Editor’s Letter: Introducing Our May/June 2025 Issue
A note from the editor-in-chief
Environment
A Texas Pipeline Giant Is Backing a Regulatory Disaster
Energy Transfer owns the pipeline that caught fire recently near Houston, and it’s setting another fire at the National Labor Relations Board with the help of right-wing jurists.
Confessions of a Beaumont Vegan
The only justification for animal suffering is that it is necessary or doesn’t matter. I have concluded it is not necessary and does matter.
How Can You Tell If Soil Is Healthy? Just Listen to It.
First-of-its-kind research shows how "ecoacoustics" can help scientists monitor the health of soils—using underground critter concerts.
A Rough Road to the Christmas Mountains
The small range in West Texas provides gorgeous vistas and huge research opportunities that are finally being realized.
Funds to Help Low-Income Families With Summer Electric Bills Are Stretched Thin
A federal program helps people in poverty cover the costs of heat and cooling. But advocates say it disadvantages states like Texas, even though extreme heat is a key cause of weather-related deaths.
New Texas Appellate Court Alarms Environmentalists
The all-GOP 15th Court of Appeals soon will hear disputes involving the state’s environmental regulators. “It’s BYOC—bring your own court—for polluters and powerful interests.”
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Want to Build a Wall? Don’t Try It in Her Town.
How a Laredo activist and her scrappy environmental group have fought back against powerful interests in South Texas
Editor’s Letter: Introducing Our May/June Issue
A note from the new interim editor-in-chief
Texas Exotic Hunts Are Dangerously Unregulated
Some hunting ranches in Texas routinely offer hunts of endangered or threatened exotic species. This should not be allowed.