Background
Where politics, government and energy intersect.
Where politics, government and energy intersect.
Ken Kramer, director of the Sierra Club in Texas, announced today that he will be retiring this summer, according to a release from the group. He is the first director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, a position he’s held since 1989. The group says that Kramer “will remain active with the […]
If you’ve spent much time on the Highland Lakes in Central Texas (Buchanan, Inks, LBJ, Marble Falls, Travis and Austin) you’ve likely seen pipes running from residences down into the lakes. Some of those homes now sit over a hundred feet above the lake, thanks to drastically low lake levels over the last year. (Even […]
Energy companies are paying billions of dollars in oil and gas royalties to Texas landowners. But some say they’re being short-changed. The biggest among them? The State of Texas.
Governor Rick Perry announced Friday that he has chosen Toby Baker to serve on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Baker will replace Commissioner Buddy Garcia on April 16th. Garcia’s term expired in August, according to Perry spokesperson Catherine Frazier. A press release from the Governor’s Office outlines Baker’s work history: Baker was most recently […]
Just a day after 130 people were arrested protesting the Yankee nuclear power plant in Vermont, a commission of Texas and Vermont officials voted on new rules to allow low level nuclear waste from around the country to be brought to Texas for storage. The vote from the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact […]
Donkeys in West Texas can bray a little easier today. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has announced that they will “not likely” conduct killings of wild burros in the region.
We recently asked the Under Secretary of the Army about what the military’s doing when it comes to renewable research.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it wants to add Willow Park, Texas (a small town east of Fort Worth), to its National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites. Those sites are specially-designated areas of hazardous waste pollution that receive priority funding and cleanup assistance from the federal government. What happened in Willow Park? Here’s the […]
A new plan that would significantly change how water is managed in the Highland Lakes region of Central Texas was sent to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for review and approval today. The plan was adopted by the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) in late February. The TCEQ now has up to a […]
Zak Covar was approved as the new executive director today of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the state’s environmental agency. Covar is 36 and has only been with the agency since November 2007; he has been deputy executive director since August 2009. You can read more about him in this Austin American-Statesman profile. Covar will officially become executive […]
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