Christopher Collins

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Christopher Collins is a freelance writer and formerly an associate editor at the Texas Observer. The Wichita Falls native graduated from Midwestern State University in 2012 with a degree in Mass Communication. He previously has worked as a reporter at the Abilene Reporter-News and the Wichita Falls Times Record News.

Articles by Christopher Collins

Downtown Big Spring, Texas, on a cloudy day.

In Big Spring, a Rural Community Braces for Another Oil Bust

As oil prices plummet, the petroleum industry’s benefits and drawbacks for small towns are on full display.

by Christopher Collins

Off the Texas Gulf Coast, Tugboat Crews Are Stuck on Their Boats Without Pay

Bouchard Transportation, a massive shipping firm, hasn’t paid docking fees or worker salaries, leading to a rare quandary in U.S. waters.

by Christopher Collins

In Southeast Lubbock Neighborhood, Residents are Fed Up With a Feedlot

Kathy Stewart has complained for years about the fecal dust invading Yellowhouse Canyon. But so far, her concerns have mostly been ignored.

by Christopher Collins

Global carbon emissions. Embargoed to 0001 Wednesday December 04 File photo dated 10/01/07 of a coal fired power plant. Global carbon emissions have risen again this year - but more slowly than in the past two years, researchers have said. Issue date: Wednesday December 4, 2019. Emissions from burning fossil fuels are projected to be up 0.6% in 2019, to reach almost 37 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, scientists from the University of East Anglia (UEA), University of Exeter and the Global Carbon Project said. See PA story ENVIRONMENT Carbon. Photo credit should read: John Giles/PA Wire URN:48771031 (Press Association via AP Images)

With Coal Plants Offline, the Air in Central and East Texas Has Cleared

After three plants shut down in late 2017, legal air pollution in Texas fell by 150,000 tons.

by Christopher Collins

Mike Mimms herds 200 cattle on his ranch near Hereford; the proposed feedlot would border his property.

It’s Illegal to Take Drone Photos of Cattle Feedlots in Texas. Press Groups Say That Violates the First Amendment.

To get a sense of the Panhandle’s network of cattle feedlots, which can cause health problems for those who live around them, you've got to see it from above.

by Christopher Collins

The Total Port Arthur refinery is shown Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009 in Port Arthur, Texas. Over the past several years, Total Petrochemical's sprawling oil refinery in southeast Texas has sprayed tons of sulfuric acid and carbon monoxide into the sky. The French company's 62-year-old facility has also released cancer-causing benzene, regularly surpassed allowable pollution limits, failed to report dozens of emissions and how much. Total is the most heavily fined polluter in Texas in the 2009 fiscal year, according to the year-end report summarizing how companies were punished in the state that produces the most industrial pollution. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Six Texas Oil Refineries Are Among the Nation’s Worst Benzene Polluters, Data Shows

Benzene was detected at the facilities’ fencelines, and nearby communities could be exposed to the cancer-causing pollutant.

by Christopher Collins

Bar-G Feedyard near Summerfield is part of a vast constellation of feedlots that dot the western Panhandle.

Something in the Air

In the Texas Panhandle, which produces a fifth of the U.S. beef supply, communities are being choked by fecal dust from nearby feedlots. The state’s regulatory agency isn’t doing anything about it—and it’s about to get a whole lot worse.

by Christopher Collins