Environment
Sinking Land and Climate Change Are Worsening Tidal Floods on the Texas Coast
How Disaster Recovery Overlooks the Poor
Texas’ recent plan for allocating $5 billion in federal disaster recovery grants neglects the poorest people harmed by Hurricane Harvey, activists say.
Early in his career, David Hall came to see the Rio Grande Valley’s most impoverished communities as an important prism for viewing Texas’ civil rights stru...Read More
Industrial Wood Processor Accused of Making East Texans Sick May Get to Pollute Even More
Residents near German Pellets facilities in Woodville and Port Arthur allege that air pollution and fires have made them sick, but the state regulatory agency has done little to help, the Sierra Club says.
In late 2014, Lisa Sanchez and her husband, Tony, sold their 13-acre ranchette in The Woodlands, where they lived in a single-wide trailer and raised rescue hor...Read More
Despite Public Health Risks, Trump’s EPA to Roll Back Regulation to Prevent Methane Leaks
The Obama-era regulation is meant to curb leaks of methane, which is about 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Last week, the staff of the environmental nonprofit Earthworks were on a retreat in West Texas when Sharon Wilson, a Dallas-based organizer for the group, decid...Read More
No Resolution in Sight For Ranchers and Farmers Fighting Over San Saba River
The prolonged battle has highlighted a major flaw in Texas water management: State policies mostly don’t recognize the connection between surface water and groundwater.
Why is a 40-mile stretch of the San Saba river running dry during the summers? That was the central question at a Texas House Natural Resources Committee hearin...Read More
Austin’s on the Wrong Side of the 100th Meridian
The invisible line that divides the arid western part of the country from the wetter eastern half is on the move, and that has important implications for the Texas capital.
Meet Robert Lee. Not the Confederate general, the town. Robert Lee, Texas is a ranching community of 1,025 that lost its only source of water to the second-wors...Read More
Unpublished Federal Report Projects Bleak Future for Central Texas Mussels and Rivers
Without any conservation measures, four species are “extremely vulnerable” to extinction, according to a draft Fish and Wildlife Service report.
If the state’s population continues to balloon and climate change worsens, four Central Texas mussels could face near-certain extinction, according to an inte...Read More
In Washington, D.C., Republicans are Writing the Recipe for a Smoldering Panhandle
A plan to increase the number of acres enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program but cut staff to enforce program rules spells trouble for the fire-prone region.
If you thought wildfires in the Texas Panhandle were bad before, just wait. Proposed changes to a U.S. Department of Agriculture land conservation program, comb...Read More
Despite Trump, Water Agency Fosters Cross-Border Cooperation Between U.S. and Mexico
A binational agency is working to transcend the immigration, trade and border wall battle between the two countries.
In early March, Ed Drusina and Roberto Fernando Salmón Castelo sat at the back of an almost empty auditorium with plates of food, talking amiably and strugglin...Read More
Trump’s Border Wall Lands Rio Grande on List of Nation’s Most Endangered Rivers
The river has long suffered from pollution and overuse, but 33 new miles of border wall could be the “last nail in the coffin,” environmentalists say.
Last month, Congress passed a $1.3 trillion spending package to keep the government funded through September. Tucked in between increases in military spending a...Read More