Tracking the players in the ever-growing energy and environmental world.
The Center for Public Integrity’s iwatch News has put together a “by the numbers” look at toxic air emissions. The data comes from a once-secret EPA ‘watch list’ that shows repeated violators of environmental laws in the country, with many of them in Texas. StateImpact Texas, NPR and the Center for Public Integrity reported on the list and people […]
Last week StateImpact Texas reported on a former hazardous waste plant that sits at the edge of a residential neighborhood in Corpus Christi. The Encycle facility, which opened as a hazardous waste plant in 1989, was ultimately shut down for pollution violations. Encycle and its parent company ASARCO filed for bankruptcy after agreeing to $1.7 […]
There are some people in Houston who worry that the city could suffer the same fate as Detroit: a place that once dominated an industry and now doesn’t.
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 […]
A delay on an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas has raised more questions than answers.
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 […]
What’s it like to grow up next to a hazardous waste plant? For some residents in Corpus Christi, this isn’t a hypothetical question.
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 […]
Earlier this week there were reports of a leak at the BP refinery in Texas City, Texas, just outside of Galveston. Sulfur dioxide (a pollutant regulated by the EPA and linked to respiratory issues) reportedly escaped the plant. A caller reported the sulfur dioxide leak Monday to the National Response Center, the federal division for reporting oil and […]
Oil and gas exploration is up in the state of Texas. Over 100,000 new wells were drilled in the last five years, some of them hydraulic fracturing operations looking for “tight oil” and shale gas trapped in layers of rock far below the surface. So while business booms and holes are being drilled into the […]
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