Terrence Henry reports on energy and the environment for StateImpact Texas. His radio, print and television work has appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, NPR, The Texas Tribune, The History Channel and other outlets.
He has previously worked at The Washington Post and The Atlantic. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from Brigham Young University.
“Chase Power … has opted to suspend efforts to further permit the facility and is seeking alternative investors as part of a plan of dissolution for the parent company,” Chase Power, LLC CEO Dave Freysinger says in an emailed statement. He says that “while market conditions played a role, the direct regulatory obstacles purposefully erected by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) resulted in the decision to suspend development of the plant.” Freysinger tells StateImpact Texas that the power plant was a “major part” of its portfolio.
Las Brisas was one of just a few coal plants still being planned for Texas. Now there is only one major coal plant still being considered, the White Stallion coal project in Matagorda County, and it, too, faces an uncertain future amid opposition and a market more favorable to natural gas power. Continue Reading →
Join us in Austin Monday, January 28 to hear how Texas legislators are proposing to tackle the state's water issues.
Please join us in Austin tonight, Monday, January 28th, for a panel examining water issues in the state and some of the solutions that the legislature is considering. The panel will feature members of the legislature, including State Senator Glenn Hegar and State Representatives Drew Darby and Lyle Larson. It will be free and open to the public.
The panel will run for one hour and include an audience Q&A.
We’ll be meeting at the Cactus Cafe on the University of Texas at Austin campus. You can RSVP on Facebook, or just show up tonight. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
A new bill proposed by a Democratic State Senator would prevent HOAs from going after residents who want to use less water for landscaping.
While some Texans have employed water-efficient landscaping as a way of dealing with the ongoing drought, a large group is often left out: those who live in homes belonging to Home Owners Associations, or HOAs. HOAs can have strict restrictions on what kind of grass a homeowner can plant for a lawn (sometimes, the thirsty St. Augustine variety is mandated) and how green it has to be kept, water restrictions be damned. That has resulted in conflict between some homeowners, who wish to switch to drought-resistant grasses, or simply let their lawns die during drought-stricken summers, and HOAs, which have threatened to fine them for doing so.
Entering the fray this week is State Senator Kirk Watson (D-Austin), with a bill that would help homeowners living in HOAs switch to more water-friendly landscaping.
Senate Bill 198 would protect homeowners in HOAs who want to use less water by: using yard trimmings and glass clippings on their lawn for composting; putting in rain barrels or rainwater harvesting systems; installing more efficient irrigation; and/or using “drought-resistant landscaping or
water-conserving turf.” Continue Reading →
A 3.0 magnitude earthquake struck Fort Worth near the DFW airport tonight, according to the US Geological Survey. At 10:16 pm, the quake hit five miles Northwest of Irving, just off the President George Bush Turnpike. Its epicenter was ten miles below the surface.
On Twitter, people are reporting feeling the ground shake. “Loud and everything moved – we knew instantly! Scary!” tweeted @NatalieTX2012. The quake hasn’t resulted in any reported damage. Generally, an earthquake doesn’t do much harm until it’s 4.0 magnitude or higher.
The area where the quake occured was seismically quiet until a few years ago. That’s when the oil and gas industry began using deep underground wells to dispose of fluids from the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,”
There is conclusive scientific evidence that the injection of those fluids is causing quakes in the U.S., in particular in this area of Texas. A University of Texas at Austin from study last summer found a definitive link between earthquakes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and disposal wells, in the drilling area known as the Barnett Shale.
With water on the minds behind the Texas legislature, Rep. Allan Ritter, R-Nederland, the chairman of the House National Resources Committee, sat down last week to talk with the Texas Tribune about what lawmakers can do to secure new water supplies for a growing state. Ritter recently filed a fill that would take $2 billion from the Rainy Day Fund to start a bank for water infrastructure projects. You can watch the conversation in the video above.
The latest federal drought forecast doesn't provide much hope for Texas.
The rains that made their way across much of Texas last week were a welcome sight for the state, currently in its third year of drought. The latest U.S. Drought Monitor Map shows that drought levels decreased for the first time since October 2012. But they didn’t fall much.
About seven percent of the state is in the worst stage of drought currently, “exceptional,” down from over 11 percent last week. But over 90 percent of Texas remains in some form of drought condition, and the state’s reservoirs are currently only 67 percent full, according to the Texas Water Development Board.
The latest federal three-month drought forecast out today doesn’t bring encouraging news. The drought in Texas is predicted to persist, and develop even further in some regions. Continue Reading →
Many rice mills and drying and storage facilities in Southeast Texas didn't see much work last year. If they're cut off again this year, the slow business will continue.
For the rice farmers of Southeast Texas, 2012 was a rough year. For the first time in history, they were cut off from water because there wasn’t enough in the main reservoirs of the Lower Colorado River to supply them. In 2013, they face the same situation: if there isn’t enough water in the Highland Lakes come March 1, they won’t get water again this year. The quasi-public agency making the call is the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA). But there’s some good news for rice farmers coming from the LCRA as well. Today the Agency approved the first phase of a new plan that will help both rice farmers and municipal interests in the years to come.
Ronald Gertson is a fourth-generation rice farmer in Wharton County. The industry is over a hundred years old, and was damaged by the cutoff last year. While crop insurance covered up to 85 percent of the losses for the farmers, and will do the same this year if they go without water again, Gertson says that they’ve been told they will not get crop insurance if they are cut off again next year. “A third year would definitely put some folks permanently out of rice farming,” he says.
And the ancillary businesses without crop insurance that rely on the South Texas rice industry, like grain storage and processing, have suffered. “There were about 53,000 acres that didn’t get planted in 2012 that normally would have been,” Gertson says.
Enter the idea of “off-channel” reservoirs, smaller sources of storage downstream, below the Highland Lakes and the City of Austin. During wet times, as the Lower Colorado River sees good flows, water will be diverted and held for later use, alleviating the strain on the Highland Lakes. Continue Reading →
Nearly a year ago, the groundwater well serving the small lakeside community of Spicewood Beach, about 40 miles outside of Austin, began to fail. Ever since, the locals there, mostly retirees, have gotten their water trucked in several times a day to keep the taps flowing. As the levels of Lake Travis have fallen during the multi-year drought, the alluvial well that provides for the community has dropped so much that it no longer fully functions. “If the lakes come up, we get our wells back,” resident Wanda Watson told us last year. “If they don’t come up, we have no water.”
For residents, the distinction of being the first Texas community to run out of water during the drought has been a troubling one. People are moving away, and property values have dropped significantly, almost in tandem with lake levels. “There’s a lot of homes for sale out here right now,” Kathy Mull, who’s lived there ten years, tells StateImpact Texas. “We are definitely considering moving ourselves right now. There’s a lot of places that have come up for sale, but they’re not selling. Who’s gonna buy out here with no water?”
But for the first time since the well began to fail, an end may be in sight.
On Wednesday, the board of the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) will vote on a $1.2 million project to build a surface water treatment plant to serve the community. It should work even if the lakes go lower, and provide ample water. The open question is who will ultimately bear that cost. Continue Reading →
State Rep. Allan Ritter has introduced two new bills that would take cash from the Rainy Day Fund to capitalize the State Water Plan.
A state representative filed legislation today to start funding new water projects in Texas, as the state continues to struggle with water supplies and drought. In two House Bills, State Rep. Allan Ritter (R-Nederland), Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, advocates taking $2 billion from the Rainy Day Fund to start “a new, dedicated revolving fund” to finance projects in the State Water Plan, according to a statement from Ritter’s office.
“It is vital for the future of Texas that a dedicated source of revenue be established for funding the State Water Plan,” Ritter said in a statement. “Our economy depends on it, our communities depend on it, and ultimately, our daily lives depend on it.”
That’s a whole billion more than previous proposals, and Ritter maintains that it would be enough to fund all of the projects needed today from the Water Plan. (The overall plan calls for $53 billion in projects over the next fifty years, with about half of that coming from the state. The lion’s share of money is needed for municipal water projects.) Continue Reading →
Extreme temperatures in 2012 brought plenty of extreme weather to the country.
As you’ve probably heard by now, the numbers are in: 2012 was the warmest year in recorded history for Texas (technically tied with 1921, due to rounding) and the country as a whole. New data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) show that 2012 was a full 3.2 degrees Fahrenheit above average, and a full degree hotter than the previous record year, 1998.
Smell climate change? You’re not wrong. The record warmth is part of an established trend linked to growing emissions of heat-trapping gases. “Climate change is a fairly large part of it,” State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon says. “There’s some contribution from La Niña, which tends to make for warmer temperatures, especially in the winter time. But we’ve seen temperatures statewide go up about a degree, a degree-and-a-half, Fahrenheit since the 1970s.” While 2011 had a record hot summer, overall temperatures were warmer this past year. Continue Reading →
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