Environment
Why the South Is Organizing Its Own Green New Deal
Amid devastating hurricanes, oil spills and refinery fires, the Gulf South pushes for a Green New Deal that will meet its needs.
LAKE CHARLES, LA.—After Hurricane Laura hit in late August, a local chemical plant erupted in flames. The fire, one of 31 post-Laura oil and ch...Read More
Solar Energy is Hitting a Growth Spurt. So Is The Disinformation Around It.
Anti-renewable energy campaigns are nothing new in the Lone Star State. A new wave of disinformation could spell trouble for the state’s fledgling solar industry.
David Dunagan doesn’t want a 760-acre solar power plant to be built across his fenceline. The Old Jackson Power Plant will replace farmland in Van Zandt C...Read More
Texas Has Elected A Climate Change Denier to the Railroad Commission
Newly elected commissioner Jim Wright will be one of three people in charge of regulating the state’s oil and gas industry. He doesn’t believe that flaring contributes to climate change.
Ten years. That’s how long we have to make massive reductions in carbon emissions before some of the worst effects of climate change become irreversible, acco...Read More
Illegal Air Pollution is Skyrocketing in Texas, But State Regulators are Ignoring Complaints
An environmental watchdog submitted evidence of dozens of violations, but the state’s environmental agency rarely followed up.
It’s no secret that in the Permian Basin, one of the world’s most productive oil and gas fields, pollution is everywhere. Industrial facilities burn off so ...Read More
Why is Michael Bloomberg Giving $2.6 Million to Elect a Railroad Commissioner in Texas?
Hint: It's not about trains. “The most important climate election in the nation” may be at stake.
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for their daily newsletter, The Beacon. Oil and gas companies burn off billions of cubic feet of natural g...Read More
One Texas-Sized Loophole is Letting Lone Star Polluters Off the Hook
Texas facilities emitted 174 million pounds of pollution above permitted limits last year.
This story is co-published with Grist. Sign up for their daily newsletter, The Beacon. Unauthorized pollution has become the norm in Texas. Every single day las...Read More
Houston, Let People Walk
When forced to choose between cars and people, the fourth-largest city in the United States has a long history of siding with the former.
This spring, in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdown, my family joined thousands of other Houstonians in taking advantage of the car-free streets to go for l...Read More
Claiming Major Superfund ‘Success,’ Trump EPA Focused on Completing Cleanups, Not Climate Planning
As work stalled on hardening Superfund sites against climate-related weather extremes, budget cuts continued and a backlog of sites awaiting cleanup ballooned.
This article was published in partnership with InsideClimate News, a nonprofit, independent news outlet that covers climate, energy and the environment, and NBC...Read More
The Wasteland Underwater
On the central Texas coast, Lavaca Bay is already poisoned by mercury. Climate change will only make matters worse there—and at 944 other hazardous-waste sites across the country.
On the central Texas coast, Lavaca Bay is already poisoned by mercury. Climate change will only make matters worse there—and at 944 other hazardous-waste site...Read More
Running from the Storm
Hurricane Laura underscores the threat and disruption of storm seasons super-charged by climate change.
Last week, as Nathaniel Smith and his daughter boarded a school bus to drive out of the path of Hurricane Laura, he thought of the last time a storm forced them...Read More