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The latest environment news from The Texas Tribune.

  • Coal Comfort

    By Kate Galbraith

    So what if coal, the dirtiest of the fossil fuels, faces tightening air-pollution standards from federal regulators? Texas is aggressively building new coal plants. An air-pollution permit recently approved for a plant in Matagorda County is one of six granted to projects that are not yet up and running, and four more projects — near Abilene, Odessa, Sweeny and Corpus Christi — have sought permits. Texas, which consumes far more coal power than any other state, already has 19 operating coal-fired power plants, the majority of which are in East Texas. Full Story 

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  • Meanwhile, Back in the Gulf...

    By Matt Largey, KUT News

    Next week will be six months since a BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico began spewing out millions of barrels of crude. Scientists are now scrambling to collect data and determine what — if any — long term damage the Gulf ecosystem might suffer. Matt Largey of KUT News reports. Full Story 

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  • TribBlog: A Vision for D.C.

    By Emily Brown

    Gov. Rick Perry continued to tout Texas’ superiority to the nation’s capital and the rest of the country when he spoke to the Clean Carbon Policy Summit in Austin this afternoon. Full Story 

    Gov. Rick Perry at a Texas Association of Broadcasters conference in Austin on Aug. 12, 2010
    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • TribBlog: Murder at Falcon Lake

    By Julián Aguilar

    Law enforcement agencies are again warning patrons of Falcon Lake in South Texas to stay on the U.S. side of the popular fishing spot. The warning follows the fatal shooting of a U.S. man by Mexican pirates who allegedly attacked him after he traveled into Guerrero Viejo, Tamaulipas, on his Jet Ski. Full Story 

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  • Drilling Down

    By Kate Galbraith

    Whoever wins the governor's race in November will face a variety of pressing questions concerning one of the state's biggest industries: energy. Texas is a top producer of natural gas, oil and, more recently, wind power. As things stand now, the state is coping with a federal moratorium on new deepwater oil drilling, bracing for federal action on climate change and other air pollution, preparing for an influx of electric cars and debating whether to enact a mandate for renewable energy sources other than wind. How do Rick Perry and Bill White come down on the issues? Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman/Bob Daemmrich

  • It's Getting Hot in Here

    By Kate Galbraith

    Come January, the Environmental Protection Agency will begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions around the country for the first time — but not if Texas can help it. Attorney General Greg Abbott last week lodged legal challenges in a federal court against EPA actions on multiple fronts, including a reiteration of the state's long-standing argument against the agency's scientific foundation for determining the dangers of greenhouse gas pollution. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Jacob Villanueva

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Ross Ramsey

    Ramsey on the fourth University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll (with insights into the statewide races, issues, the budget, and Texans' view of the national scene), Hamilton and Thevenot in Galveston on the anniversary of Hurricane Ike, Ramshaw on secret hearings that separate children from their guardians, Hu on what former state Rep. Bill Zedler did for doctor-donors who were under investigation, Aguilar on the troubles around Mexico's bicentennial, Galbraith talks coal and wind with the head of the Sierra Club, E. Smith interviews state Rep. Debbie Riddle about tourism babies and godless liberals, Grissom on why complaints about city jails go unaddressed, Philpott on the debate that will apparently never happen and Stiles continues to put the major-party gubernatorial candidates on the map: The best of our best from September 13 to 17, 2010. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Jacob Villanueva

  • Michael Brune: The TT Interview

    By Kate Galbraith

    The executive director of the Sierra Club on the perils of coal ash, why wind is a good thing, the priorities of state environmental-quality officials and how Texas oil companies are working to roll back California's global warming regulation. Full Story 

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    Credit: Lori Eanes

  • TribBlog: Fine Lines

    By Kate Galbraith

    Despite opposition from Hill Country landowners, the Texas Public Utility Commission declined to throw out one of the proposed wind-power transmission lines through Hill Country during an open meeting this morning. Full Story 

    An electrical substation in Comfort, Texas.
    Credit: Callie Richmond

  • Surge Protectors

    By Reeve Hamilton and Brian Thevenot

    Two years after Hurricane Ike’s surge crossed Galveston like a speed bump on its way to Houston, planners and academics are staring down multibillion-dollar public policy dilemmas. To describe Ike as a “wake-up call” understates and trivializes the matter. Like other coastal areas around the nation and around the world, the Houston-Galveston region is only now grappling with complex and costly questions of how to protect sprawling seaside development from the combination of subsidence and an expected sea-level rise from global warming. Full Story 

    U.S. Air Force member conducted search and rescue operations on Galveston Island after Hurricane Ike on Sept. 13, 2008.
    Credit: Staff Sgt. James L. Harper Jr.

  • Slideshow: Galveston Rebuilds

    By Todd Wiseman

    Two years after Hurricane Ike's surge washed over Galveston, residents here still struggle to rebuild parts of the island, which has lost about 10,000 people from its pre-flood population of about 50,000. Full Story 

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    Credit: Todd Wiseman

  • Series Explores Texas' Transmission Lines for Wind Power

    By Kate Galbraith

    This week, the Tribune put together a three-part series exploring the state's $5 billion transmission-line build-out to support wind power, which is mostly generated in West Texas but needs to be shipped to cities in Central and East Texas. The project is known as CREZ, short for Competitive Renewable Energy Zones. Full Story 

    New turbines tower over an old windmill at the Whirlwind wind farm, near Floydada
    Credit: Kate Galbraith

  • Battle Lines: Panhandle Power

    By Kate Galbraith

    While West Texas has become the nation's wind-power hub, the Panhandle's ferocious winds go largely untapped. That could change with a slew of proposed transmission line projects that could, in turn, enable forests of turbines — if landowners can be soothed. Part three of a three-part series. Full Story 

    New turbines tower over an old windmill at the Whirlwind wind farm, near Floydada
    Credit: Kate Galbraith

  • Battle Lines: Electrifying the Hill Country

    By Kate Galbraith

    The epicenter of the fight over the state's wind power transmission lines is the Hill Country, where landowners are spending lots of money and time to keep the lines from being built. They're trotting out every conceivable argument, and they may just succeed. Part two of a three-part series. Full Story 

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    Credit: Jim Nix

  • There Goes the Sun

    By Brandi Grissom

    In the tiny outpost of Marfa, residents who opposed the build-out of a massive solar power plant can thank the languishing economy for putting the project on hold. Tessera Solar has scotched plans to erect 1,000 three-story mirrored satellite dishes until further notice. Full Story 

    SunCatchers that Tessera Solar plans to install near Marfa.
    Credit: Tessera Solar