Most Recent in Politics:

1New Democrats Hope For a More Bipartisan Texas Senate in 2019

2Casey Gerald’s Memoir Isn’t the Inspirational Tale You Think It Is

3Ted Cruz Won Because of Rural Texas, but Beto Made Small Gains for Democrats

4The Midterms Trigger a Seismic Shift in Harris County’s Courts

5Trump’s Sabotage of ACA Enrollment Is Particularly Dangerous in Texas

6Texas is a Purple State Now. The Proof is in Last Night’s Results.

Most Recent in Environment:

1In Texas, One of the World’s Oldest, Weirdest Fish Finally Gets its Due

2In East Texas, Chicken Plants are Polluting Rivers and Lakes with Oxygen-Sucking Contaminants

3Why Environmental Groups Are Salty on Corpus Christi’s Pricey Desalination Plan

4Despite Trump and Rick Perry’s Best Efforts, Another Coal Plant Eats the Dust in Texas

5Exxon Appears to Mislead State to Secure Tax Break

6After the Flood, the Political Storm?

Most Recent in Border:

1Border Patrol Calls Cops on Lawyers, Activists Trying to Attend ‘Stakeholder’ Meeting

3Border Residents Protest Trump’s Wall in Hidalgo County

4AUDIO: Melissa del Bosque and Rachel Poser on Border Patrol’s Unchecked Mission Creep

5More Than 150 Families Separated at the Border Remain Locked Up in Texas

6U.S. and Mexican Officials Collaborating to Stop Asylum-Seekers, Attorneys Allege

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1New Contract Could Give Austin One of the Most Transparent Police Departments in the Country

2Ken Paxton’s Strange Quest to Execute an Intellectually Disabled Man

3The Midterms Trigger a Seismic Shift in Harris County’s Courts

4Harris County Judges May Face a Reckoning Over Bail On Election Day

5Dallas County’s Cop-Convicting DA Is Among the Most Vulnerable Down-Ballot Republicans This Election

6Author Shane Bauer on How the Racist Roots of Private Prisons Still Permeate the System

Most Recent in Education:

1In Violation of Texas Law, Most High Schools Aren’t Giving Students the Chance to Register to Vote

2Amid Record Youth Suicide Attempts, Texas Lags in Prevention Training for Teachers

3Cash-Strapped Rural Texas Schools Look to Universities for Help

4What’s in a Name? Texas SBOE Tentatively Approves ‘Ethnic Studies: Mexican American Studies’

5SMU Just Lost Its Independent Student Newspaper. Is Your College Next?

6Lawsuit: Texas Art Teacher Suspended Because She Told Students About Her Wife

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Meet the Scientist and Autism Dad Who’s Fighting the Anti-Vaccine Movement

2Trump’s Sabotage of ACA Enrollment Is Particularly Dangerous in Texas

3In the Rio Grande Valley, New Citizens Turn Out to Vote for the First Time

4We Support Pre-Existing Condition Protections, Say Republicans Who’ve Repeatedly Tried to Eliminate Them

5Meet Mikael Love, the OB-GYN Who Doesn’t Prescribe Birth Control

6Without Planned Parenthood, Almost Half the Providers in Texas’ Women’s Health Program Saw No Patients

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Dolores Huerta is Still Knocking on Doors and Registering Voters at 88

2The Interview: Veronica Escobar is Poised to Make History

3Redistricting Guru Michael Li on Texas’ Gerrymandered Maps

4Senfronia Thompson Says #MeToo: Texas Lawmaker on 45 Years of Sexism, Racism at the Capitol

5Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo on Sanctuary Cities, Police Unions and Tommy Guns

6Meet Nueces County’s New DA, a Self-Professed ‘Mexican Biker Lawyer Covered in Tattoos’

Most Recent in Books:

1Octavio Solis’ ‘Retablos’ Recounts a ‘Beautiful, Messy’ Youth on the Border

2‘When I Spoke in Tongues’ Chronicles a Long Walk Away from the Church

3Casey Gerald’s Memoir Isn’t the Inspirational Tale You Think It Is

4‘Beyoncé in Formation’ is a Texas Professor’s Love Letter to Queen B

5Author Shane Bauer on How the Racist Roots of Private Prisons Still Permeate the System

6Best of the 2018 Texas Book Festival: An Observer Staff Guide

Most Recent in Features:

1Raspa Revolution

2100 Ways to Draw a Line

3Homeward Bound

4The Sisterhood

5The Time-Traveler’s Guide to the Lower Pecos

Most Recent in Essay:

1Heads in the Mud

2The Day the Windows Shook

3Women’s Work

4I Grew Up on the Texas-Mexico Border, but Now I Barely Recognize It

5Somewhere It Hides a Well

6Drinking the Kool-Aid at the Garden of Eden

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: Fiesta Protesta

2Eye on Texas: Gentrification in East Austin

3Eye on Texas: Transgender Youth in Texas

4Eye On Texas: Hurricane Harvey

5Eye on Texas: Fantastical Taxidermy

6Eye on Texas: Runners Take on 170-Mile Race in Big Bend

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

2Parallel Planes

4Poem: ‘Resistance’

5Poem: ‘Screenplay for a Homemade Movie’

6Poem: ‘To Be One with the All’

Tag Archives: coal mining

Freeport LNG plant in Quintana.

by Naveena Sadasivam

The Five Foulest Texas Environmental Stories of 2016

Lowlights include failing to track chemical spills during floods and rejecting the link between earthquakes and fracking.

Tue, Dec 20, 2016 |

Thanks to investigative reporting, this year we learned of new ways the powerful in this state are messing with Texas. From failing to oversee toxic waste injec...Read More

by Naveena Sadasivam

Green Groups Urge Lawmakers: Don’t Leave Taxpayers on the Hook for Coal Cleanup

Tue, Aug 23, 2016 |

Following an Observer investigation into loose coal regulations that could put taxpayers on the hook for mine cleanup, green groups are demanding change....Read More

by Naveena Sadasivam

Mine Games

With little more than a promise, the Texas Railroad Commission is trusting a struggling coal industry to pay for the cost of cleaning up old mines.

Thu, Aug 18, 2016 |

In mid-2014, Texas’ biggest utility, Energy Future Holdings, was about to file for bankruptcy, and Texas regulators suddenly had a big problem on their hands...Read More

Luis Martinez, a Maverick County resident who opposes the Dos Republicas mine, speaks out against the TCEQ's decision to grant the mine a wastewater permit Wednesday. Nearby Elm Creek runs through Martinez's property.

by Naveena Sadasivam

TCEQ: Contested Coal Mine Can Release Wastewater Into Drinking Supply

Locals called the environmental regulators' decision ‘unconscionable.’

Wed, Jul 6, 2016 |

Locals called the TCEQ's decision "unconscionable," saying that wastewater from the mine will pollute drinking water for Maverick County residents....Read More

Bobby Inman Blames the Unions

by Forrest Wilder

Mon, Apr 19, 2010

Updated below Bobby Ray Inman now seems to be blaming labor unions for the West Virginia mining disaster that killed 29 people at the non-union Upper Big Branch...Read More

Top