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Kate Galbraith covered energy and environment for the Tribune from 2010 to 2013. Previously she reported on clean energy for The New York Times from 2008 to 2009, serving as the lead writer for the Times' Green blog. She began her career at The Economist in 2000 and spent 2005 to 2007 in Austin as the magazine's Southwest correspondent. A Nieman fellow in journalism at Harvard University from 2007 to 2008, she has an undergraduate degree in English from Harvard and a master's degree from the London School of Economics. She is co-author of “The Great Texas Wind Rush,” a book about how the oil and gas state won the race to wind power.
In the month ahead, the cross-state air pollution rule will get its day in court, and as summer approaches, debate will continue over the capacity of the Texas electric grid and how to incentivize construction of more power plants. Full Story
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The manager of a West Texas farm on the oddities of crop insurance, why all the farmers near Lubbock want to grow cotton and why West Texans don't believe in climate change despite the drought and weird weather. Full Story
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The outgoing director of the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club on the importance of water, the growth of the Club, and how he stumbled on his future career path while hiking near Fort Bliss. Full Story
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Texas' electric grid prefers to stay isolated from the rest of the nation. But proposals are afoot to boost outside ties — something that proponents say could help ease the state's looming electricity crunch. Full Story
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By mid-summer last year, it was so hot and dry that many West Texas cotton farmers gave up hope of producing a crop. Yet they had to keep watering, pumping from diminishing aquifers like the Ogallala, to claim crop insurance. Full Story
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The process of desalination needs to be explored as an option for the future, experts testified Thursday in Austin before the House Natural Resources Committee. Full Story
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UPDATED: CNN has reported that when President Obama speaks Thursday in Cushing, Okla., he will "fast-track" the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline. What this means remains unclear, but the pipeline needs federal permits. Full Story
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As the Ogallala Aquifer slowly declines, some West Texas farmers are facing a new type of regulation: a limit on the amount of water they would pump from wells on their own land. And many aren't happy about it. Full Story
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The director of SpOILed, which has been described as a "love song to Big Oil," on who funded his film and why he gives short shrift to climate change. Full Story
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John Tintera, executive director of the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, is leaving less than one week after the election of a new chairman, Barry Smitherman, to lead the agency. Full Story
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