The latest environment news from The Texas Tribune.
Little-known fact: Texas is second only to Georgia in peanut farming. But as Terrence Henry of KUT News reports, while Texas' peanut farmers have dealt with droughts before, they've never seen anything like this year's crippling dry spell. Full Story
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Despite last weekend's rains, the Texas drought lingers — and experts say the number of irritating and dangerous dust storms could increase across the state, especially in West Texas and the Panhandle. Full Story
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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 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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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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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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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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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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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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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
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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A little more than a week after his embarrassing debate performance, Rick Perry this weekend got back to doing what he does best — pressing the flesh with voters. Full Story
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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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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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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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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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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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Ramshaw, Root and Philpott track the governor on the campaign trail, Tan and Dehn on high school football concussions, and Murphy and yours truly on the partisan climates of each district under redistricting maps: The best of our content from Sept. 19 to 23. Full Story
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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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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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