The outgoing director of the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club on the importance of water, the growth of the Club, and how he stumbled on his future career path while hiking near Fort Bliss.
Environment
Coverage of climate, conservation, natural resources, and environmental policy shaping the state, from The Texas Tribune.
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Aaronson interactively maps Texas Medicaid providers, Aguilar talks legalization with the head of the Drug Policy Alliance, Galbraith on farmers watering what they know won’t grow, Grisson sits down with exoneree Michael Morton, Hamilton on the elusive $10,000 college degree, Murphy et al. update the 2012 election brackets, Ramsey on Bill Ratliff’s frank budget analysis, Ramshaw on a hospital where the overweight need not apply, Root on Joe Straus’ primary opponent and Tan rounds up reactions to the Supreme Court’s health care hearings: The best of our best content from March 26-30, 2012.
EPA Withdraws Order Against Natural Gas Driller
The Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn an administrative order that charged Range Resources, a Fort Worth-based natural gas driller, with contaminating water wells.
Isolated Texas Electric Grid Could Add Links
Texas’ electric grid prefers to stay isolated from the rest of the nation. But proposals are afoot to boost outside ties โ something that proponents say could help ease the state’s looming electricity crunch.
The Weekly TribCast: Episode 125
Reeve, Emily, Jay and Kate talk about a Texas hospital that won’t hire obese workers, Texas farmers watering crops that won’t grow, and the primary challenge for the Speaker of the Texas House.
Texas Farmers Watered Crops, Knowing That They Wouldn’t Grow
By mid-summer last year, it was so hot and dry that many West Texas cotton farmers gave up hope of producing a crop. Yet they had to keep watering, pumping from diminishing aquifers like the Ogallala, to claim crop insurance.
New EPA Rule May Spur Rush to Build Coal Plants in Texas
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday announced rules limiting carbon pollution from new power plants nationwide. As Mose Buchele of KUT News reports for StateImpact Texas, plants may start scrambling to begin construction before the regulations take effect. Read the full story at StateImpact Texas.
Series Looks at Drought, How Texans Are Coping
The PBS NewsHour, in partnership with StateImpact Texas, takes a look at how two Texas communities are dealing with the Texas drought.
Property Owners Say Oil Companies Underpaying for Land Use
In Texas, some oil companies lease private land from landowners, who then receive royalties from the sale of the oil. But as Dave Fehling of KUHF News reports for StateImpact Texas, some Texas landowners say they’ve been cheated out of payments.
Officials Approve Radioactive Waste Site
State officials voted today to allow low-level nuclear waste from around the country to be brought to the Texas-New Mexico border for storage. As Mose Buchele of KUT News reports for StateImpact Texas, the vote put the final touches on a controversial plan approved by the Legislature last year.


