The announcement that Pope is leaving shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise, as he had already turned over many of the reigns. Lone Star Sierra Club Director Ken Kramer says in an email to StateImpact Texas, “Michael Brune really took over as the staff leader of the organization when he replaced Carl as Executive Director last year.” Kramer says that Pope stayed on as Chairman — a role rarely used by the group — in order to help the new leader transition. “It was really always the plan for there to be this transition period in order to make the change a smooth one, which it has been,” he says. Continue Reading →
Who Uses the Most Water in Austin? We looked at data from Austin Water and discovered some customers use over a million gallons of water a year. Use our interactive map to see where the top 25 water users in Austin live, and how much water they use.
When Hazardous Waste Lived Right Down the Street: What would it be like to grow up down the street — literally a block away — from a plant that treats hazardous waste? For the residents of the Dona Park neighborhood in Corpus Christi, this isn’t a hypothetical question.
Ten Things You Should Know About the Texas Drought: It’s a question on everyone’s mind, one with an elusive answer — when will the drought end? How did we get here? Is there an end in sight? These and more questions, answered.
If Austin Goes Coal-Free, Could the Rest of Texas Follow? The mayor of Austin announced his re-election last week, and with it a new pledge: running Austin free of coal-powered energy. What does this mean for the city and the state?
Sierra Club Chairman Carl Pope speaks before the U.S. Senate in 2008
The head of the Sierra Club, Carl Pope, is leaving next year, according to media reports. Pope had drawn criticism for reaching out to labor and industry.
The Los Angeles Timesbroke the story and has an interview with Pope:
Pope said he will leave his position as chairman to devote most of his time to “revitalizing the manufacturing sector” by working with organized labor and corporations. That emphasis caused schisms in the club, most notably when he hammered out a million-dollar deal with household chemical manufacturer Clorox to use the club’s emblem on a line of “green” products, and more recently with its support of utility-scale solar arrays in the Mojave Desert, the type of place the club made its reputation protecting.
“I’m a big-tent guy, ” Pope said in an interview in the group’s San Francisco headquarters. “We’re not going to save the world if we rely only on those who agree with the Sierra Club. There aren’t enough of them.” Continue Reading →
There were reports earlier this week of leaks of at the BP refinery in Texas City, the site of a 2005 explosion that killed fifteen and injured 140 more.
The gases that were reportedly leaked were sulfur dioxide, a pollutant regulated by the EPA and linked to respiratory issues, and methyl mercaptan, a smelly gas — think rotten cabbage — added to natural gas (which is odorless) as a safety measure.
City Emergency Manager Responds
StateImpact Texas spoke with Texas City Emergency Manager and Homeland Security Director Bruce Clawson today about the situation at the plant. He says there has been no known leak of sulfur dioxide, but confirmed an ongoing leak of methyl mercaptan. Continue Reading →
Rail is being laid to bring oil in an out of the planned GT Omni Port in Port Arthur, Texas.
After the White House’s announcement that it would delay a decision on the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta, Canada to Texas, the airwaves filled with competing voices.
Actor Robert Redford lauded President Obama. Alberta Premier Alison Redford toured Washington D.C. expressing confidence in the project, and the group that’s building the pipeline announced plans to find an alternate route through Nebraska.
But on the Gulf Coast of Texas, there was a sound that may be even louder than the media din: the sound of a pile driving hammer, slamming 85 foot concrete pilings into the earth. Continue Reading →
Earlier today StateImpact Texas reported on Austin mayor Lee Leffingwell’s new pledge to make Austin a coal-free city. To do so, the city would stop getting energy from the coal-powered Fayettte plant in La Grange.
This afternoon the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), which is a part-owner and operator of the plant, responded to the mayor’s vow to get Austin’s power from only non-coal sources.
The LCRA says that they are “proud” of the plant and that it is operated in an “environmentally responsible way.” They say they have “no plans to close [the plant] and will not support any plan to shut down the plant.” Continue Reading →
Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell speaks at Steiner Ranch in September.
Austin’s Mayor Lee Leffingwell announced his bid for re-election yesterday, and while the announcement isn’t exactly surprising, one of his new campaign promises is: an Austin powered without any coal.
“Starting immediately, I’m going to begin a dialogue with the community, with Austin Energy, with the LCRA, and with state officials, about how to make Austin coal-free — and aggressively plan a date to achieve that goal,” the mayor said during his announcement yesterday at Becker elementary school, where he went to school as a kid. Continue Reading →
The closed entrance to the former Encycle plant in Corpus Christi, Texas
What would it be like to grow up down the street — literally a block away — from a plant that treats hazardous waste? For the residents of the Dona Park neighborhood in Corpus Christi, this isn’t a hypothetical question. For fourteen years, the Encycle plant treated hazardous waste just 950 feet away from the neighborhood, which is also surrounded by six major refineries.
As you can see from the map below, the Encycle plant sits right at the edge of four long residential blocks, consisting of nearly three hundred homes. The plant is now being demolished, but families in Dona Park worry that as it’s being torn down, it could pollute the neighborhood again. Continue Reading →
This evening StateImpact Texas received a response from BP about reported leaks of sulfur dioxide and methyl mercaptan at their refinery in Texas City, Texas. The BP Texas City refinery is the third largest refinery in the US, according to the company, and refines three percent of the country’s gasoline.
Here is the full statement:
“BP Texas City continues to address an odor event that occurred Tuesday evening at its Texas City Refinery.
The source of the odor was mercaptan, the odor additive placed in natural gas, which is used because of its strong odor at very low concentrations.
The site dispatched and is maintaining mobile environmental monitors into the community.
One of the locales on a government list of places expected to run out of water looked poised to go dry any week now. The small town of Groesbeck, with just 4,328 people, gets all of its water from the Navasota river, which is at well below normal levels.
In good news for the town’s residents, they’ve literally bought a few more months of water. A three-mile pump is being installed further up the river to bring in more water. It should be enough to last them four months, while the town looks for long-term groundwater sources. Continue Reading →
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