Environment
Carbon Sequestration Isn’t The Long-Term Solution. Is it a Short-Term One?
Report: Oil and Gas Producers May Be Pushing the Permian Basin Past Federal Air Quality Limits
Sulfur dioxide levels in the vast West Texas region may be hitting dangerous levels. Meanwhile, the state is hardly bothering to monitor the pollutant.
In the Permian Basin of West Texas, there’s something in the air. For the oil and gas industry, it must be the smell of money — lots of it. But for the peop...Read More
The EPA Told Texas to Crack Down on Dangerous Air Emissions in 2015. The State Never Did, and Now It Won’t Have to.
Trump’s EPA rescinded a rule that would have forced Texas to close a loophole exploited by industrial polluters in 97 percent of illegal emission events.
May, 22, 2015, was a red-letter day for Hilton Kelley. The 58-year-old environmental justice activist was on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., 1,300 miles from ...Read More
The Flood Next Time
In the floodplain of the Rio Grande, Trump's wall threatens to inundate communities on both sides of the border.
by Gus Bova May 6, 2019 In July 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice shelled out $12,000 for a 1.71-acre strip of land along the Rio Grande’s north bank i...Read More
Port of Corpus Christi Pushes Ahead with Oil Terminal Project, Environment Be Damned
As the agency courts tankers that can carry 2.2 million barrels of crude each, activists worry that the plan could spoil the habitats of the aquatic species that thrive here.
In the middle of the Texas Gulf Coast, among a constellation of barrier islands where thousands of Texans come to fish, boat and play each year, lies one of the...Read More
Bucking the Reign of Oil
With more of oil’s boom years behind us than ahead, oil and gas interests will become known increasingly by their uglier side effects, rather than their benefits.
The tank farm owned by the Intercontinental Terminals Company in Deer Park burned for four days, producing a cloud of thick black smoke that rose a mile above g...Read More
Invasive Species Have Reshaped Texas. Now What?
From parakeets to fire ants, nilgai to tamarisk trees, invasives have integrated into the state's ecosystems — and managing them means asking hard questions.
In March, I drove down to the Sabal Palm Sanctuary on the southernmost border of Texas, where Brazilian bougainvillea shimmers over the seasonal marshes. I was ...Read More
Documents: CBP Ignored Federal Biologists’ Input on Border Wall
Border security officials visited wildlife preserves in Starr County, then blew off the recommendations of the scientists they brought along.
In December 2017, a group of Customs and Border Protection officials met with federal wildlife biologists in McAllen for what CBP billed as a collaborative meet...Read More
Is a Dam Failing in Your Neighborhood?
How to use this map: You can sort dams by their condition — satisfactory, fair or poor — and whether they’re regulated by using the menu to the left o...Read More
Dammed to Fail
An Observer investigation finds that unregulated dams across Texas are increasingly failing — putting people and property in jeopardy.
An Observer investigation finds that unregulated dams across Texas are increasingly failing — putting people and property in jeopardy. by Naveena Sadasivam Ap...Read More