The winds of change are cleaner than usual in Texas’ biggest metropolitan area. According to the American Lung Association’s annual State of the Air 2012 report, Houston’s air quality index has improved slightly from last year, marking the best levels ever recorded in the city since the association first began following them thirteen years ago. The association […]
If the Keystone XL pipeline is completed, it will bring millions of barrels of oil to refineries in Texas. But the crude is a heavier, dirtier variety than “sweet” stuff from places like West Texas.
With U.S. coal exports to Mexico on the rise, border communities question the environmental cost.
The sea level rise on the Gulf Coast is a clear and present danger. But researchers worry the word is not getting out, and the State of Texas is diluting it.
What’s it like to grow up next to a hazardous waste plant? For some residents in Corpus Christi, this isn’t a hypothetical question.
What’s it like growing up surrounded by refineries in Corpus Christi? A commenter on one of our stories about Refinery Row, Iris Gonzales Hinojosa, writes about her childhood among the refinery stacks: “I grew up in Dona park, specifically on Vernon Drive, and many of my childhood memories include Mom and Dad, closing our home’s windows to […]
With refining comes flaring, when chemicals are burned off into the sky. And residents in the small community of Dona Park say it’s making them sick.
With about 2,760 employees, 16 regional offices, and an operating budget of $354 million this year, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is the second largest state environmental regulation agency in the U.S. The man in charge of Compliance and Enforcement at TCEQ is Richard Hyde. Hyde sat down with reporter Mose Buchele as part […]
NPR reporters, working with the Center for Public Integrity, obtained a never-before published EPA list the Agency uses to track polluters. Roughly one in 10 factories on the most recent list is in Texas.
Today NPR, the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) and StateImpact launch a special series examining how air pollution is affecting communities across the nation called Poisoned Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities. It has been twenty-one years since Congress amended the Clean Air Act to deal with toxic air, directing the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce […]
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