Where politics, government and energy intersect.
Just 10 days after a contentious public hearing with state officials, residents in Reno and Azle gathered Monday night to try and make sense of the swarm of earthquakes that keep rocking their part of North Texas. The latest quake hit just hours before the public meeting. Several hundred people listened to a panel of speakers that […]
Texas has by far the most miles of natural gas pipelines and is the state with the most accidents.
View Earthquakes Near Azle, Texas in a larger map Map created by Andrew Weber for KUT News and StateImpact Texas. Orange circles represent earthquakes, wavy blue lines represent active wastewater disposal wells. Another minor earthquake shook the North Texas community of Azle on Monday. It’s one of dozens to hit the region over the last […]
Update, Jan. 23: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department announced this week that they will delay consideration of the proposed rule outlawing the gassing of rattlesnakes. A revised rule will be proposed and considered by the department in March. Original Story: Pouring gasoline or other noxious chemicals into the earth to force rattlesnakes and other […]
Last week we reported from the Texas town of Azle, where a swarm of low-intensity earthquakes has frightened townspeople, damaged property, and put state regulators on the defensive. Azle had never experienced earthquakes like this before the arrival of waste water disposal wells, related to oil and gas drilling. Science has shown how those wells […]
At the heart of the energy emergency that brought Texas to the brink of rolling blackouts this morning was the failure of power plants to provide electricity when the state needed it, says the state grid operator. That included two plants in North Central Texas that suffered equipment failure caused by freezing weather. In fact, the state saw higher […]
Townspeople came to the meeting looking for answers. They left disappointed.
Mose Buchele/StateImpactWind turbines in West Texas help produce record amounts of electricity for the state. By New Year’s Day, the network of transmission lines that comprise Texas’ “Competitive Renewable Energy Zone” [CREZ] will be fully operational, bringing electricity from wind turbines in West Texas and the Panhandle to points east. Many of the lines are […]
View North Texas Earthquakes in a larger map A map of recent earthquakes (in red) and oil and gas wastewater disposal wells outside of Fort Worth. Active disposal wells are in green; inactive wells are in yellow. Map by Michael Marks/Terrence Henry Two more earthquakes struck near the town of Azle outside of Fort Worth […]
The above video was shot inside the Waller Creek tunnel, 70 feet underneath downtown Austin, at the end of August 2013. The tunnel is expected to be finished by the end of 2014. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Waterloo Park, just east of the State Capitol, is a perfect example. […]
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