A statue stands in front of the remnants of a burned down home outside Bastrop, Texas.
They are numbers familiar to us by now: billions in losses, millions of acres burned, record high temperatures, and record low rainfall during our current drought.
Some towns in Texas are now asking the big question: How long do we have until we run out of water?
“We haven’t had that situation yet,” says Andrea Morrow, a spokesperson for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). “There hasn’t been a scenario yet where someone’s completely run out.”
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 →
Demonstrators protest the Keystone XL pipeline in front of the White House on November 6, 2011
Environmental groups that have opposed the Keystone XL pipeline won something of a victory yesterday, when the Obama administration announced that it would delay a decision on the project.
But that announcement raised more questions than it answered. Will the pipeline’s delay ultimately kill the project altogether? Will other sections of the pipeline (like the Oklahoma-to-Gulf Coast section) be able to go forward separately? Will another company, like Enbridge, pick up where TransCanada left off, but build a pipeline that bypasses the U.S. altogether?
Add to that list a new question: Is the pipeline delay actually a setback for green energy?: 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.
Map of the Proposed Keystone XL Pipeline/Stephanie d’Otreppe, NPR
The State Department made it official today — the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have brought oil from Canada through the U.S. to refineries on the Gulf Coast, will not be happening anytime soon. Continue Reading →
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has granted its first greenhouse gas emission permit to a Texas facility since the Federal Agency took over the permitting program from the state.
The Lower Colorado River Authority’s Thomas C. Ferguson Power Plant in Llano County is the first Texas site to be awarded a permit to emit under the new system. The power plant will run on natural gas. Continue Reading →
Barack Obama speaks at the White House on October 6, 2011
Reuters is reporting that the rumors we’ve been hearing about this week — a delay on a decision for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline — may be true. The Obama administration may announce that they’ll explore a different route for the pipeline, “delaying a final approval beyond the 2012 U.S. election.” More from Reuters:
The decision would be a victory for environmentalists, many of whom oppose the pipeline, and a setback for TransCanada Corp, whose $7 billion Keystone XL project is seen as the most important North American oil pipeline plan for decades.
One source familiar with the matter said that studying a new route for the pipeline would likely take 12-18 months, putting a final decision after President Barack Obama’s bid for re-election on November 6, 2012.
Texas Governor Rick Perry’s memory lapse at the GOP debate last night ( the now infamous moment when he couldn’t remember the third Federal Agency he would dismantle if he were president) was especially surprising considering the nature of his candidacy.
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 →
There were two water-related amendments to the Texas Constitution up for vote yesterday. One, Proposition 2, passed and the other. Proposition 8, was voted down. So what does this mean for the future of water in drought-stricken Texas? Here are five things to know about the votes:
What is Proposition 2 exactly? It’s an amendment that will let the Texas Water Development Board issue bonds to different companies engaged in water development and infrastructure projects. The companies then pay back the bonds, with interest. It passed with 52 percent of the vote.
How much is the state issuing in bonds? The total amount of the bonds issued cannot exceed $6 billion at any given point in time. Earlier this year the Texas Water Development Board estimated that $231 billion worth of infrastructure projects would be necessary to keep water supplies at their current level into the future. This bond package should spur development. Continue Reading →
About StateImpact
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives. Learn More »
