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April 23, 2014

$3 Million Awarded to North Texas Family in Fracking Lawsuit

A Texas family sued a drilling company was awarded close to three million dollars this week by a Dallas County jury. The decision is being called a landmark one by people opposed to hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” and touted as a first by the plaintiffs’ legal team. “The fracking industry has really just taken off in the […]

April 22, 2014

Investigation: Disaster at West Fertilizer Plant Was ‘Preventable’

Federal Agency Says ‘It Should Never Have Occurred’ A year after a deadly explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas, a federal agency is releasing a report saying the disaster was preventable. The Chemical Safety Board, which investigates chemical accidents and issues recommendations to ensure public safety, is presenting its preliminary findings tonight in […]

Traffic Fatalities Still on the Rise in West Texas as Drilling Surges

From KXWT West Texas Public Radio: If you follow local headlines in Midland-Odessa, it seems like there’s a fatal car crash every couple of days. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, the oil-booming Permian Basin saw a 13 percent increase in roadside deaths from 2012-2013. Last week, a victims’ rights coalition in Midland held a panel discussion on how to deal […]

April 16, 2014

Court Thwarts Sierra Club’s Radioactive Waste Challenge

From the Texas Tribune: A state appeals court has thwarted a challenge to a low-level radioactive waste disposal site in West Texas – a ruling that signals growing difficulties for those trying to scrutinize the decisions of Texas environmental regulators. Depending on whom you ask, such a trend would either rightly save companies time and money or […]

April 11, 2014

Experts Fear Impacts of Oil Cleanup on Texas Gulf Coast

MATAGORDA ISLAND, TX — Recovery efforts continue weeks after a barge accident in the Houston Ship Channel dumped tens of thousands of barrels of oil into Galveston Bay. That oil kills wildlife and damages the environment. But some are worried the cleanup itself could also disturb the ecosystem along the Texas Gulf Coast. Nowhere is […]

April 10, 2014

This is What the Oil Spill Looks Like on Matagorda Island

Weeks after a large oil spill in Galveston Bay, it’s still having an impact on sensitive wildlife habitats along the Texas Gulf Coast. On Wednesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took reporters to see the impacts on Matagorda Island, an important wildlife refuge for migratory birds and several endangered species. Workers are now busy cleaning up […]

April 9, 2014

Four Years After BP Spill, Settlement Money Slowly Trickles In

In the aftermath of the 2010 BP oil spill, the worst in US history, the Gulf Coast is still adding up the costs of the disaster on coastal species and the ecosystem as a whole. In the National Wildlife Federation’s updated annual report on the status of the Gulf Coast, the foundation lists several criminal […]

April 8, 2014

What a Ban on Fracking in Denton Could Mean For the Rest of Texas

Come elections in November, the city of Denton could be split between two very different futures. The Denton Drilling Awareness Group (DAG) recently got enough signatures on a petition to place an ordinance banning fracking within city limits on local ballots. Though other communities in Texas have passed restrictions on fracking, a moratorium on drilling […]

April 7, 2014

Let’s Talk About ‘The Boom’

New Book Looks at How Fracking Changed Everything If you ever talk about the surge in oil and gas drilling in Texas and the rest of the country by calling it a “boom,” you might upset someone in the oil and gas industry. That’s because if you call it a “boom,” that means at some […]

April 3, 2014

Giddy Up! Now You Can Buy Your Very Own Oil Well

Larissa Liska A jointly-owned oil rig atop the Eagle Ford shale south of San Antonio. But That Could Spell Trouble for Texas’ Drilling Boom From the first geyser to burst from the salt domes of Spindletop to the Texas fracking pioneer George Mitchell, who helped unlock massive oil and gas deposits in shale, the Lone Star […]

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