SpaceX can’t launch another rocket until dozens of fixes are made, FAA says
An investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration found multiple failures that led to the explosion of a SpaceX rocket in the Rio Grande Valley in April. Full Story
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![SpaceX's Starship lifts off from the company's Boca Chica launchpad on an uncrewed test flight before exploding, near Brownsville on April 20, 2023.]()
Credit: REUTERS/Joe Skipper -
The summer’s record heat has caused costly damage to Texas water systems
As dry soils contract, underground pipes rupture and cities must fix thousands of water leaks, frustrating conservation efforts and highlighting the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to a warming climate. Full Story
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![City of Odessa Water Distribution employees work through the night as they attempt to repair a broken water main on Tuesday, June 14, 2022 in Odessa. According to Mayor of Odessa Javier Joven, repairs were completed around 3:45 a.m. Wednesday.]()
Credit: Courtesy of Odessa American/Eli Hartman -
EPA’s inspector general says agency isn’t enforcing benzene pollution rules at refineries in Texas, nationally
A report by the federal environmental agency’s internal watchdog found that EPA is failing to enforce its own pollution limits for the known carcinogen at many refineries — including some in Texas. Full Story
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![A Deer Park neighborhood next to Highway 225, which borders the refineries, petrochemical plants and industrial storage tanks that line the Houston Ship Channel. In 2019, air quality inspectors found that high levels of benzene emissions had wafted across the highway and into residential areas of Deer Park in the weeks after the ITC chemical fire was extinguished.]()
Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune/Public Health Watch -
Texas just recorded its second hottest summer on record
The average temperature in Texas this summer was 85.3 degrees, putting it behind only 2011 for summer misery. Full Story
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![Tumbleweeds cling to a barbed wire fence approximately 10 miles north of Brownfield on the Lubbock Road. High winds kicked up a dust storm that blanketed parts of West Texas on Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 14, 2023.]()
Credit: Mark Rogers for The Texas Tribune -
Texas takes legal action to save Fairfield Lake State Park
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department began the legal process of eminent domain to seize the former state park and save it from being turned into an upscale subdivision. The agency had offered a Dallas-based developer $103 million for it. Full Story
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![A view of Fairfield Lake at Fairfield Lake State Park on Feb. 27, 2023.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
How ERCOT is narrowly getting through an extreme summer — and how experts say it could do better
Record-high power demand and faltering electricity sources have tested the grid in the past month, forcing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to dig deep into its toolbox to keep power flowing. Full Story
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![Powerlines crisscross the Permian Basin landscape, south of Gardendale, on 2018.]()
Credit: Jerod Foster for The Texas Tribune -
Q&A: How can Texans deal with extreme heat?
We know you’re tired of the heat at this point. Here’s how much longer you can expect it to last and reminders on how to stay safe and cool. Full Story
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![Geoff Bell, a HVAC technician with Texas Pride Air Conditioning and Heating, tests the refrigerant levels in an air conditioning unit during a heat wave Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023 in Houston.]()
Credit: REUTERS/Adrees Latif -
Their water is undrinkable. So these West Texas residents have taken matters into their own hands.
The water in these four unincorporated communities near Lubbock has been undrinkable for years, residents say. They hope to win $3 million in state grants to improve their systems. Full Story
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![Signs advertise a future neighborhood near Wolfforth on Wednesday, April. 26, 2023, in Lubbock County.]()
Credit: Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune -
Texas eighth graders will soon be required to learn about climate change. But not without a showdown over textbooks.
Texas is one of the few states that don’t already require eighth graders to be taught about climate change. That’ll change next fall. Full Story
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![State Board of Education Member District 6 Will Hickman poses a question to Commissioner of Education Mike Morath during a hearing Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023 at the William B Travis Building in Austin.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune -
Texans asked to conserve power Wednesday for the eighth time this month
The grid operator asked Texans to reduce power use from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. to avoid a power-supply emergency. Full Story
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![Near Sweetwater, Texas construction has started on transmission lines that will connect windy regions of the state to its population centers. The total cost of all the lines throughout Texas is estimated at nearly $7 billion.]()
Credit: Axel Gerdau for The Texas Tribune -
Under new state law, Texas will bill electric vehicle drivers an extra $200 a year
The new registration fee is meant to make up for the state’s lost revenue from gasoline taxes that are used to pay for road construction and maintenance. Full Story
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![While waiting for the battery in his Tesla EV to charge, a traveler cleans the windshield on his vehicle at a service station in Childress on Aug. 23, 2022.]()
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Texas’ environmental agency enables companies to increase oilfield wastewater disposal in rivers
Researchers are still studying the chemical makeup of “produced water” from Permian Basin oil fields. But regulators say they’re ready to issue permits to discharge the water into rivers and creeks. Full Story
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![Fracking's water demand requires the construction of ponds like these, which store millions of gallons of fresh water. Aug. 21, 2013.]()
Credit: Tamir Kalifa for The Texas Tribune -
Heat, drought and population growth have stressed aquifers that supply water to millions of Texans
Diminishing springs and aquifers due to heat, drought and high for demand water highlight the urgency for Central Texas conservation districts to prioritize climate-focused management, potentially involving reduced pumping for sustainability. Full Story
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![David Baker, founder and director of the Wimberley Watershed Association, said he's never seen the water level so low in Jacob's Well. Photographed on Thursday, August 10, 2023.]()
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For Texans, fighting state-regulated oilfield waste dumps can be a costly, do-it-yourself effort
Some Texans who challenge oil and gas waste sites must spend significant sums and time on investigating what they say the Texas Railroad Commission should examine. Will new regulations for handling waste increase oversight or just maintain the status quo? Full Story
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![Tara Jones, who lives half a mile from the Blackhorn Environmental oil and gas waste facility near Orange Grove, says she spent almost a year learning the state’s regulatory rules and investigating the commercial dumping operation.]()
Credit: Jason Buch/Public Health Watch -
Gov. Greg Abbott declares wildfire disaster for three-fourths of Texas
At least 8,500 acres of Texas land have burned since Aug. 1. The governor’s disaster declaration allows included counties to access state resources to fight wildfires. Full Story
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![The Rolling Pines Fire blazes through Bastrop State Park on Jan. 18, 2022.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Texas sues Shell over Houston-area chemical fire in May
The lawsuit seeks $1 million in damages, claiming the three-day blaze at Shell’s Deer Park facility caused air and water pollution that violated state law. Full Story
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![Deer Park, Texas: An overhead view of an explosion at a Shell USA Inc. facility on May 5, 2023 in Deer Park, Texas.]()
Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune -
“We’d lose one after the next”: Texas bats face a pandemic of their own
Weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic swept into Texas, a biologist found a dead bat covered in a white fungus — the state’s first official case of white-nose syndrome. Now, scientists are on a mission to understand how many bats have been lost. Full Story
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![Lee Mackenzie, co-founder of the Austin Bat Refuge, holds a Mexican free-tailed bat in his hands inside their flight cage in Austin on July 14, 2023.]()
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New forecast predicts more hurricanes because of record-warm sea surface temperatures
Texas meteorologists remind residents to make sure they have a plan in the event of a tropical storm Full Story
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![Highway 225 in Deer Park along the Houston Ship channel during a heavy downpour from Hurricane Harvey on Saturday Aug. 26, 2017. Deer Park is in U.S. Congressional District 36.]()
Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune -
Texas is preparing for more wildfires without a break from heat in forecast
The number of acres burned this year is dramatically lower compared to 2022. But a rash of new fires have put state and local officials on edge. Full Story
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![Bastrop County Sheriffs Department evacuated businesses and residences as multiple first responders including Bastrop Fire, Round Rock Fire, Austin Fire Department and Travis County ESD join together to fight a powder Keg Pine Fire in Bastrop on Tuesday Aug. 1, 2023.]()
Credit: USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Co -
High Plains farmers are experimenting with novel techniques to protect Texas’ future soil
A minority of farmers in the Texas High Plains region are looking to organic and regenerative techniques to keep their soil healthy year round, despite a dry climate. Full Story
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![A field of corn in the Panhandle near Dumas in June, 2013.]()
Credit: Jerod Foster for the Texas Tribune