Texas Archives - Inside Climate News

Moving South, Black Americans Are Weathering Climate Change

By Adam Mahoney, Capital B — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 09:30:00 +0000

The desire for a better quality of life is pushing Black people toward the epicenter of climate disasters and racism.

By Adam Mahoney, Capital B

This story was originally published by Capital B. Please sign up for Capital B’s newsletter, which comes out each week, to follow similar stories.

Texas Court Strikes Down Air Pollution Permit for Gulf Coast Oil Terminal

By Dylan Baddour — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 18:30:00 +0000

A judge reversed a 2022 decision by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that involved its controversial “one-mile rule” to deny hearing requests.

By Dylan Baddour

For the second time in three weeks, a court struck down an air pollution permit issued by Texas’ environmental regulator.

From Fracked Gas in Pennsylvania to Toxic Waste in Texas, Tracking Vinyl Chloride Production in the U.S.

By Kiley Bense — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Appalachia’s fracking boom is fueling the expansion of American plastics manufacturing, including production of vinyl chloride, the carcinogen used to make PVC that burned in East Palestine, Ohio.

By Kiley Bense

On the evening of May 17, 1970, the 19th car of a freight train derailed in the Pennsylvania village of Cromby, a small town nestled along a horseshoe curve in the Schuylkill River about 30 miles from Philadelphia.

Texas Violated the Law with Lax Emissions Limits, Federal Court Rules

By Dylan Baddour — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 15:13:04 +0000

Judges overturned a state air pollution permit that was issued last year, arguing that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality illegally enabled Port Arthur LNG to avoid emissions control requirements.

By Dylan Baddour

A federal appeals court on Monday struck down a major air pollution permit issued by Texas’s environmental regulator, arguing that the state allowed improperly high emissions limits for Port Arthur LNG, a gas liquefaction and export terminal currently under construction on the Gulf Coast.

Oil or Water? Midland Says Disposal Wells Could Threaten Water Supply

By Martha Pskowski — Sun, 12 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000

As oil and gas companies struggle to dispose of their wastewater in the Permian Basin, the city of Midland is challenging applications for disposal wells near one of its drinking water sources.

By Martha Pskowski

Attorneys for the city of Midland, the oil capital of Texas, made an unusual request to regulators this year: Could they please be allowed to challenge drilling permits?

Texas Republicans Target Climate Science in Textbooks Ahead of Education Board Vote

By Kristoffer Tigue — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 20:00:34 +0000

Republican Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian wants the Texas Board of Education to reject new science textbooks, which accurately describe the causes and effects of climate change.

By Kristoffer Tigue

Just a week after Texas voters approved billions of dollars to build new gas-fired power plants, the state’s education board will decide if it wants schools using science textbooks that acknowledge that burning fossil fuels warms the planet.

Texas Continues to Issue Thousands of Flaring Permits

By Martha Pskowski — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 09:55:00 +0000

State regulators raise doubts about natural gas flaring permits but rarely reject them. Advocates for reform say the permit process is a “rubber stamp” and that companies shouldn’t get a free pass to keep flaring indefinitely.

By Martha Pskowski

At a Railroad Commission meeting last month, Commissioner Jim Wright chastised Callon Petroleum for flaring natural gas at a drilling site, saying it should “find a better solution.”

Texas Quietly Moves to Formalize Acceptable Cancer Risk From Industrial Air Pollution. Public Health Officials Say it’s not Strict Enough.

By Dylan Baddour — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Without public hearings, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is proposing to adopt its 17-year-old standard that scientists and public health officials say fails to account for cumulative air pollution.

By Dylan Baddour

State of Denial: Third in a series about Texas’ environmental regulators.

Tensions Rise in the Rio Grande Basin as Mexico Lags in Water Deliveries to the U.S.

Sun, 08 Oct 2023 09:00:00 +0000

In 2020, rebellious Mexican farmers occupied a dam in parched Chihuahua state to prevent the federal government from sending its reservoir water to Texas under a 1944 treaty. With the clock ticking toward another treaty deadline, the two sides are struggling for a solution.

By Martha Pskowski, Inside Climate News, photos by Omar Ornelas, El Paso Times

This story, reported with a grant from The Water Desk at the University of Colorado Boulder, is published in partnership with the El Paso Times.

As Federal Money Flows to Carbon Capture and Storage, Texas Bets on an Undersea Bonanza

By Amal Ahmed — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 09:30:00 +0000

Hungry for royalties, the state is awarding offshore leases to oil and gas companies that hope to bury heat-trapping carbon dioxide deep beneath the seafloor. But critics worry about leakage through rock layers, pipeline safety and the lackluster record of carbon capture facilities onshore.

By Amal Ahmed

Over the last century, the state of Texas has reaped billions of dollars by allowing companies to burrow into the floor of the Gulf of Mexico to extract oil and gas. Now, the General Land Office—the state agency tasked with protecting the vulnerable Texas shoreline and other natural resources—is eyeing carbon sequestration as the next industry to develop in the Gulf.