The latest environment news from The Texas Tribune.
Operators of the state’s electric grid are about to flip the switch on what could be the most significant change to the Texas energy market in a decade. The change to what’s called a “nodal” grid system happens on Dec. 1, but as Matt Largey of KUT News reports, it’s not clear what happens after that. Full Story
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Heavy truck traffic, some of it related to the wind industry, has increased sharply across the state in recent years, and it's taken a heavy toll on rural roadways. To its chagrin, the Texas Department of Transportation has little prospect of recouping repair costs. Full Story
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In the absence of a real debate between Gov. Rick Perry and his Democratic challenger, Bill White, Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune has created the next best thing: a mash-up of their answers to questions asked Friday by the Tribune's Evan Smith during one-hour interviews of the candidates sponsored by the Trib, KUT and Austin public television station KLRU. Full Story
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As one of 40 parks across Texas benefiting from renovation projects, Bastrop State Park will spend about $4 million on improvements financed by the sale of voter-approved bonds authorized by the Texas Legislature. By April 2011, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department expects to complete $44 million in repairs and renovations to state park infrastructure. Full Story
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An annual state-by-state ranking of energy efficiency policies, compiled by a Washington-based advocacy group, shows Texas slipping the fastest. Full Story
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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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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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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
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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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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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Texas air-pollution regulators today approved a crucial environmental permit for a large and controversial coal plant in Matagorda County. Full Story
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There are no viable substitutes for the longest segment of a controversial proposed transmission line through the Hill Country, the state grid operator reported today. Full Story
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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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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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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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An interview with Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club Full Story
Texas has fired off another volley of legal challenges against federal environmental regulators. Full Story
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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
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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
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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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