Environment
Robert Bullard Isn’t Done Yet
More than 40 years after the Texas Southern University professor researched the first environmental justice case, communities of color still face an uphill battle claiming their right to clean air and a healthy neighborhood. Federal environmental justice legislation could change that.
Robert Bullard Isn’t Done Yet More than 40 years after the Texas Southern University professor researched the first environmental justice case, communitie...Read More
ERCOT Asked Texans to Conserve Power as Electric Grid Again Struggled to Keep Up with Demand
A higher than expected amount of plant outages for maintenance created tight conditions for Texas' power grid. It returned to normal late Tuesday evening.
“ERCOT asked Texans to conserve power as electric grid again struggled to keep up with demand” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit...Read More
One Researcher’s Quest to Quantify the Environmental Cost of Abandoned Oil Wells
Unplugged wells could be quietly leaking millions of pounds of methane in West Texas.
This story is one installment of a larger project by Grist and The Texas Observer. Support comes from the Pulitzer Center. Amy Townsend-Small has been chasing...Read More
Waves of Abandonment
The Permian Basin is ground zero for a billion-dollar surge of zombie oil wells.
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‘No Teeth and No Funding’: How Regulators Failed to Police the Oil Industry
Budget cuts and long term disinvestment in local environmental agencies have hobbled the states’ ability to oversee fracking.
This story is one installment of a larger project by Grist and The Texas Observer. Support comes from the Pulitzer Center. The fracking boom in the Permian Ba...Read More
Texas Activists Took Their Fight Against a Natural Gas Project Abroad—And They’re Winning
The Texas Railroad Commission’s about-face on natural gas flaring can be partially linked to pressure from European companies concerned about Texas’ dirty gas.
From the May/June 2021 issue. In February, members of the Texas Railroad Commission finally got the message. The three commissioners of the regulatory body that...Read More
Nobody Warned Texans About the Public Health Risks of the Winter Storm
Without advance warning about the true scale of power outages and the risks of carbon monoxide poisoning, local officials say they were caught off guard, leaving residents to fend for themselves.
This story was published in partnership with Southerly. Sheletta Brundidge watched from Cottage Grove, Minn., as severe winter weather descended on her hometown...Read More
Industrial Facilities Released Millions of Pounds of Illegal Pollution During the Winter Storm
Many of them won’t face any consequences for the excess emissions that they pumped into the air, endangering the lives of communities downwind.
When the lights went off during the winter storm last month in Galena Park, a city of 10,000 people on the east side of Houston, an eerie orange glow emanated f...Read More
Biden Plans to Ban All New Fracking Leases on Public Land. Will He Actually Do It?
The federal Bureau of Land Management has a habit of auctioning off parcels of its land to oil and gas developments. For years, Texas cities and environmentalists have sounded the alarm about the arrangements.
In 2017, the oil industry, aided by Donald Trump’s Interior Department, set its sights on a swath of plains northwest of Corpus Christi. The 1,600 acres, loca...Read More
The Sunniest City in Texas is Expanding … Natural Gas Production
After New Mexico rejected a proposal for the El Paso power plant, the Biden administration could be El Paso’s last line of defense.
Jeanette Lara is one of a handful of doctors who serves the small, unincorporated community of Chaparral, New Mexico. Every day, when she drops off her 8-month-...Read More