Amal Ahmed
Low-Income Texans Already Face Frigid Temperatures at Home. Then the Winter Storm Hit.
Power plants without insulation failed, leading to sustained blackouts. But poor insulation in homes across the state made it even harder to stay warm.
This story was published in partnership with Southerly. When the temperature dropped into the single digits last Monday night, Edilisa wrapped herself and her 9-month-old baby in blankets and huddled in the closet of her studio apartment in Austin. It … Read More
Why Texas Wasn’t Prepared for Winter Storm Uri
A disaster management expert weighs in on how poor planning and communication failures deepened the crisis that left millions without power during the deep freeze.
The snow has melted and the record-breaking, freezing temperatures have warmed back up, but Texans in nearly every county will be dealing with the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri for months to come. It’s likely one of the most widespread … Read More
The Sunniest City in Texas is Expanding … Natural Gas Production
After New Mexico rejected a proposal for the El Paso power plant, the Biden administration could be El Paso’s last line of defense.
Jeanette Lara is one of a handful of doctors who serves the small, unincorporated community of Chaparral, New Mexico. Every day, when she drops off her 8-month-old son to his grandparents before work, she drives past the Newman Power Station, … Read More
Teens for a Green New Deal
Sixteen-year-old climate organizer Chanté Davis on how change could start with young people in Texas.
Chanté Davis, a 16-year-old New Orleans native, knows that climate change is urgent and personal. In 2005, she and her family evacuated right before Hurricane Katrina decimated their hometown. They settled in Houston, where, over the past decade, she’s lived … Read More
Solar Energy is Hitting a Growth Spurt. So Is The Disinformation Around It.
Anti-renewable energy campaigns are nothing new in the Lone Star State. A new wave of disinformation could spell trouble for the state’s fledgling solar industry.
David Dunagan doesn’t want a 760-acre solar power plant to be built across his fenceline. The Old Jackson Power Plant will replace farmland in Van Zandt County with gleaming, metal panels. Though the 127-megawatt plant will provide clean, renewable energy … Read More
Bringing the Dead Home
Thirty years after Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, only a fraction of human remains held by Texas’ museums and universities have been returned.
Thirty years after Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, only a fraction of human remains held by Texas’ museums and universities have been returned. By Amal Ahmed November 16, 2020 Ramón Vásquez can’t tell you … Read More
Texas Has Elected A Climate Change Denier to the Railroad Commission
Newly elected commissioner Jim Wright will be one of three people in charge of regulating the state’s oil and gas industry. He doesn’t believe that flaring contributes to climate change.
Ten years. That’s how long we have to make massive reductions in carbon emissions before some of the worst effects of climate change become irreversible, according to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It will be nearly impossible … Read More
Illegal Air Pollution is Skyrocketing in Texas, But State Regulators are Ignoring Complaints
An environmental watchdog submitted evidence of dozens of violations, but the state’s environmental agency rarely followed up.
It’s no secret that in the Permian Basin, one of the world’s most productive oil and gas fields, pollution is everywhere. Industrial facilities burn off so much excess natural gas that you can see the flares from space. But as … Read More
Millennials and Gen Zers are Breaking Voter Turnout Records in Texas
By the end of early voting, 1 million voters under the age of 30 had cast their ballot. Will they turn Texas blue?
A little more than a month before early voting started in Texas, a group of 20-somethings and teenagers with the Sunrise Movement drove to Congressman Michael McCaul’s home in an Austin suburb. It was 5 a.m., and the climate activists … Read More