Texas cities set temperature records amid relentless heat wave
Corpus Christi logged a heat index of 125 degrees at one point in the past week, as Laredo, Del Rio, San Angelo and Junction also set new highs. Full Story
The latest energy news from The Texas Tribune.
Corpus Christi logged a heat index of 125 degrees at one point in the past week, as Laredo, Del Rio, San Angelo and Junction also set new highs. Full Story
Texans were asked to conserve energy from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday as temperatures climb over 100 degrees for much of the state. Full Story
The expansion project will enable the world’s largest class of tanker ships to dock at a new oil export terminal on the Gulf Coast. It also involves dredging a Superfund site. Full Story
The bills will give owners of natural gas power plants incentives to build more capacity, but they don’t go as far as originally proposed to change how electricity is created and sold in the Texas market. Full Story
Public Utility Commission chair Peter Lake had spearheaded a plan to help the state’s power grid withstand weather disasters, but the plan lacked support in the Texas Legislature. Full Story
Proposals to improve energy efficiency failed. Bills that sought to limit greenhouse gas emissions in Texas were ignored, and legislation to block cities from taking action on climate change passed. Full Story
At a Texas Tribune event, Republican state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione said his vote to impeach Ken Paxton was akin to being a grand juror who found enough evidence to warrant a trial in the Senate. Full Story
Rushed agreements and suspended rules rescue legislation on the electric grid and economic incentives for companies, and work is still being done on a property tax proposal. Full Story
The biggest barriers to making Texas’ power grid 100% renewable have little to do with politics. Full Story
State lawmakers have pushed bills to support fossil fuel-burning power plants and restrict renewable energy development this legislative session. Full Story
Senate Bill 7 would limit how much electricity customers could end up paying if the state opts to use performance credits, which would give the money to power generators in hopes they’ll add more power to the state grid. Full Story
Lawmakers are trying hard to come up with an agreement on how to replace an embattled 20-year tax abatement program for big companies that expired in December. Full Story
Priority bills that died include a 10-year minimum sentencing for gun-related crimes, a ban on “critical race theory” at public universities and LGBTQ-related legislation. While the bills may be dead, lawmakers have a limited time to attach their ideas to legislation that is still alive. Full Story
The two chambers have 10 days to cut a deal before the end of the legislative session, and they are miles apart on some of the very foundations of a corporate tax-abatement bill considered to be a priority for Republican state leaders. Full Story
The bill marks the Legislature’s turn toward supporting natural gas-fueled electricity after the deadly winter storm in 2021. Full Story
A fire broke out at a Deer Park Shell plant the day after a public hearing on renewing the permit for ITC, a nearby facility that caught fire in 2019, sparking a Texas Tribune/Public Health Watch investigation that documented failures in state and federal oversight. Full Story
Recent “upsets” like tripped compressors, pressure loss and freezing weather resulted in thousands of pounds of unauthorized pollution but no fines or citations from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Full Story
An estimated 500,000 people live in thousands of colonias along the Texas-Mexico border. Largely built between the 1950s and 1980s, these communities have been promised water — but it has never come. Full Story
Water agencies have long resisted working together out of fear of losing their local powers. But an example from Florida could help save the Lone Star State’s water and infrastructure. Full Story
Public Utility Commission Chair Peter Lake said renewable energy could be critical to preventing power outages this summer. Renewable energy supporters said the grid’s reliability doesn’t hinge on wind and solar. Full Story