Brioche Mini-burgers. Due to the drought, beef prices are expected to rise.
The drought has wreaked havoc on many facets of Texas life: farming, pecan trees, even hunting. It’s also been hell for the state’s cattle industry: 600,000 cows were sold off as grazing land dried up and feed prices soared. Today, the Texas Agrilife Extension released its forecast for cattle prices in 2012, and not surprisingly, they are going to be high.
Because there are fewer cows in Texas, there are fewer calves, which means a tighter market and higher prices. The Agrilife Extension reports a twelve percent decline this year in beef cattle nationally, “the second largest decline in history since 1934-1935 (eighteen percent), as 550,000 head of cows were sold off during that time.” Another bad year was 1996, when 400,000 cows were sold off or died during a drought. For next year, beef production is predicted to be down four percent. Continue Reading →
Today the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is holding their monthly commissioners’ meeting, where they vote on enforcement and regulations. Some important items are on the agenda today, from new regulations to water restrictions. We’ll be live-blogging the meeting below:
Rope lines await shoppers ahead of the grand opening of the new Ikea this summer in Denver, which uses a geothermal heating system.
The blue-and-yellow Swedish furniture giant is going green. IKEA announced today plans to install solar panels on all of its stores in the South, including three in Texas.
The panels are expected to be installed by next summer, and combined will generate 10.7 megawatts, with the three Texas stores generating about half of that, or enough to power 434 homes for a year. The company also has solar installed at twelve other locations, with eleven others underway. Once these next ten stores have solar panels, the company will have a solar generating capacity of over twenty-six megawatts, which double the amount produced by the Blue Wing solar farm in San Antonio, the largest photovoltaic energy plant in the Texas. Continue Reading →
The carcass of a cow that became mired in the mud in a dry stock tank in Knox County during the drought
The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department is asking for millions of dollars to cover money lost during the drought. âA âtriple whammyâ of record heat and drought, devastating wildfires and a corresponding decline in visitation and revenue has created a critical need for Texas State Parks,â said Carter Smith, the department’s executive director, in a statement today. âSo, we are reaching out for help.â
Will Parks & Wildlife seek additional funds from the state? “This is an effort to solicit donations now and get people aware,” says Mike Cox with the department. “A legislative appeal won’t begin until the next session.” Continue Reading →
This map shows rainfall declines during the Mayan civilization as a result of converting forest to farmland. Â
New research by NASA of early droughts in Central America shows that deforestation can lead to droughts. A climatologist at the agency found that ancient civilizations like the Mayans and Aztecs made droughts worse “by clearing rainforests to make room for pastures and farmland.” Continue Reading →
The Nest thermostat aims to change home energy use
A few weeks ago a new home thermostat was announced. While this would normally be news to yawn over, efficiency enthusiasts and techies alike were enthralled. Wired said that the thermostat would “make home heating sexy.”
Why the enthusiasm over a mundane household product? It was likely because the thermostat was an iPod.
Or at least it was designed by the same people that designed the iPod, and is intended to be a similar innovative leap forward. What the iPod did for music, the Nest hopes to do for home thermostats.
An empty rain gauge is strapped to a fence post on the edge of a pasture this summer near Canadian, Texas
Rains fell across much of Texas the past few days. The Dallas-Fort Worth area received between three and four inches of rain, Houston got under an inch, and Austin got a good soaking of two inches.
So what effect have these rains had on the drought?
âItâs really not a big change at all,â says Bob Rose, Chief Meteorologist with the Lower Colorado Authority, which oversees water in Central Texas. Continue Reading →
A warning sign along the shore of the dried O.C. Fisher Lake this summer in San Angelo, Texas.
The top five new stories of last week from StateImpact Texas, in case you missed them:
The Texas Drought, as Seen from Space (Things Don’t Look Good). During a drought, it feels like all you can do is wait and wait for rain. Well, we may have to wait a little longer. A new NASA map shows that groundwater and soil moisture levels in Texas are at their âlowest levels seen in more than 60 years.â
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 →
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees much of the state’s power, released projections this week for grid reliability over the coming years. ERCOT says rolling blackouts like the ones we had last winter remain a possibility. The report includes a list of energy projects that it expected to be online by now but are still on hold, adding to the stateâs power crunch.
A coal plant that was supposed to come online east of Waco will not be generating power, according to the council. An accident at the Sandy Creek coal plant during a commissioning test has caused damage to equipment that will keep the plant offline until the spring of 2013, says ERCOT CEO Trip Doggett. “We just learned of that in the past few weeks,” he says, “that was a significant surprise.â What exactly happened at the plant? âI don’t have intimate details there,” Doggett says, noting that they had been told about it during the past few weeks. Continue Reading →
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