Dr. Jerry Brand direct UT’s Algae Culture Center. Photo by Mose Buchele
The Biology Building at the University of Texas at Austin houses one of the University’s most exceptional collections. Not books or art or dinosaurs. This is the Algae Culture Collection.
Think of it as a living library. Shelves line the walls stacked with beakers, each a different shade of green. The hallways are lined with green jars, each of them containing a different strain of algae, around 3,000 in all. Continue Reading →
Galveston seawall (fore) stopped erosion that otherwise moved coastline hundreds of feet inland (back)
To some researchers, what’s happening to the sea level on the Texas Gulf Coast is a clear and present danger. But they worry the word is not getting out, or that the State of Texas is diluting it.
“It’s happening right now, the evidence is clear all around the region,” said David Yoskowitz of the rise in the sea level. Yoskowitz is an economist with the Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Continue Reading →
A few years ago, when US natural gas production was kicking into high gear, gas promoters like T. Boone Pickens sold it as something close to a panacea. It was a plentiful source of energy that could create jobs at home. It could wean the US off of foreign oil. Perhaps most importantly, it was a “bridge fuel” — it could serve as a cleaner source of electricity while America’s renewable energy industry came into its own.
It’s hard to conceive just how fast the industry has grown since then. In 2010, the US surpassed Russia as the world leader in gas production on the strength of domestic shale reserves. Estimates show production more than doubling by 2020 to over 40 billion cubic feet of gas produced per day. This success can be viewed as a vindication of early gas investors. But abundant and cheap natural gas has also brought its own set of challenges.
The worst single-year drought in Texas history has left deer undernourished and, in some cases, dying in greater numbers than before. Many of the deer hunters are bringing home are skinnier than normal and the population of fawns surviving through the summer took a nosedive in many parts of the state.
Mose Buchele / StateImpact Texas
This deer may be hungier than usual in the drought.
At McBrides Gun’s in Austin, Thomas Hunt is looking for the perfect rifle to take his son Mathew out hunting. The appropriately-named Hunt has already bagged two deer this year. He says the impact of the drought was noticeable right away.
“The same deer that we saw last year has had bigger horns last year than they had this year,” he said. “I’ve had one that was a very large — probably 14 point — that was a 10 point this year. So we’ve seen that much reduction in the horn size.”
Allen Cain, deer program leader with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said the legacy of the drought could be with us for years. Continue Reading →
In Houston, where the business boosters count 3,600 local companies doing energy-related work, the title “World’s Energy Capital” is taken very seriously. And not just because of pride or profit.
“If you begin to lose the concentration in Houston as the Energy Capital, you start getting into, in my opinion, national security issues,” said Lane Sloan,a former long-time top executive with Shell. Continue Reading →
Rail is being laid to bring oil in an out of the planned GT Omni Port in Port Arthur, Texas.
After the White House’s announcement that it would delay a decision on the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta, Canada to Texas, the airwaves filled with competing voices.
Actor Robert Redford lauded President Obama. Alberta Premier Alison Redford toured Washington D.C. expressing confidence in the project, and the group that’s building the pipeline announced plans to find an alternate route through Nebraska.
But on the Gulf Coast of Texas, there was a sound that may be even louder than the media din: the sound of a pile driving hammer, slamming 85 foot concrete pilings into the earth. Continue Reading →
Mounds of coal at the Coleto Creek power plant in Fannin, Texas
When it comes to using coal to make electricity in Texas, groups opposed to what they call “dirty coal” say they almost always lose when they try to convince state regulators to deny proposed plants permission to operate. But while they’ve lost some battles, are they actually winning the war? Continue Reading →
A view of the Flint Hills East Refinery from the Hillcrest Neighborhood in Corpus Christi
Tammy Foster is leading a group of residents trying to leave the neighborhood.
A flare erupts from a refinery stack in Corpus Christi
An Abandoned Playground in the Hillcrest Neighborhood
One of many boarded-up houses in the Hillcrest neighborhood, which sits next to the Citgo and Flint Hills refineries.
How do you get eminent domain in Texas? Just check a box.
A sofa sits outside the Citgo East refinery in what was once the Oak Park Triangle neighborhood. 288 homes here were bought out by oil companies in the late nineties.
Holding tanks on refinery row
There are Of the six major refiThere are six major refineries in the area. The EPA has flagged five of them for serious or repeated violations of the Clean Air Act
Tammy Foster is a lifetime resident of Refinery Row in Corpus Christi. After years of living surrounded by refineries and smoke stacks, she says many of the families there are sick. Now she’s leading a group of residents who think they’ve found a way to fix that.
Billy Placker’s Front Yard in Refinery Row/Photo by Teresa Vieira for KUT News
What do you see when you look out your window at night? If you live in Billy Placker’s neighborhood, it could very well be a giant ball of fire.
“This is what we deal with here a while back,” the former refinery worker says. “My grandson run in the house, he said, Grandpa! Grandpa! The refinery’s fixing to blow up. We run outside, and the refinery back around the corner from us over here, both their flares were going insane.”
You might have seen a flare before, maybe while driving along the highway. It’s the fire on top of stacks at refineries. When things are going according to plan, the flame is small. But here on refinery row, a ten mile stretch of plants, refineries  and homes in Corpus Christi, things don’t always go according to plan. Continue Reading →
A refinery along the Texas Coast. Photo by Teresa Vierira.
NPR reporters, working with the Center for Public Integrity, reviewed never-before published lists compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to track polluters. Â Roughly one in 10 factories on the most recent list is in Texas. Â Some of those facilities have been on the watch list for years.
Kelly Haragan runs the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Texas Austin. She is a great source, but interviews with her are likely to be interrupted. You see, Haragan gets a notification on her phone every time factories emit more pollution than normal. Continue Reading →
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