South Texas groups trying to stop state’s land swap with SpaceX
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is negotiating a land trade involving part of Boca Chica State Park. Full Story
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![SpaceX rockets at the launch pad at the Brownsville facility on Oct. 20, 2021. On Oct. 22, Elon Musk said via Twitter the Starship rocket would be ready for an orbital launch by next month.]()
Credit: Michael Gonzalez/The Texas Tribune -
EPA rule to slash toxic pollution will affect 80 Texas plants
The new federal limits target six cancer-causing chemicals and aim to reduce the cancer risk of cancer for nearby communities. Full Story
![Flint Hills Resources, a manufacturer of fuels and chemicals, site in Corpus on Nov. 11, 2021.]()
Credit: Michael Gonzalez/The Texas Tribune -
PHOTOS: Clouds break just in time for many in Texas to view eclipse
In some parts of the state, the skies cleared enough for people to see the total solar eclipse. Full Story
![The Baressi family looks up at the sun Grenwelge Park, minutes before the total solar eclipse’s totality in Llano on April 8, 2024. The family traveled from across the United States to view the eclipse. The eclipse is expected to bring thousands of visitors to the area.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
To close or stay open? Ahead of the eclipse, Texas schools weighed logistical hurdles versus learning opportunities
Some districts will close for the day expecting traffic jams and busy city services. Others will stay open for parents who can’t find child care. Full Story
![Perry Mason, left, points out the solar eclipse to her son Mason Shaddock, 9, during its annularity Oct. 14, 2023, in San Marcos,]()
Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune -
Public blasts Texas agencies, regulators for poor communication and oversight at wildfire hearings
Thursday’s hearing marked the end of the Legislature’s three-day marathon of public hearings. Full Story
![Craig Cowden gives testimony to the house committee investigating the Panhandle wildfires Thursday, April 4, 2024 in Pampa.]()
Credit: Maria Crane/The Texas Tribune -
Utility pole inspection company declines to testify at Texas Panhandle wildfire investigation hearing
The Texas A&M Forest Service concluded that a fallen decayed utility pole caused the Smokehouse Creek fire. Full Story
![State Rep Ken King, R-Canadian, speaks during an investigative house committee hearing on the Texas Panhandle wildfires Tuesday, April 2, 2024 in Pampa. In late February, the largest wildfire in Texas history raged across the panhandle, burning just over a million acres.]()
Credit: Maria Crane/The Texas Tribune -
Texas, U.S. reach $6.6 million settlement over 2019 Deer Park chemical fire
Attorney General Ken Paxton said the settlement will reimburse the state and feds for damages to natural resources. Full Story
![Firefighters struggle to extinguish the towering flames pouring out of ITC’s tank 80-8 on the afternoon of March 17, 2019. The fire would blow through the entire “2nd 80’s” section of the facility.]()
Credit: Courtesy of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency -
Eclipse fever hits Texas towns as residents and officials prepare for a crush of visitors
Llano residents are told to stock up on groceries. A Sulphur Springs church is renting its parking spots. And everyone’s watching the weather forecast ahead of Monday’s eclipse. Full Story
![Hundreds flock to Mission San José in South San Antonio on Oct. 14, 2023, to witness the annular solar eclipse as the moon’s shadow swept across Central Texas.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Texas emergency director calls for firefighting air force after historic Panhandle fires
A special legislative committee is investigating what caused the Smokehouse Creek fire, the largest in state history. Full Story
![From left, Texas A&M Forest Service Fire Chief Wes Moorehead, Director of Texas A&M Forest Service, Al Davis, and Chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management Nim Kidd, sit before a House Committee investigating the Panhandle wildfires Tuesday, April 2, 2024 in Pampa. On Tuesday, testimony focused on topics relating to the largest wildfire in Texas history.]()
Credit: Maria Crane/The Texas Tribune -
Tainted water flowed to these Texans’ homes for three years. No one told them.
A new operator was assigned to fix the well in Midland County, which is still not compliant with state standards. Full Story
![A playa (flood plain) borders a neighborhood in South Midland on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. For three years, residents from the neighborhood outside city limits consumed well water laced with traces of arsenic. The well can be seen in the bottom right of the flood plain.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune -
In Texas, ex-oil and gas workers champion geothermal energy as a replacement for fossil-fueled power plants
Texas has become an early hot spot for geothermal energy exploration as scores of former oil industry workers and executives are taking their knowledge to a new energy source. Full Story
![Cindy D. Taff, Chief Executive Officer of Sage Geosystems, poses for a photo on March 22, 2023 in Starr County Santa Elena, Texas. The startup is testing storing energy in the ground. “There’s some people that believe that there’s a climate crisis, and some people don’t believe it. We want this to be the energy of choice whether you believe in it or not because it’s cost-effective as well.”
Verónica G. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Verónica Gabriela Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune -
Texas energy companies are betting hydrogen can become a cleaner fuel for transportation
Supporters say developing hydrogen as a fuel is critical to slowing climate change. Critics are concerned that producing it with fossil fuels will prop up the oil and gas industry. Full Story
![Air Liquide’s facility manager Craig Allen at the largest hydrogen storage facility, on Sept. 5, 2023 in Beaumont.]()
Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune -
Gulf Coast petrochemical growth draws billions in tax breaks despite pollution violations
A new report by the Environmental Integrity Project compiled data on every U.S. plastics plant built, expanded or proposed since 2012, revealing massive growth in Texas. Full Story
![Gulf Coast Growth Ventures, a $10 billion plastics plant built by ExxonMobil and SABIC, started operations this year on 1,300 acres of previously undeveloped land in San Patricio County, across the bay from Corpus Christi.]()
Credit: Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate News -
“It does not get easier”: Texas ranchers lose cattle and land in historic wildfires
As ranchers recover from the Smokehouse Creek fire, they face the agonizing choice of what to do with an unknown number of injured cattle. Full Story
![Cattle stand in the burn scar from the Smokehouse Creek fire Sunday, March. 3, 2024, in Hemphill County, Texas.]()
Credit: Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune -
New EPA rule to slash cancer-causing emissions from sterilization facilities
Laredo residents who live near a sterilization plant say the new federal limits on the pollutant will improve air quality and reduce their city’s high cancer risk. Full Story
![The Midwest Sterilization Corporation in Laredo on May 13, 2021.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Expuestos y en el olvido: El aire tóxico en una comunidad latina de Texas revela los fallos del sistema estatal de control de calidad del aire
Los datos públicos de una red de monitores de la calidad del aire alrededor del Canal de Navegación de Houston son difíciles de interpretar y a menudo son insuficientes, dejando a vecindarios de mayoría latina, como Cloverleaf, sin saber si el aire que respiran es seguro. Full Story
![People walk through San Jacinto Park as a tanker ship passes through the Houston Ship Channel in La Porte. Thousands of families live and play near the world’s largest petrochemical complex.
Un grupo de personas camina por el Parque San Jacinto mientras un barco cisterna pasa por el Canal de Navegación de Houston en La Porte. Miles de familias viven y juegan cerca del complejo petroquímico más grande del mundo.
People walk in San Jacinto Park as a large tanker ship pass through Houston Ship Channel on the background in Saturday October 28, 2023 in La Porte, TX]()
Credit: Go Nakamura for The Texas Tribune -
Neglected and exposed: Toxic air lingers in a Texas Latino community, revealing failures in state’s air monitoring system
Public data from a network of state air monitors around the Houston Ship Channel is hard to interpret and is often inadequate, leaving Latino-majority neighborhoods like Cloverleaf unaware of whether the air they breathe is safe. Full Story
![Cristina Lazo starts the daily routine of washing her daughter Alina’s hands, changing clothes and rubbing an ointment on her irritated eyes after coming home from the outside. Lazo believes the fumes from the nearby industrial sector are contributing to her 7-year-old daughter’s symptoms.
Al llegar a su casa desde el exterior, Cristina Lazo inicia la rutina diaria de lavarle las manos a su hija Alina, cambiarla de ropa y aplicarle una pomada en los ojos irritados. Lazo cree que la fuga de gases del complejo industrial cercano están contribuyendo a los síntomas de su hija de 7 años.
On November 10, 2023, Cristina Lazo helps her six-year-old daughter Alina wash her hands at their home in Cloverleaf, Texas.]()
Credit: Danielle Villasana for The Texas Tribune -
Texas legislative committee to investigate cause of Panhandle wildfires
The panel of three lawmakers and two residents will also look at disaster preparedness. Full Story
![Charred ground left by the Smokehouse Creek fire after the fire burned through Currie Smith’s ranch Sunday, March. 3, 2024, in Hemphill County, Texas.]()
Credit: Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune -
Texas firefighters closer to extinguishing Panhandle wildfires
As crews fight to keep deadly blazes under control, weather conditions could increase risk of more fires. Full Story
![A Chinook helicopter responds to the Roughneck fire near Sanford on March. 3, 2024.]()
Credit: Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune -
Watch: What the Texas wildfires mean to the Panhandle region
Hemphill County Judge Lisa Johnson said the region has been overwhelmed with the response of support, but work remains. Full Story
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