The latest environment news from The Texas Tribune.
Battery storage could revolutionize the state’s electrical grid, making it more reliable and friendlier to renewable energy. The problem? It is likely to require a fundamental change in state law. Full Story
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The Houston Chronicle's Theodore Schleifer has the goods on next year's mayoral election in Houston. Full Story
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The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil closed Thursday below $60, "a level of great psychological significance," according to the Washington Post, and a price not seen in five years. Full Story
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A couple of popular government programs for children — one helping with early education and the other providing health care — are facing funding questions. Full Story
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Environmentalists have long argued that the methane that escapes into the atmosphere during the fracking process negates the benefits of the gas. A new study suggests that tighter regulation of drilling wells may help reduce those emissions. Full Story
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Voters in Senate District 18 go to the polls on Saturday to choose who will serve out the remainder of the term of Glenn Hegar, the state's next comptroller. Full Story
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Tensions at the nearly 80-year-old Kilgore College have reached new — and possibly violent — heights amid allegations that the school was in the habit of improperly removing and disposing of asbestos from its buildings. Full Story
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In this week's edition of the Trib+Water newsletter: climate change poses new challenges in Texas, water markets offer new way to deal with shortage and an interview with Walt Sears of the Northeast Texas Municipal Water District. Full Story
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An execution planned for Wednesday evening is focusing attention on the use of the death penalty on those with serious mental illness. Full Story
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With the help of more than $6 million from the state of Texas, prairies west of Houston are being restored with native grasses to increase the population of bobwhite quail, whose numbers have been on the decline in recent years. Full Story
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A rule change will allow the Texas Department of Transportation to move more quickly in lowering speed limits on particularly dangerous roads in the state's drilling regions in West and South Texas. Full Story
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A Ted Cruz for president Super PAC is up and running, while others doubt his ability to win over his party's big donors. Full Story
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The first city in Texas to ban hydraulic fracturing tells a court it has every right to do so, calling the oil and gas extraction technique a “public nuisance” with "offensive results." Full Story
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As shrubs and seedlings take hold in the scorched Bastrop State Park, park officials face a new quandary: An abundance of whitetail deer is threatening the new growth. Full Story
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A story published over the weekend gave details on Gov. Rick Perry's prep work this week and month for a possible second run for the White House in 2016. Full Story
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About 23,000 pounds of a flammable, foul-smelling toxic gas leaked from the DuPont chemical plant in La Porte where four workers died earlier this month, the company said Saturday. Full Story
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The challenges the oil and gas boom present for communities across South and West Texas are immense. Revisit our 15-part multimedia series to see how surging energy production is changing lives and fortunes across Texas. Full Story
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Texas leaders weren't always so skeptical about climate change. But the state's rightward shift, coupled with a booming oil and gas economy, have changed the tenor of the debate. This story was produced in collaboration with The World. Full Story
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Over the objections of Texas officials, the Obama administration on Wednesday proposed a long-delayed rule to slash levels of ozone – a smog-forming pollutant known to worsen asthma, lung disease and heart conditions. Full Story
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College students foiled the will of permanent residents in Denton's vote to ban hydraulic fracking, the losing side maintains. The Tribune crunched the numbers. Full Story
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