For years, critics of how Texas enforces environmental regulations have charged that polluters didn’t pay enough when caught, that it was cheaper for big corporations to pay the fine than obey the law.
But the newest member appointed to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), Toby Baker, said changes made by the state legislature are putting more bite in enforcement. Continue Reading →
State Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo) is a founding member of the Eagle Ford Shale Legislative Caucus.
The way State Senator Judith Zaffirini tells it, the idea first came from a constituent.
The Laredo Democrat was hosting a legislative summit in her hometown when “somebody just rose from the audience during a Q&A and suggested this.”
And so the Eagle Ford Shale Legislative Caucus was born.
As most Texans know by now, new drilling technology has spurred an unprecedented oil and gas boom across the South Texas Eagle Ford shale formation. Zaffirini’s bi-partisan group of over 20 state Senators and Representatives hopes to guide that transformation.
The group held its first formal event at the old State Supreme Court Chambers Wednesday at the Capitol.
In Houston, a biker crosses a utility right-of-way
Update: Rep. Jim Murphy filed a new bill February 18, 2013 that appears to still limit a utility’s liability but not in cases of “gross negligence.”
The electricity industry is among the biggest of the big spenders on lobbying the Texas legislature. So when bills are introduced giving the industry extraordinary protection from law suits, you can bet somebody’s going to cry foul.
“It’s a very unusual bill,” says Andrew Wheat at Texans for Public Justice, a corporate watchdog group in Austin. Continue Reading →
Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Barry Smitherman as seen on his Facebook page
Barry Smitherman, the chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission which regulates oil and gas drilling, said there has been “much interest” by the commission’s staff since he made his proposal earlier this month to offer training for concealed handgun licenses.
But a union organizer said state employees of other agencies have shown little enthusiasm in arming themselves.
The Right to Protect Yourself
In announcing his initiative, Smitherman cited “recent shooting tragedies around the country”. In response to questions from StateImpact, he elaborated in an email: “At the Railroad Commission, many of our employees—such as our field inspectors—often work alone in remote, desolate areas of the state that can pose dangers. It is my position that Commission employees have the right to protect themselves.” Continue Reading →
Funding, like water, can be diverted or even dry up.
The Texas State Water Plan has been described as a $53 billion dollar wish list. It’s full of local projects, proposed by regional water districts. They are meant to be enough to secure water for Texas for 50 years. But those projects remain largely unprioritized and unfunded.
Now state legislators say they are serious about funding the plan, but what projects may receive money remains a mystery.
On Wednesday two lawmakers, Senator Troy Fraser (R-Horshoe Bay) and Rep. Allan Ritter (R-Nederland) provided some hints at a Public Forum Hosted by the Texas Association of Realtors, the Austin Board of Realtors and the group H204TX.
First off, funding.
Both Ritter and Fraser want to pull $2 Billion dollars from the state’s rainy day fund. The state would give that money out as loans so that regional entities can jumpstart their water projects. Without money from the fund, Senator Fraser says the whole thing would probably fall apart. Continue Reading →
"Nano rust" collects where a magnet is held to vial of water mixed with the tracer
Scientists are developing ways to add non-toxic tracers to drilling fluid so if groundwater is contaminated, investigators would be able to pinpoint if an oil or gas drilling operation was to blame.
“What’s impossible at the moment is if you’ve got multiple companies in an area and it’s thought there is contamination, there is no way to tell which company caused the contamination,” said Andrew Barron at Rice University in Houston. Continue Reading →
Lavaca Bay in Calhoun County is one proposed site for an LNG Terminal.
If you think the price of natural gas is too low and think the solution is to increase demand by exporting the stuff, who will benefit? Continue Reading →
The small community of Port Lavaca got a boost a few decades ago with the opening of a plastics plant.
Oil and gas have always fueled dreams in Texas. Here’s one more.
“It feels like Port Lavaca is right on the verge of something really big happening,” says Bob Turner, the city manager for this coastal community of 12,000 people. Continue Reading →
In a suburb of Houston, some bikers ignore an ordinance that banishes bikes from streets that have bike paths
Texas cities are trying to reduce traffic congestion by promoting bicycling. Austin is adding bicycle-only lanes on city streets. Houston voters recently approved $166 million in bonds partly for hike and bike trails.
But on some roads in Texas, bikes are banned, raising questions about just where bikers have the right to ride.
In the city of Anna just north of Dallas, a stretch of FM 455 has been off-limits to bicyclists since 2006 when the city council deemed the two-lane road too narrow and dangerous to accommodate both cars and bicyclists. Continue Reading →
Since 2003, the total number of gas and oil wells increased by 42,000 in Texas requiring more pipeline facilities like this in DeWitt County.
Chances may be better this time around that the Texas legislature might actually strengthen regulation of oil and gas drilling by the Texas Railroad Commission.
“I think there’s more and more consensus on what needs to happen at the Railroad Commission,” says Royce Poinsett. He’s a lawyer with Baker Botts and a lobbyist for the oil and gas industry.
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