The latest energy news from The Texas Tribune.
The settlement will end a "citizen suit" against Pasadena Refining System that alleges years of air pollution violations. Under the Clean Air Act, citizens may sue companies if government regulators fail to act. Full Story
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The state's grid operator set a new all-time systemwide peak demand record on two consecutive days this week, prompting reassurances that the electricity sector "is doing what they can to keep the power on for consumers." Full Story
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Across the country, hundreds of candidates with academic or professional experience in science, technology, engineering and mathematics have left their businesses and laboratories to compete in state legislative contests, congressional elections and even governor’s races. Full Story
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Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO, won big on Sunday. Now Texan business and agriculture leaders have five months to try to predict whether his expected stand-up-to-Trump strategy will hurt their bottom lines. Full Story
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The state comptroller's office went back to the drawing board after the failure of a 6-year-old plan to protect the dunes sagebrush lizard that relied on voluntary participation by the oil and gas industry. Full Story
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A&M is partnering with the University of California System and a research and development organization on the effort. Their extendable five-year contract with the U.S. Energy Department is worth an estimated $2.5 billion annually. Full Story
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Water restrictions in New Mexico have created a supply crunch for the fracking industry, so more free-flowing Texas water is helping to fill the void. But not without controversy: A top New Mexico politician says Texans are pumping his state's water and piping it across the state line for oil drillers. Full Story
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Two environmental groups asked the federal government on Tuesday to list the dunes sagebrush lizard as threatened or endangered. Full Story
Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian told House lawmakers on Wednesday that the biggest threat to a burgeoning oil boom is "the acceptance of the politically-correct-driven environmental anti-oil and gas science." Full Story
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Damage from heavy trucks has battered local roads in and around the state's oil fields, and many counties want the state to help pay for repairs and maintenance. Will lawmakers take action? Full Story
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Record enrollment is putting a strain on the already low-performing Ector County Independent School District. In Odessa, school administrators and teachers are parents are asking: Where are we going to put all of these kids? Full Story
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The current energy secretary and former Texas governor's name is being floated as Trump mulls another major shakeup in his cabinet. Full Story
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The Permian Basin in West Texas is the driving force behind what some key energy players say is a coming milestone: The United States passing Russia as the world's top oil producer. Full Story
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A day after the state's main electric grid operator warned that a variety of factors including record high demand could lead to pricier and dicier electric service, experts added a grain of salt to the predictions. Full Story
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The U.S. Department of Energy's inspector general says that a now-bankrupt company behind a defunct West Texas "clean coal" power plant spent more than $1.3 million in federal stimulus funds on things like spa service, alcohol, first-class travel and limousine services. Full Story
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Millions of dollars in promised savings at the Pantex Plant in the Panhandle and another nuclear weapons facility in Tennessee haven’t appeared. But the federal government has still awarded a contractor extra profits. Full Story
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Kathleen Hartnett White, who once headed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, may no longer be in line to serve as a top White House environmental official. Full Story
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No, because the state has no warning system like Hawaii does. Full Story
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Texas broke a new record for winter power usage on Wednesday. Despite one power company's warning out of San Antonio, state officials said there was no threat of rolling outages. Full Story
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Revisit our investigation of how thousands of "rogue releases" — when industrial polluters spew noxious chemicals into the air during malfunctions and other unplanned incidents, exceeding permit limits — occur in Texas each year. Full Story
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