Since 1954
Amal Ahmed is an environment reporter at the Texas Observer. Originally from Dallas, she has a journalism degree from Northwestern University and previously worked at The Atlantic and was a fact checker at Texas Monthly. She also served as an editorial fellow for the Observer.
More than 40 years after the Texas Southern University professor researched the first environmental justice case, communities of color still face an uphill battle claiming their right to clean air and a healthy neighborhood. Federal environmental justice legislation could change that.
In the growing suburb, a years-old debate about zoning policy has led to increasingly polarized rhetoric in typically nonpartisan races.
Emergency planning often overlooks the needs of the most vulnerable during natural disasters.
The Texas Railroad Commission’s about-face on natural gas flaring can be partially linked to pressure from European companies concerned about Texas’ dirty gas.
Without advance warning about the true scale of power outages and the risks of carbon monoxide poisoning, local officials say they were caught off guard, leaving residents to fend for themselves.
Many of them won’t face any consequences for the excess emissions that they pumped into the air, endangering the lives of communities downwind.
Top ERCOT officials collected six-figure salaries while failing to prepare for extreme weather events that they were warned about.
Power plants without insulation failed, leading to sustained blackouts. But poor insulation in homes across the state made it even harder to stay warm.
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.
After New Mexico rejected a proposal for the El Paso power plant, the Biden administration could be El Paso’s last line of defense.
