School's Out: Kids at the End of The Day at Kruse Elementary in Pasadena, Texas
The way one lawyer working for the Harris County government sees it, his office is enforcing pollution laws because the state of Texas isn’t.
“Sadly, the history of the State of Texas in protecting people, especially people here on the Gulf Coast from environmental contamination, is pitiful,” said Terry O’Rourke, First Assistant Harris County Attorney. “It is a history of neglect.”
Protesters against a proposed tax break for Valero gathered outside the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality today.
Groups arrived in large buses from Houston and surrounding areas like Pasadena.
Parker, from Houston, said “Rick Perry oughta be ashamed. We need children to have a vibrant education without big interests in their pocket.”
Juan and Emilia Portia, their son Miguel, and daughter Jennifer Lopez were very vocal at the protest.
“Just Say No to Valero!” was a popular chant at the protest.
“There are too many dropouts right now,” Chad and Crystal’s mother, Leila Mikel, said. “Kids need to go to school to get a diploma. Without that piece of paper, they can’t make a living.”
A woman protests against the proposed tax exemptions for Valero Energy Corporation
The daughter of Marta Corona, a Houston area parent, looks up at Alain Cisneros, a protest organizer
A protester speaks to members of the TCEQ to oppose the proposed tax break
Gonzales, a 13-year old student in the Pasadena Independent School District in Houston, testified in front of the TCEQ. She spoke of her asthma, which she believes is caused by emissions from nearby refineries.
Texas Governor Rick Perry appointed the three members of the TCEQ board, who will decide on the proposed Valero tax exemption
Early Wednesday morning, a caravan of buses set out from the Houston area, headed for Austin and the headquarters of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Their goal? To protest a request from Valero Energy Corp. for tax breaks for some of its oil refineries through a system that could give millions of dollars back to one of Texasâs most profitable corporations.
So far this year Valero has earned more than $2 billion. That makes the possible millions Valero wants in tax exemptions kind of seem like small potatoes.
But that, in turn, might be what has the 150 community activists and environmentalists chanting âSay ânoâ to Valeroâ in front of TCEQ headquarters on Wednesday so angry. Continue Reading →
The Eagle Ford Shale formation in South Texas has made headlines for its abundance of natural gas, but the formation doesnât end at the Rio Grande. That fact is not lost on the Mexican government.
This rig uses hydraulic fracturing to obtain gas from Texas' Barnett Shale formation. Photo courtesy of KUT News.
Last week, the Mexican Minister of Energy proposed ramping up hydraulic fracturing operations in Northern Mexico. The announcement wasnât especially newsworthy for many this side of the border, but down South?
âItâs huge! It’s huge!â said Jaime Williams, president of the energy and climate change commission of CONCAMIN in Monterrey, which is akin to Mexicoâs industrial chamber of commerce.
âWe are the interested party! The industrial sector, the private sector is the interested party in it,â Williams told KUT News.
Williams said the maquilas (factories) in Mexican border states use a lot of electricity. Theyâve been importing more and more natural gas from Texas just to keep the lights on in recent years.
Green industries promise new jobs but Texas is still dominated by traditional energy.
Federal funds would be better spent on traditional jobs rather than those in “green energy” businesses, according to economists with the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology.
“We looked as objectively as we could,” said Michelle Foss, Chief Energy Economist with the Bureau. “And for quite a long time, for the foreseeable future, (Texas) would be losing more than gaining from any policy that caused a diversion of investment away from our traditional energy businesses and towards green energy businesses.”
It’s a little known fact: Texas is the only state that grows all four types of peanuts, and is second only to Georgia in peanut farming. Unfortunately, this yearâs extreme drought is taking a toll on West Texas peanut farmers.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Calvin Trostle is with Texas A&M Agrilife Extension in Lubbock, where most Texas peanuts are grown. This year, heâs seeing something he never has before. âThis is a shock to us, to think that we could have an irrigated crop in the Texas High Plains fail,” he says, “but weâve had some acres of peanuts out here that eventually, as we got further into the season, we saw we simply did not have enough water.â
Even with extra irrigation, peanut farmers were short 10 to 12 inches of water this year, and the crops are suffering. Plants that appeared healthy at first are turning out to have no peanuts under them. Jimbo Grissom grows peanuts south of Lubbock. His farm went 440 days without rain, and thatâs come with a heavy cost.
âIâve never seen one, even a lot of the people that live around here, have never seen a crop year like this oneâs been. Even back in the â40s and â50s, whenever we had the Dust Bowl, it wasnât even this dry,â he says.
The cost of extra water, combined with lower yields, adds up to prices that are about three times higher than last year. It wonât be long before higher bulk prices result in peanut butter costing more at the store. Continue Reading →
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