Americans will likely take their views on energy issues to the voting booth this November, according to a new national poll by The University of Texas at Austin. The survey found that 65 percent of respondents considered energy to be an important presidential issue.
Courtesy of the University of Texas at Austin Energy Poll, March 12
The results suggest that overall, consumers favor policies that would increase domestic energy production. Fifty percent of respondents said they would likely vote for a presidential candidate who approved construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, and 46 percent said that they would support a candidate willing to expand offshore oil drilling along the Gulf Coast. But only twenty percent of participants said that they would likely vote for a presidential candidate who supported eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Continue Reading →
Volunteers count mussels in Lake Arrowhead State Park in North Texas
You may have had mussels steamed in a bit of white wine and butter. But they most likely weren’t mussels from rivers or creeks in Texas.
“Their favorite food is bacteria. They are filter-feeders, the vacuum cleaners of the river systems,” said Marsha May, a biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
“They’re taking in all kinds of things that can be found in streams and rivers. And so they could be toxic,” cautioned May.
Not exactly appetizing. And maybe worse is what it says about the state of those Texas waterways.
“(Mussels) are an organism we consider a biological indicator of the health of the system,” said May.”Once the mussels start going, other organisms are going to follow.”
Is it that time of year again already? Everybody's talking about pain at the pump.
There’s been lots of finger pointing over gasoline prices going up over the past few months. Some attribute the price jump to international instability, others say oil speculators are gaming the system. Republican presidential hopefuls, not surprisingly, are blaming the President.
But have we seen this before?
Today, an article in the Washington Post cites an emerging trend: each year when spring rolls around, the price at the pump escalates. The Post cites a couple of reasons: Continue Reading →
Damaged beach front homes are seen on Galveston Island after the passing of Hurricane Ike September 13, 2008 in Galveston, Texas.
A recent ruling by the Texas Supreme Court wasn’t very well-received by the General Land Office (GLO). In a 5–3 opinion, the Court ruled that the GLO couldn’t force a beachfront homeowner, Carol Severance, to move her house after a Hurricane eroded the public beach in front of it. After the hurricane, that beach was gone, and was now essentially under her house.
“It seems that the Open Beaches Act — at least for Galveston’s West End — is dead, thanks to the Supreme Court,” Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said after the ruling was announced. “This is truly a sad day.”
But a new response from the legal team behind the landowner begs to differ. The lead attorney for the defendant, David Breemer, said in a recent statement that “the decision does not ‘kill’ the Open Beaches Act; it enforces it. What it kills is a rolling easement theory that cannot be found anywhere in that law, a theory made up by state officials to avoid complying with provisions of the Act that say easements go to the vegetation line only when proven to exist by public use.”
Anybody who lived in Texas last summer will tell you it was hot. Really, really hot.
It was the hottest summer on record statewide. Numerous cities, including Austin, Houston, and Dallas saw their heat records shattered by the high temperatures. Austin, for example, experienced 90 days of heat 100 degrees or over, including 27 days straight of triple digits heat from mid July to August.
It was hot.
So it might come as a relief to Texans that this summer will very likely not be as hot as last. In fact, John Nielson-Gammon, the State Climatologist, says it’s basically a sure thing.
“The rain we’ve had is a good start,” Nielson-Gammon, told StateImpact Texas this week. “It means it won’t be as hot this summer no matter what else happens.”
Our new interactive webpage on the drought has resulted in quite a few comments from readers with their own stories and thoughts about the Texas drought. Here’s a roundup of some of those responses:
What’s Being Done to Plan for a Drier Future?
Many readers were concerned about planning for future droughts like the one that began in 2010.
Commenter Theodore Roberts says what planning is being done doesn’t factor in a changing climate:
“Interesting that the 5 solutions listed ignore entirely the root cause of this crisis. Where is the plan to reduce carbon emissions, consume less petroleum and electricity, and the face the simple reality that temperatures are going rise and rise over the coming decades? Global warming is a reality and no amount of wishful thinking or anti-science hysteria will make a difference.”
A man herds cattle at the West Auction in the winter of 2012.
What happens in a country that runs out of farmers? The question may not be as crazy as it sounds.
During the last agricultural census the number of farmers aged 65 or over grew by 22 percent. It’s the fastest growing group of farm operators in the country. Continue Reading →
The NEST learning thermostat has some big updates and is back on sale.
In December, a new thermostat came on the market. This normally wouldn’t be exciting news, but in this case the device — called Nest — was from some of the same designers behind the iPod, and the new thermostat promised to “learn” your habits and program itself. (You can read our earlier story on the Nest here.)
The product was such a success it quickly sold out (despite a $250 price tag). Today the company announced it’s back on sale, and has two innovative updates to its software:
A feature called AirWave, which maximizes the perfomance of your air conditioner, a feature that would be welcome in the hot, dry Texas summers. As the Nest website explains, “after your air conditioner turns off, it stays cold for awhile, just like your ice cream stays cold after it comes out of the freezer. Airwave stops your air-conditioner early, then uses the fan to spread cold air from your turned-off compressor through your home.”
You can now see a 10-day view of your energy history that shows you when your system was on and how weather, adjustments or being away from your home changed your energy use.
Gadget guide Harry McCracken applauds the new features. “I still think that Nest has a shot at helping to set off a revolution at least as important as the one launched by the iPod,” he says. You can read some thoughts on the new updates over at Time’s Techland blog.
The Texas drought has improved to levels not seen since over a year ago.
Another week, another update from the U.S. Drought Monitor. And today’s numbers bring some good news for much of the state: Texas is at its lowest levels of drought since more than a year ago.
Nearly 17 percent of the state is now completely drought-free (now including Houston). Compared to the peak of the drought, when 88 percent of Texas was in the worst stage of drought, “exceptional.” And other major cities like Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio are either drought-free or in the lower levels of drought.
But the situation in West Texas continues to be dry, as you can see from the map at the right. Lubbock, Midland and Odessa and their surrounding areas are still in the worst stages of drought. 14 percent of the state is still in “exceptional” drought, a great improvement from last fall and down from 32 percent just three months ago.
And as the levels of drought drop across Central, North and East Texas, water restrictions are being lifted. Kyle, Round Rock, and several cities in North Texas have eased restrictions recently. But not everyone is moving in that direction. Dallas-Fort Worth is considering permanent watering restrictions, drought or not. You can read more about the drought at our new interactive page, Dried Out: Confronting the Texas Drought.
The drought has affected Texans across the state. Haskell Simon, a rice farmer in Bay City, won't have water for his crops this year.
This week we launched a new interactive webpage about the historic Texas drought, Dried Out. The page gives you a visual sense of how intense the drought has been and its impact on the state.
And we want to hear your stories about how the drought has affected you. You can tell us how the drought has affected your business, your home — or your way of life. Send us your stories, photos or videos.
You can email them to news@kut.org, or you can leave a voicemail at (512) 537-SITX (7489). Please include a name and email address or phone number so we can contact you.
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives. Learn More »
