Earlier this year, the earth hit a frightening milestone: carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached its highest level since humans have inhabited the earth. The last time there was this much carbon on the planet was nearly a million years ago. As the heat-trapping gas proliferates, the world warms, and the climate effects domino: droughts […]
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week on a lawsuit over how much latitude the federal government has to regulate facilities that emit greenhouse gases, victory was claimed both by environmentalists who want more regulation and by Texas state officials who wants less. Texas and 16 other states brought the action. The Texas Attorney […]
The explosion at a fertilizer plant in the small town of West, Texas last year took much more than fifteen lives. At least 262 people were injured; twenty percent of those were brain injuries. Homes and schools were destroyed. But judging from the response of some state lawmakers charged with stopping it from happening again, preventable […]
Ever since a fertilizer plant blew up last year and killed 15 people in West, Texas, many Texans have wanted to know where dangerous chemicals are stored in their area. Until recently, it was pretty easy to find out. They could simply ask the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). But a string of recent rulings from Texas Attorney General […]
He’s run for office three times and lost. But here he is again, the novelist and troubadour that made a name for himself by turning country clichés into satiric social commentary. Richard “Kinky” Friedman (he got the nickname for his hair) is running as a Democrat for Agriculture Commissioner, and he has a plan to […]
What does Texas Attorney General (and now candidate for Governor) Greg Abbott like to do for fun? “What I really do for fun is I go into the office,” Abbott said at a speech last year, “[and] I sue the Obama adminstration.” Abbott has been openly bragging on the campaign trail of his many lawsuits against […]
‘Not Everyone Believes in Global Warming,’ Smitherman Says Over 97 percent of climate change studies agree: the climate is changing, the world is warming and humans are the cause of it. But that does leave 3 percent of climate studies that are skeptical. And that sliver of skepticism is where Barry Smitherman, the head of Texas’ oil […]
Despite a mixed record of suing the Obama administration (five wins, eight losses, and two dismissals as of last count), Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott says today that all these lawsuits are a “bargain” for Texans. In an op-ed published in the Dallas Morning News and emailed to reporters, Abbott says that one recent victory […]
Earlier today, a federal appeals court overturned a new EPA rule, the Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), that would have affected coal power plants in several states, including Texas. The rule was defended in a suit from the American Lung Association, several cities and states, and several environmental groups, including the Environmental Defense Fund, […]
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