Environment
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
A Coral Reef Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico Could Triple in Size
The federally protected marine sanctuary has kept three major reefs safe from encroaching offshore oil drilling and commercial fishing.
One hundred miles southeast of Galveston’s muddy shoreline, the Gulf of Mexico becomes a dazzling, vibrant blue. Deep below the surface, salt domes protrude f...Read More
A Battle is Brewing Over a Trump EPA Official’s Confidential Emails
Will Michael Honeycutt’s legacy as an “honest broker” at the EPA be undercut by his efforts to weaken cancer protections in Texas?
This story is co-published with Grist. Sign up for their daily newsletter, The Beacon. When the Trump administration tapped Michael Honeycutt to lead the Enviro...Read More
Marsha Jackson Is Trying to Move Shingle Mountain
The illegal dump is southern Dallas’ most visible environmental justice crisis. It’s far from the only one.
Marsha Jackson Is Trying to Move Shingle Mountain The illegal dump is southern Dallas’ most visible environmental justice crisis. It’s far from the only one...Read More
A New Study Finds a Link Between Flaring and an Increase in Premature Births
In the Eagle Ford Shale, a study found that pregnant, Latina women were more likely than white women to give birth prematurely.
When the fracking boom came to the Eagle Ford Shale, it brought billions of dollars of investment and tax revenue to the rural, sparsely populated swath of Sout...Read More
Texas Solar Hits a Turning Point
As the coronavirus pandemic devastates the state’s already flailing oil and gas industry, solar energy production is on a trajectory for record growth.
On Garland Richards’ ranch in West Central Texas, silicon solar panels spread for two square miles in a shimmering blue expanse that resembles a lake. The Hol...Read More
In Houston’s Fifth Ward, the Storm Never Stops
Residents in this historically Black community are especially vulnerable to COVID-19 and woefully unprepared to recover from the next hurricane.
Joetta Stevenson is no stranger to disaster. When Hurricane Harvey pummeled southeast Texas with more than 50 inches of rain in 2017, she watched the flood wate...Read More
How Texas Lawmakers and Industry Have Weakened Citizens’ Rights to Fight Pollution
At the behest of the industry, legislators have chipped away at the environmental permitting process in Texas, stacking the deck against concerned people protesting industrial projects.
In 2008, Chase Power Development LLC, a Houston-based energy company, made plans to build a coal-fired power plant in the coastal Texas city of Corpus Christi. ...Read More