A weed grows out of the dry cracked bed of O.C. Fisher Lake on July 25, 2011 in San Angelo, Texas.
It’s a question on everyone’s mind, one with an elusive answer – when will the drought end? John Nielsen-Gammon, the state’s climatologist, has been busy briefing lawmakers on how we got here, if there’s an end in sight, and whether or not this may be the new normal. Using his report that he presented last week to the Texas State Legislature, The 2011 Drought, below, here are ten things you should know about the Texas drought:
How bad is it? The current drought “has been the most intense one-year drought in Texas since at least 1895 when statewide weather records begin, and… it probably already ranks among the five worst droughts overall.” Continue Reading →
Toxic Air From an Oil Refinery Fire in Long Beach, California
Today NPR, the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) and StateImpact launch a special series examining how air pollution is affecting communities across the nation called Poisoned Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities. It has been twenty-one years since Congress amended the Clean Air Act to deal with toxic air, directing the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce regulations and protect the general public from toxic emissions. But as the investigative series discovered, companies are still producing toxic air, and regulators are having a difficult time stopping them. The team found:
State and federal regulators take months and sometimes years to enforce anti-pollution rules. About 400 facilities are on an internal EPA watch list that includes serious or chronic Clean Air Act violators that have not been subject to timely enforcement. The list was obtained by the Center and NPR and is being made public for the first time.
More than 1,600 facilities around the country are classified by the EPA as “high priority violators” of the Clear Air Act sites in need of urgent action by enforcers.
Regulators largely rely on an honor system easily manipulated by polluters, which report their own emissions. Even judging by the self-reported numbers, the scale of pollution is enormous: At least 600 million pounds of toxic chemicals – including arsenic, benzene, formaldehyde and lead – were released into the air in 2009, according to EPA data.
To begin exploring how air pollution may affect your community, use NPR's interactive map of more than 1,000 Texas facilities that have emitted hazardous chemicals into the air. Continue reading →
SunPower, a company that benefited from Gov. Perry's Texas Enterprise Fund, has announced cut backs.
Last November, the California-based solar power giant SunPower announced it was moving to Austin. Taking advantage of $2.5 million from Governor Perry’s Texas Enterprise Fund, the company promised to create 450 jobs in the Texas capital and make Texas its third largest office location.
Fast forward about a year: SunPower is downsizing.
In a statement, Thursday the company says it will cut operating costs by up to ten percent in the face of slowing demand for solar panels and competition from China. Continue Reading →
Last week we reported on the top 25 water users in Austin, with a map showing where the biggest consumers are located (shown below). On the list were familiar names like Lance Armstrong, Cedric Benson and Roy Spence. Coming in at number seven was Congressman Michael McCaul, who lives in Westlake. He used 1.4 million gallons of water last year, with a water bill of at least $13,300.
Today the Texas Tribune reports that according to McCaul, it’s just a leak. Mike Rosen, the congressman’s spokesman, explains:
[McCaul] has dealt with a “series of leaks over last two to three years,” and “the leaks for the most part have gone undetected for a long time,” because they were not visible on the surface. He said one leak involved a swimming pool and another, which would have affected the recent numbers, involved a busted pipe related to a contractor’s work for a neighbor’s realtor.
That is a serious leak. But according to Austin Water Utility, that excuse may not hold water. Continue Reading →
Protesters against a proposed tax break for Valero gathered outside the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality today.
Groups arrived in large buses from Houston and surrounding areas like Pasadena.
Parker, from Houston, said “Rick Perry oughta be ashamed. We need children to have a vibrant education without big interests in their pocket.”
Juan and Emilia Portia, their son Miguel, and daughter Jennifer Lopez were very vocal at the protest.
“Just Say No to Valero!” was a popular chant at the protest.
“There are too many dropouts right now,” Chad and Crystal’s mother, Leila Mikel, said. “Kids need to go to school to get a diploma. Without that piece of paper, they can’t make a living.”
A woman protests against the proposed tax exemptions for Valero Energy Corporation
The daughter of Marta Corona, a Houston area parent, looks up at Alain Cisneros, a protest organizer
A protester speaks to members of the TCEQ to oppose the proposed tax break
Gonzales, a 13-year old student in the Pasadena Independent School District in Houston, testified in front of the TCEQ. She spoke of her asthma, which she believes is caused by emissions from nearby refineries.
Texas Governor Rick Perry appointed the three members of the TCEQ board, who will decide on the proposed Valero tax exemption
Early Wednesday morning, a caravan of buses set out from the Houston area, headed for Austin and the headquarters of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Their goal? To protest a request from Valero Energy Corp. for tax breaks for some of its oil refineries through a system that could give millions of dollars back to one of Texasâs most profitable corporations.
So far this year Valero has earned more than $2 billion. That makes the possible millions Valero wants in tax exemptions kind of seem like small potatoes.
But that, in turn, might be what has the 150 community activists and environmentalists chanting âSay ânoâ to Valeroâ in front of TCEQ headquarters on Wednesday so angry. Continue Reading →
The Obama administration announced last week that 445 square miles of the West — more than 285,000 acres — will be zoned for solar energy development. Across parts of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, the government is essentially fast-tracking large tracts of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for solar energy development. The BLM has done the research and surveys, now companies can start applying for permits to build solar energy farms. It can shave one to two years off the approval process. The areas are called Solar Energy Zones (SEZs), and they represent an important step forward in the development of solar energy.
But Texas wasn’t on the list. Why? I put the question to Megan Stouffer, the State Planning and Environmental Coordinator for BLM New Mexico, which manages agency projects in that state as well as Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
It was hammer time this week at a joint meeting of the Texas Senate Committee of Agricultural and Rural Affairs and the Committee on Natural Resources.
Lawmakers were there to hear about the impact of the ongoing drought on the state. It’s already the worst single-year drought in Texas history, and could become a new drought of record if the dry weather continues.That prompted state Senator Troy Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay), who chairs the panel, to wonder how the state can enforce water conservation if it needs to. Continue Reading →
Yesterday we reported on Valero Energy Corporation’s attempts to get a tax exemption from the state of Texas for upgrades it made to its refineries. The money comes in the form of a property tax exemption from local appraisal districts, which could mean money lost from already-short school and city budgets. Looking at the arguments for and against, we examined Valero’s financial earnings and concluded that one of the arguments against is that they might not need the money in the first place.
Today, Valero announced earnings for the third quarter of 2011, and they are having a banner year thus far. Their net income was reported at $1.2 billion, as opposed to $303 million for the same quarter last year. For this year so far, they have a net income of $2.1 billion. These were Valero’s best quarterly results in over four years, according to the company’s CEO and Chairman, Bill Klesse.
The Eagle Ford Shale formation in South Texas has made headlines for its abundance of natural gas, but the formation doesnât end at the Rio Grande. That fact is not lost on the Mexican government.
This rig uses hydraulic fracturing to obtain gas from Texas' Barnett Shale formation. Photo courtesy of KUT News.
Last week, the Mexican Minister of Energy proposed ramping up hydraulic fracturing operations in Northern Mexico. The announcement wasnât especially newsworthy for many this side of the border, but down South?
âItâs huge! It’s huge!â said Jaime Williams, president of the energy and climate change commission of CONCAMIN in Monterrey, which is akin to Mexicoâs industrial chamber of commerce.
âWe are the interested party! The industrial sector, the private sector is the interested party in it,â Williams told KUT News.
Williams said the maquilas (factories) in Mexican border states use a lot of electricity. Theyâve been importing more and more natural gas from Texas just to keep the lights on in recent years.
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