UT Professor Debunks Climate Change "Myths"
The head of the UT's Energy Institute, Raymond Orbach, is wading into politicized territory with a new paper aiming to debunk eight "myths" about climate change. Full Story
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![The Brazos River in Knox County during the summer of 2011.]()
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Carolyn Brittin: The TT Interview
The deputy executive administrator of the Texas Water Development Board on overseeing the 295-page water plan, what the state should spend to fully ensure it has adequate water supplies and what scares her about the future. Full Story
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![Carolyn Brittin, the Texas Water Development Board official in charge of overseeing the state's five-year water plan]()
Credit: Todd Wiseman -
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Murphy, Ramshaw and Root on Rick Perry and race, Philpott on Perry's vague economic plans, Tan and Wiseman on Barack Obama's foray into Texas to defend his jobs plan, Aguilar on Perry's proposal to send U.S. troops to Mexico, Ramshaw on efforts to leash rising health care costs, M. Smith on upcoming legal challenges to the state's school finance system, Aaronson interactively explores Medicare spending proposals, Galbraith on efforts to pass — and to oppose — a $6 billion water program, Grissom on the release of a man wrongly convicted of murder and Hamilton on efforts to let the public write some legislation: The best of our best content from October 3 to 7, 2011. Full Story
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Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman -
Plans for Coal Plant Highlight Groundwater Supply Concerns
The construction of a coal-fired plant near Bay City, already delayed by concerns over the historic drought, has raised questions about Texas' dwindling groundwater supply. Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports. Full Story
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Texas Officials Unmollified by Pollution Rule Changes
The federal EPA has proposed scaling back some requirements of its contentious cross-state rule for reducing air pollution. The rule has infuriated many Texas officials, and the revisions are not appeasing them. Full Story
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![This flue gas scrubber, installed at a Valero refinery in Houston in 2006, reduces emissions of nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter.]()
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Can Texas Make It Rain?
Speculation that the drought gripping the state could last through 2020 has scientists in Texas looking to so-called weather modification, which, as Matt Largey of KUT News reports, involves using the power of science to play Mother Nature. Full Story
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Business Groups Back Water Ballot Measure
Next month, Texans will go to the polls to decide whether to authorize $6 billion in bonding authority dedicated to building and fixing water infrastructure. But some conservatives and Tea Party members have concerns about the measure. Full Story
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![A pump house at Lake J.B. Thomas sits high and dry with almost no water remaining to pump. The lake level is at 4.60 percent.]()
Credit: Robert W. Hart -
2011 Texas Tribune Festival Keynote: John Cornyn
Full video of the keynote speech by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in the Energy and Environment track at the 2011 Texas Tribune Festival. Full Story
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Giant Algae Tubes Could Provide New Biofuel Solution
For decades, scientists have been trying to find ways to mass-produce algae as a source of fuel for vehicles, but financial and environmental roadblocks have gotten in the way. The solution may be inside giant tubes at the University of Texas. Full Story
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![The AlgaEternal Facility located on the University of Texas Pickle Research Campus with Chief Scientist Michael Jochum.]()
Credit: Spencer Selvidge -
How is a Grid Smart? New Project Aims to Find Out
An Austin smart-grid project known as Pecan Street is continuing its roll-out with an announcement on Friday that a handful of major companies, including Whirlpool, Best Buy and Chevrolet, will test new-age products on the grid. Full Story
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![Residents in the Mueller development area shows up to check out the Chevy Volt which is powered by electricity, on 27th September 2011.]()
Credit: Muliadi Soenaryo -
Hearings Begin on Controversial Canada-Texas Oil Pipeline
As the U.S. State Department convenes hearings in Texas this week on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring tar sands crude from Canada to Texas, environmentalists are revving up their opposition. Full Story
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![Trevor Lovell speaks to the public about the XL pipeline on 24th September 2011.]()
Credit: Muliadi Soenaryo -
Draft Water Plan: Texas "Will Not Have Enough"
The Texas Water Development Board's just-released 295-page report says that if Texas does not spend tens of billions more on water infrastructure, a drought as bad as that of the 1950s could cost Texans $116 billion per year by 2060. Full Story
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Donna Nelson: The TT Interview
The chairwoman of the Public Utility Commission on how close Texas came to rolling blackouts this summer, what consumers can expect to pay as wind-power transmission expands, and how the historic drought affects the reliability of the power grid. Full Story
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Liveblog: Energy and Environment at The Texas Tribune Festival
We'll be liveblogging throughout the weekend from the Texas Tribune Festival's energy and environment track — which includes panels on the coming crisis over water, big oil and national security, and whether green energy is an oxymoron. Full Story
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Katharine Hayhoe: The TT Interview
The Texas Tech climate scientist and author of A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions on why why working in Texas, a state full of both prominent climate skeptics and extreme weather, is an "opportunity." Full Story
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LCRA Approves Emergency Drought Plan, Which Will Hurt Farmers
At a board meeting on Wednesday, the Lower Colorado River Authority approved an emergency plan that could cut off water supplies to downriver rice farmers entirely next year if the drought worsens. Full Story
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![Jose Avila, left, and Hilario Luna on June 13, 2011, repair an overflow damaged by crawdads on a levee of Mike Burnside's rice fields, flooded with water from the Colorado River, near Bay City.]()
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Texas Schools Feeling Effects of Drought, Fires
The drought and extreme heat are taking their toll on school districts across Texas. Costly problems include cracks in building foundations, increased maintenance costs and loss of vegetation. Full Story
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Drought Could Pose Power Plant Problems
If the drought continues well into next spring and summer, the electric grid could lose "potentially several thousand megawatts," according to an ERCOT official. That's roughly equivalent to several coal plants. Full Story
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Inside Intelligence: Parched
Amidst a record-setting drought and neighborhood-devouring wildfires, we asked the insiders this week about water and fire policy. Full Story
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Texas State University System to Manage Christmas Mountains
A mountainous tract of West Texas land that has been a point of contention between the General Land Office and environmental groups will serve a new purpose — a research and educational area for university students. Full Story
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Credit: Texas General Land Office