EPA Budget Cuts Will Affect Texas Environmental Programs
Texas faces a hefty reduction in federal funding for drinking water and sewer projects as a result of a recent budget cut to the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington. Full Story
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Texplainer: How Will High Gas Prices Affect the Budget?
With gasoline costing $1 more than a year ago, budget planners can add fuel expenditures to their list of worries. However, it's also true that oil companies will also pay more in taxes to the state as they beef up their drilling operations. Full Story
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Lawmakers Question Tax Exemption for Natural Gas
In a Texas House Appropriations Committee hearing this morning, natural gas producers fought back against suggestions that a major tax exemption they receive be rolled back. Full Story
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Senate Approves Radioactive Waste Commission Plan
Today the Senate passed a couple of bills that outline how the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission should oversee a low-level radioactive waste dump planned for Andrews County. Full Story
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Wildfires in West Texas Could Creep Eastward
A string of wildfires has charred about 400,000 acres in drought-stricken West Texas. But as Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports, areas further east, also thirsting for water, may be just as vulnerable as the west. Full Story
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Steve Pollock: The TT Interview
The regional fire coordinator for the Texas Forest Service, near the front lines of a 100,000-acre blaze that swept through Stonewall and King Counties last weekend, says more bad fire weather is on the way later this week. Full Story
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Steve Pollock Audio
An audio interview with Steve Pollock of the Texas Forest Service on the Texas wildfires. Full Story
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Drought Could Keep Wildfires Blazing Until Summer
Firefighters continue to battle massive wildfires that have scorched more than 300,000 acres across the state in the last week. As Crystal Chavez of KUT News reports, with the state still battling a drought, little relief is in sight. Full Story
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Lawmakers Eye Repeal of Natural Gas Tax Break
The state of Texas generates a fortune from taxes on mining for oil, gas and minerals. But as Ryland Barton of KUT News and ReportingTexas.com reports, the natural gas industry enjoys a special incentive that some legislators want to scrap. Full Story
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TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Tan on the budget standoff between the House and Senate, Ramsey on budget cuts that cost us money, Philpott on Hispanics and redistricting, Stiles visualizes speed limits by state, Grissom on a liberal social justice organizer who became a conservative hero, M. Smith on even more student social security numbers at risk, Ramshaw on whether family planning equals abortion, Aguilar on what circumcision has to do with citizenship, Murphy on how much Texas university adminstrators are paid, Hamilton on the latest in the higher ed reform saga and Galbraith on Texas energy lessons from the 1970s: The best of our best content from April 4 to 8, 2011. Full Story
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Slideshow: Fighting Fires in Texas
The Texas Forest Service, the lead agency charged with fighting fires, has had a busy season due to strong winds and drought. Full Story
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Forest Service Battles on Two Fronts: Fires, Budget
Drought and strong winds mean that the number of wildfires is way up this year. But the Texas Forest Service, the lead fire-fighting agency, is also facing heightened scrutiny in the Legislature — and, of course, budget cuts. Full Story
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Video: Fighting Fires With the Forest Service
The Texas Forest Service is the lead state agency tasked with fighting wildfires. Among its recent challenges: a 3,000-acre blaze on an army base near Brownwood. Full Story
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Bill Would Create Texas Energy Council
The Senate Natural Resources Committee heard testimony this morning on a bill that would create a Texas Energy Policy Council charged with formulating an energy plan for the state. Full Story
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Solar Backers Place Hopes in House Bill
Advocates of solar power made their case last night for passage of a bill that would add a dollar each month to residential electric bills to fund solar projects. Opponents worry about costs. Full Story
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House Takes Testimony on Groundwater
The House Natural Resources Committee is taking testimony today on a controversial groundwater bill that would give landowners "a vested ownership interest" in water below their land. Full Story
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On Energy, a Lesson for Texas From the 1970s
Unrest in the Middle East, rising oil prices and frustration with federal energy policy — for many Texans, today’s headlines must seem like déjà vu. While the situation is far less severe than the aftermath of the 1973 Arab oil embargo, the parallels are unmistakable. Full Story
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Denton Paper Takes Close Look at Fracking
The Denton Record-Chronicle, a newspaper in the heart of the Barnett Shale gas-drilling region, has produced a series about "what it means to live in the midst of a modern gas boom" that is worth reading. Full Story
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Legislators Take Up the Great Plastic Bag Debate
This week, committees in both chambers heard testimony about bills to encourage recycling of plastic grocery bags. But environmentalists fear that the legislation would prevent local communities from banning plastic bags altogether, as three Texas cities have done. Full Story
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Senate Passes Groundwater Bill
The Texas Senate passed a much-discussed piece of groundwater legislation, voting 28-3 to approve a bill stating that landowners in the state have a "vested ownership interest" in the groundwater beneath their land. Full Story
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Credit: Callie Richmond
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