Increased use of natural gas to generate power in the U.S. is contributing to a decline in greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report from the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) out today. While coal still makes up a substantial percentage of the nation’s electricity, particularly when power demands rise in the [...]
Perhaps it’s a reflection of the integral role that energy plays in American life, but energy has also played a big role in Hollywood — from the oilfields in ‘Giant’ to a nuclear time machine in ‘Back to the Future’. A new television show premiering tonight takes a closer look at the connection. Associate Professor [...]
Graph by EIA Carbon emissisions from power generation are down in the U.S., to their lowest levels in nearly twenty years, and Texas is partly to thank. A new analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that “energy-related” carbon emissions have been declining every year (with the exception of 2010) since 2007. That’s [...]
Many of Texas’ lakes and bays have become contaminated with mercury, which has, in turn, contaminated the consumable fish living in them, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD). Now one lawmaker has filed a bill, HB 993, that would help notify people of mercury problems in state waters. “Right now there aren’t any [...]
From the Texas Tribune: FAIRFIELD, Texas — Staring across a lake at the oldest coal-fired power plant in Texas, Mayor Roy Hill thinks back to the early 1970s, when his father helped bring the plant to the area. “Quite honestly, this plant saved Fairfield,” Hill said. Should it close, he said, the economic impact would [...]
Two decades ago, the debate over a South Texas coal mine began. Today, Texas officials took a big step toward ending the debate and beginning to mine. The Railroad Commission of Texas approved a controversial permit today to allow Mexican company Dos Republicas to begin strip-mining coal near the Texas border town of Eagle Pass. [...]
Updated with statements from Chase Power and the Environmental Integrity Project. After losing its air permit last summer, the Las Brisas coal power plant proposed for Corpus Christi has been suspended. The news was first reported in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. “Chase Power … has opted to suspend efforts to further permit the facility and [...]
A plan to dig an open pit coal mine near Eagle Pass will go before the Texas Railroad Commission.
One of the few coal power plants still being planned in Texas is facing setbacks. The controversial White Stallion Energy Center in Matagorda County had been working with the Texas grid to examine how it will work once its completed, a process called a grid interconnection study. It’s a typical requirement for new power plants, along [...]
Coal is on the decline in the United States. As a domestic drilling boom has opened up vast supplies of natural gas and coal has become more expensive to mine, coal power plants have become less and less viable. New environmental regulations that require coal plants to upgrade their equipment are also a factor. There [...]
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