The oil spill has so far bypassed Texas, but Houston could still see a big impact — in the courtrooms.
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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Criminal Justice
The Brief: June 2, 2010
The Fort Hood shooter made his first courtroom appearance Tuesday, but a trial, the military court decided, won’t happen until October.
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T-Squared
T-Squared: Now With More Energy…
Effective today, the Trib has a dedicated energy reporter on staff: Kate Galbraith, formerly of The Economist and The New York Times.
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Energy
The Pollution “Police”
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has nearly doubled its number of administrative enforcement actions against polluters in the last five years — yet critics charge the agency still levies penalties too small to act as a deterrent.
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Energy
“Accidents Happen Sometimes”
In the wake of the BP catastrophe, former Railroad Commissioner Barry Williamson is defending the federal Minerals Management Service, which he led during the Exxon Valdez spill. “Was there a failure of regulation? I don’t know,” he says. “There may not have been.”
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Energy
TribBlog: W. is for Wind
Former President George W. Bush appeared in rousing, joke-cracking form in a rare speech this morning the American Wind Energy Association’s conference in Dallas. He praised Texas wind energy, bashed the media, refused to bash his successor and said his grandchildren will be driving electric cars. He also gave away the first line of his forthcoming memoir, a quote from his wife that got him to quit drinking.
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Energy
TribBlog: Room at the Top, and Then Some
Jan Newton — who chairs the board of directors at the state’s electric utility grid operator — is stepping down from that post, leaving the agency with interim officeholders and holes in key positions at the top of its organization chart.
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Energy
The Next Deepwater?
While Congress investigates the April 20 explosion that killed 11 people and spiked an underwater oil leak that continues to spill more than 210,000 gallons a day, another BP rig is at the center of its own firestorm.
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Energy
On the Records: Mapping Refinery Violations, Fines
An analysis by the The Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington, D.C., shows that BP is responsible for almost all of the nation’s “willful” safety violations at refineries. Check out their interactive map.
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Energy
A Hostile Climate
The Obama administration’s push to pass carbon control legislation got a boost yesterday with the release of a new version of the bill in the U.S. Senate. Here in Texas, as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, the state’s GOP leadership continues to fight back against what they view as an energy tax bill.