More than 40 people crammed into the Texas Railroad Commission’s hearing today on what caused two water wells in Parker County to become contaminated by natural gas. Missing: the Environmental Protection Agency.
Energy
In-depth reporting on oil, gas, renewable power, and policies shaping the future of energy in Texas from The Texas Tribune.
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Energy
EPA Presses On in Fight With Texas
The Environmental Protection Agency took public comment in Dallas on Friday on its new rules for greenhouse gas regulations. Because Texas has refused to establish a greenhouse gas permitting process, the EPA will directly issue permits to companies here — but as Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports, federal officials say there won’t be a delay for companies wanting to them.
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Energy
Who Owns Our Water?
Upping the stakes in a long-running debate over groundwater and property rights, state Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, filed a bill this week that would give Texas landowners ownership of the groundwater beneath their property. As Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports, the filing comes as the Texas Supreme Court considers a similar issue.
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Energy
Permitting Paralysis?
The politics and rhetoric of the Environmental Protection Agency’s multi-front battle with Texas make for a grand spectacle. Behind the scenes, however, there are signs that big industrial plants are trying to move past the stalemate on their own, talking with federal regulators and, in some cases, preparing to meet the demands of the agency.
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Energy
TribBlog: Sunset on Railroad Commission
The Sunset Advisory Commission met today and recommended that the Railroad Commission be renamed the Oil and Gas Commission, and that its top structure shrink from three elected commissioners to one.
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Energy
TribBlog: Court Blocks Texas Over Greenhouse Gas
A federal court has denied Texas’ request to halt a federal takeover of greenhouse gas regulations in the state.
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Energy
TribBlog: The Wind Blows Stronger
Electricity use on the Texas grid rose by 3.5 percent in 2010, and wind turbines generated 7.8 percent of the power, according to figures released today by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid operator.
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Criminal Justice
Pomp, Circumstance, Consequences
The 82nd Texas Legislature convenes in Austin this week, and while it’s not as much fun as the circus — usually — it’s more important and does have its share of comedy and drama.
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Energy
The Carbon Conundrum
In Texas, the largest oil producer in the United States, the demand for carbon dioxide is soaring, because it can help squeeze oil out of formations deep in the earth. That’s why the idea of of capturing it and pumping it underground is gaining traction in the power sector. It sounds like an exercise in environmental idealism: Take the heat-trapping gas — belched prolifically from coal plants, which generate 45 percent of the nation’s electricity — and bury it, benefiting the atmosphere and combating global climate change. Of course, it is something of an environmental conundrum that stowing the greenhouse gas underground can also help to produce more fossil fuels.
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Energy
Carter Smith: The TT Interview
The executive director of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department discusses the acquisition of a large piece of remote and rugged land along the Devils River; next steps for the bighorn sheep released in Big Bend Ranch State Park; the threats posed by invasive species like the giant salvinia, an exotic, rootless fern, and zebra mussels — and what the state’s budget shortfall might mean for his agency and for the state’s lands, waters, fish, wildlife and parks.