The sound of clanging and banging construction equipment may interrupt the tranquil noises of nature for Texas campers this spring and summer.
Environment
Coverage of climate, conservation, natural resources, and environmental policy shaping the state, from The Texas Tribune.
Posted in
Energy
The Applicant
Can an energy regulator who’s on the board of an entity he oversees make a play for the top job there? Industry and government sources say that’s what Barry Smitherman, the chairman of Texas’ influential Public Utility Commission, is doing, though Smitherman won’t say whether he’s in the running.
Posted in
Environment
To Dump or Not to Dump?
A proposed rule would allow more low-level radioactive waste to be transported, processed, and stored in West Texas. People turned out to speak Monday at the State Capitol about it. Andrews County, near the New Mexico border, currently accepts and stores hazardous waste, and as KUT’s Erika Aguilar reports, the list of its clients appears about to expand.
Posted in
Energy
To Dump or Not to Dump?
Andrews County’s hazardous waste holdings might be expanding soon. A proposed rule would allow more low-level radioactive waste to be transported, processed and stored in West Texas, and regulators are listening to public comments, Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports.
Posted in
Environment
Something in the Air
The Clean Air Force of Central Texas is warning a five-county area that it’s in danger of failing to meet federal requirements for ground level ozone. New EPA standards that went into effect this past January, and this may be the most challenging ozone season in the region’s history. Julie Moody of KUT News filed this report.
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Grissom on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to stay Hank Skinner’s execution, Thevenot on the myth of Texas textbook influence, Rapoport on the wild card who was just elected to the State Board of Education, Ramshaw on the price of health care reform, Philpott on the just-enacted prohibition on dropping kids from the state’s health insurance rolls, M. Smith on the best little pole tax in Texas, Ramsey on the first corporate political ad and the reality of 2011 redistricting, Stiles on the fastest-growing Texas counties, Aguilar on the vacany at top of Customs and Border Protection at the worst possible time, Galbraith on the state’s lack of renewable energy sources other than wind and its investment in efficiency, and Hu and Hamilton on the runoffs to come in House districts 52 and 127. The best of our best from March 22 to 26, 2010.
Posted in
Energy
Don’t Blow It
Texas’ wind power prowess is well known: Turbines have been popping up like weeds, and we now have three times the wind power installed as the next closest state. But other renewable energy sources have lagged here.
Posted in
Energy
Investing in Efficiency
Texans have always been far better at making energy than saving it. But if a proposal before the Public Utility Commission gets approved this year, buildings and appliances would need to become much more energy efficient by 2014. Electric providers across the state would be required to offset 50 percent of their customers’ growth in usage with energy-efficiency measures — well above the current 20 percent requirement set by the Legislature.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Grissom on the 1.2 million Texans who’ve lost their licenses under the Driver Responsibility Act and the impenetrable black box that is the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Ramshaw and Kraft on nurses with substance abuse problems and rehabilitation that can get them back to work, M. Smith finds it’s not easy being Rick Green, Stiles on counting Texans (and everybody else), Rapoport on the State Board of Education’s war with itself and the runoff in SBOE District 10, Thevenot’s revealing interview with a big-city superintendent on closing bad schools, Aguilar on the tensions over water on the Texas-Mexico border, Hamilton on the new Coffee Party, Hu on Kesha Rogers and why her party doesn’t want her, Philpott on the runoff in HD-47, Ramsey on Bill White and the politics of taxes, and E. Smith’s conversation with Game Change authors Mark Halperin and John Heleimann: The best of our best from March 15 to 19.
Posted in
Demographics
A Border Runs Through It
At the heart of America’s symbiotic relationship with Mexico is a long-standing and sometimes tense agreement over an issue more far-reaching than homeland security and immigration: water.