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April 3, 2014

Originally Meant for New Mexico, Diverted Nuclear Waste Arrives in West Texas

A truckload of radioactive waste that was originally meant to wind up at a storage site in Carlsbad, New Mexico arrived in West Texas today. It was just the first of many that will be crossing the state line into Andrews Countyover the coming months. The waste was initially headed for theWaste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, […]

March 25, 2014

Here’s What The Galveston Bay Oil Spill Looks Like

Responders are scrambling to contain the slimy mess left by an oil spill in Galveston Bay. After a barge carrying tar-like heavy fuel collided with a vessel in the Houston Ship Channel on Saturday, cargo exports and imports have been put on hold. That’s raised concerns about the impact on Texas’ oil-dependent economy. The Coast Guard says […]

March 24, 2014

Texas Still Learning When It Comes to Oil Spill Response

Two dozen boats and over 500 people are now involved in the response to an oil spill from Saturday that closed the Houston Ship Channel. What spilled was a heavy fuel oil, called bunker fuel, which was carried in a barge that collided with a ship. Up to 168,000 gallons were dumped into the channel. […]

Galveston Bay Spill Will Take Economic, Ecological Toll

From the Texas Tribune: With no end in sight to containing a spill that may have dumped 150,000 gallons of fuel oil into Galveston Bay on Saturday, the hit to Texas’ economy and environment is already huge — and sure to grow. The 50-mile Houston Ship Channel, one of the world’s biggest waterways for the […]

What Drought, Cattle and Crimea Have to Do With Texas Cotton Farming

Every year Texas farmers are faced with a choice: should they focus on growing corn, cotton, or sorghum? Gaylon Morgan has an inkling what kind of year 2014 will be. “I think we’ll see an increase in cotton, just due to the price difference,” Morgan, a cotton specialist at Texas A&M, tells StateImpact Texas. It’s simple economics. The […]

March 21, 2014

Mapped: Groundwater Contamination in Texas

Though the rise of fracking (and the chemicals used in the fracking process) has raised concerns about groundwater contamination, the source of a majority of Texas’ cases is far more mundane. Gasoline is the most prevalent source of groundwater contaminant in Texas, according to a Joint Groundwater Monitoring and Contamination Report put out last year […]

March 20, 2014

How the West Texas Energy Boom Threatens Astronomy

From the Fronteras Desk: FT. DAVIS, Texas — World-class observatories like Mount Wilsonnear Los Angeles and Palomar north of San Diego are cramped by the intrusion of urban light to once unspoiled night skies. Facing the same problem in the 1970s, scientists at Kitt Peak National Observatory south of Tucson persuaded that city and others in Arizona to pass lighting […]

March 14, 2014

New Film Shows Lives Still Scarred By BP Oil Spill

We’re coming up on four years since the worst accidental oil spill in history: the blowout at the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Over two hundred million gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf. Eleven men were killed in the blast, all from a tight-knit group of rig workers. A film premiering at the SXSW Film Festival this […]

March 13, 2014

Chesapeake Energy’s $5 Billion Shuffle

This story comes from the non-profit investigative newsroom ProPublica, co-published with The Daily Beast: At the end of 2011, Chesapeake Energy, one of the nation’s biggest oil and gas companies, was teetering on the brink of failure. Its legendary chief executive officer, Aubrey McClendon, was being pilloried for questionable deals, its stock price was getting hammered […]

March 6, 2014

Drilling for Certainty: The Latest in Fracking Health Studies

From ProPublica: For years, environmentalists and the gas drilling industry have been in a pitched battle over the possible health implications of hydro fracking. But to a great extent, the debate — as well as the emerging lawsuits and the various proposed regulations in numerous states — has been hampered by a shortage of science. […]

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