Tag Archives: oil and gas
Report: Oil and Gas Production Is Making People Sick in Rural Texas
“The price of living near oil and gas shouldn't be giving up your health.”
Sue and Jim Franklin’s double-wide mobile home at the foot of the Davis Mountains in far West Texas is usually sealed up tight with the air conditioner blasti...Read More
Meet the Oil-Friendly Federal Panel that Could Give Drillers a Sweetheart Deal
Will a state rep with industry ties go to bat for energy titans or everyday Texans?
Meet the Oil-Friendly Federal Panel that Could Give Drillers a Sweetheart Deal Will a state rep with industry ties go to bat for energy titans or everyday Texan...Read More
Destruction of Lizard’s West Texas Habitat 10 Times Worse Than Previously Thought
About 2,700 acres of the lizard’s habitat have been disturbed by oil and gas development and sand mining since 2012.
In 2012, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) made the controversial decision not to list the dunes sagebrush lizard, a three-inch reptile native to the Wes...Read More
Mean to Green: How the Texas Legislature Took its Toll on the Environment This Session
Lawmakers have weakened citizens’ ability to challenge polluters, made flying drones over oil and gas facilities a jailable offense and slashed funding for the state’s environmental agencies.
Lawmakers weakened citizens’ ability to challenge polluters, made flying drones over oil and gas facilities a jailable offense and slashed funding for environ...Read More
Texans Could Soon Be Jailed for Flying Drones over Oil Facilities, Animal Factory Farms
“It’s taking a law that’s already unconstitutional and making it worse,” said one media attorney.
Texans caught flying drones over oil and gas well pads, cell towers and large animal feeding operations could face jail time if a bill that has cleared the Hous...Read More
Endangered Science
Can Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar oversee objective scientific research into rare species? Or is he rigging the process to keep them off the endangered list, as his critics charge?
Lars Letaru From the looks of them, it’s hard to imagine that the smooth pimpleback, the Texas fawnsfoot or the Texas fatmucket could threaten the Texas econo...Read More
After Eight-Year Battle Over Reforming the Railroad Commission, Oil and Gas Industry Wins
The industry is the top funding source for lawmakers’ campaigns, according to a recent report from Texans for Public Justice.
A nearly decade-long battle between environmentalists and the oil and gas industry to reform Texas’ energy regulatory agency came to a close last week — and...Read More
Protesters Demand Resignation of Texas Parks Commissioner Kelcy Warren Over ‘Conflict of Interest’
Warren is the CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, the oil and gas company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Trans-Pecos pipeline.
Warren is the CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, the oil and gas company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Trans-Pecos pipeline....Read More
The 10 Best Observer Stories of 2016: ‘Company Town’
How big business turned a Gulf Coast beach town into an industrial zone.
Editor’s Note: Many environmental stories rely on familiar tropes, the scrappy locals standing up to the big, bad polluter. The unlikely bedfellows of env...Read More