with ProPublica that revealed how the federal government’s rushed, haphazard use of eminent domain led to unequal payments for border residents whose land was seized for a border fence.
Posted in
Graphics and data reporting
How Texas allows industrial facilities to spew unauthorized air pollution — with few consequences
Revisit our investigation of how thousands of “rogue releases” — when industrial polluters spew noxious chemicals into the air during malfunctions and other unplanned incidents, exceeding permit limits — occur in Texas each year.
Posted in
The Taking
The border fence looms over these Texans. Should the government pay them?
Scores of Texas landowners who have lived in the shadow of the border fence for years were never compensated for any damage to their property values.
Posted in
The Taking
The Taking: How the federal government abused its power to seize property for a border fence
A decade ago, many border Texans got a raw deal when the federal government seized land for a barrier — while others pushed up the price. Will the government’s rushed, haphazard process be repeated as it pushes for a border wall?
