Television cameras and reporters lined the back wall, eager to record the arrival of one of Texas’ more controversial figures. There was a certain fever in the room when Ted Nugent, donning his trademark camouflage cowboy hat, showed up.
Nugent, also known as The Nuge, The Motor City Madman or, simply Uncle Ted, is a rockstar, author, reality-television personality and storied bow hunter. His conservatism and pro-gun stances have earned him almost as much attention as his unpredictable behavior. Lately, he’s been in the spotlight for an apparent habit of making veiled threats against President Obama. Something that earned him intense criticism and at least one visit from the secret service.
But Nugent wasn’t at the capitol Wednesday to talk national politics. He was there to talk hunting, and people were ready for a show. Continue Reading →
Keffer's bill would result in more pipeline regulation.
The recent oil spill in Arkansas continues to draw nationwide attention to pipeline safety regulations, but here in Texas, fewer than 20 minutes of a five hour legislative meeting held Wednesday was spent discussing House Bill 2982, a bill that would give the Railroad Commission of Texas more authority to regulate certain pipelines.
Representative Jim Keffer, R- Eastland, Chairman of the House Energy Resources Committee, which is considering the bill, introduced the legislation.
He said the commission currently does not regulate some rural gathering lines, which are pipelines that go from drilling well sites to compressor stations or other well sites. The bill, Keffer says, would grant the commission the authority to inspect these pipelines if requested to do so. Continue Reading →
Texas summers are so hot that in many West Texas reservoirs, more water evaporates than gets used by people. In 2011, more water evaporated out of Lakes Travis and Buchanan in Central Texas than was used by their largest city customer, Austin.
So what about storing water underground — in manmade reservoirs?
More Texas communities are exploring the idea, which has found traction in states like Florida and California, and Texas lawmakers have introduced legislation to help it along. The basic concept of the technology — which is awkwardly named aquifer storage and recovery, or ASR — is to inject water into an aquifer for storage, hundreds of feet down, and pump it back up when it is needed. Proponents say that the technology reduces evaporation, is cheaper and faster to build than surface reservoirs, and avoids some of the issues associated with flooding land.
“You don’t flood a bunch of bottomland hardwoods, or take thousands and thousands of acres of cropland out of service,” said James Dwyer, an Austin-based engineer with CH2M Hill, an engineering company. Continue Reading →
Here are some of the more interesting findings from the study:
Map by NOAA
This map shows that temperature have been warmer than normal over the last two years in Texas.
Temperatures and precipitation have diverged from historical norms. The last two years in Texas were the warmest since 1985. And the entire state experienced lower than normal rainfall in that time period, according to the report.
One result of the oppressive weather is a shrinking water supply. Central Texas’ two largest reservoirs, Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan, are at 41 percent capacity, according to the Lower Colorado River Authority, LCRA, website. Those low levels aren’t likely to improve much in the coming months, as the NOAA outlook anticipates warmer and drier weather through June.
David Barer is a reporting intern for StateImpact Texas.
The Texas Environmental Enforcement Task Force affidavit for a warrant to search the Houston office of the Railroad Commission in 2010
As the legislature considers making changes to the Railroad Commission of Texas in the future, a search warrant is now shedding light on how the Railroad Commission interacted with criminal investigators in the past.
An affidavit for the warrant, obtained by StateImpact, shows that during a 2010 investigation of a state-regulated site used for disposing drilling fluids, the Texas Environmental Enforcement Task Force said it wanted to seize documents it said were being withheld; withheld not by the company that ran the disposal site, but by the Railroad Commission that was supposed to be regulating it.
Field distribution water tank used in the fracking process of natural gas well drilling in DeWitt County, Texas, complete with life buoy and "No Swimming" sign.
For about two hours on Tuesday, the Senate Natural Resources Committee discussed whether or not to tighten rules governing water wells used to supply hydraulic fracturing operations.
The discussion centered on Senate Bill 873, carried by state Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, which would allow local groundwater authorities to require oil and gas companies using water for fracking to obtain permits.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a water-intensive operation involving shooting roughly four to six million gallons of water — or more — down a hole to break up rock and retrieve oil and gas. The water also contains sand and chemicals.
As the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” has rapidly spread across Texas, so has the demand for disposal wells, where wastewater from oil and gas drilling is sent deep underground. In this new interactive map from Ryan Murphy of the Texas Tribune, you can see where more than 7,000 disposal wells are in Texas.
The wastewater from drilling consists of both the fluid used in fracking, as well as water that has been waiting underground with the oil and gas. It’s cheapest for drillers to use disposal wells to get rid of it, but Texas regulators are trying to encourage more recycling of wastewater. The wells have resulted in more truck traffic and some incidents of spills and contamination, and the amount of wastewater being disposed has risen dramatically, to nearly 3.5 billion barrels in 2011 from 46 million barrels in 2005.
Check out our list of what to watch for on the issues of energy and environment at the Capitol this week.
We’ve compiled a list of several important meetings coming up this week at the state legislature that could have an impact on Texas’ energy and environment. Find out when the lege will tackle new bills that could affect everything from the concrete casing on oil wells to space flights near the beach:
Each day, dozens of trucks hook up to the Gulf Coast-run fracking fluid disposal well site near Gonzales, TX.
This article is part of an occasional series on water and hydraulic fracturing by StateImpact Texas and the Texas Tribune.
GONZALES, Tex. — In a dusty lot off the main highway in this South Texas town, Vern Sartin pointed to a collection of hose hookups and large storage tanks used for collecting wastewater from hydraulic fracturing jobs.
“We run about 30 to 40 trucks a day, 24-7,” Sartin said. “Depending on how the oil fracking is going out there, if they’re hustling and bustling, then we’re hustling and bustling.”
Sartin is a watchman at a disposal well operated by Gulf Coast Acquisitions, where each day oil and gas companies dispose of wastewater by pumping it deep underground.
Wastewater disposal wells like this one are becoming a common landmark in the drilling regions of Texas as the water-intensive practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, continues to spread. In the fracking process, several million gallons of water, combined with sand and chemicals, are sent down a well to break up rock and retrieve oil and gas. Some of the fluid comes back up, along with additional underground water.
An Indian goat herder displays a goat to customers at an animal market in the Old Quarters of New Delhi. Here in Texas, an new bill could make property owners liable if they hurt a goat or sheep that wanders onto their property.
Goats and sheep with wanderlust in Texas could find a little more protection from a new bill making its way through the legislature.
The bill, HB 1819, by Rep. Kyle Kacal, R-Bryan, would make a property owner liable for killing or brutalizing goats or sheep that trespass onto their property due to an insufficient fence.
Bob Turner, a former representative, lifelong sheep rancher and member of the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers Association, said it’s about time two of Texas’ more profitable, cloven hoofed animals are protected by the same rules that cattle, horses and donkeys have enjoyed for decades.
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