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An independent magazine about climate & sustainability
Reporting, analysis, summary, synthesis
Texas is the top wind-power state. More projects are underway and planned in West Texas, which has the most facilities now, and near the Gulf Coast. But growth has slowed and critics cite problems such as wildlife hazards.
TCN Journal August 16, 2011
As a searing heat wave prompted warnings of blackouts, the state climatologist reported the current dry spell now ranks as Texas' worst one-year drought on record. Global warming, he told TCN, will make future droughts worse.
TCN Journal August 5, 2011
A prominent Wall Street research firm concluded it's likely coal-fired power plants in Texas can comply with new pollution-cutting rules by a year-end deadline. Texas officials continued to dispute that claim.
TCN Journal August 2, 2011
Last month was Texas' hottest June on record and its fourth-hottest month ever recorded. Texas A&M University said the accompanying drought is "sapping the record books dry" and "racking up dire statistics."
TCN Journal July 13, 2011
Gov. Rick Perry said the initiative is "heavy-handed and misguided" and threatens Texas jobs. But a prominent Texas environmentalist said extra costs will be "insignificant" and will reduce the heavy health toll of coal power plants' emissions.
TCN Journal July 8, 2011
Climate change. Air quality. Water supplies. There are plenty of contentious issues in the continuing fight over the future role that coal will play in supplying electricity to the state that already uses the most coal.
TCN Journal July 6, 2011
The lawmaker who led the failed drive to suspend California's emission-lowering law heads Draft Rick Perry 2012. Meanwhile, GOP candidates already running are reversing earlier climate-action positions.
TCN Journal July 3, 2011
Newly announced actions can help make San Antonio the nation's "leader in clean energy technology," its mayor said. Houston's mayor, meanwhile, won the top Climate Protection Award from a national mayors' organization.
TCN Journal June 22, 2011
Approval for investing in solar and wind stretched across the political spectrum. The nonpartisan survey was conducted in late May – the same period when lawmakers were letting a solar-boosting bill die.
TCN Journal June 17, 2011
Temperature records are being broken across Texas. Health alerts are being issued about ozone smog. High smog levels are being recorded. Meanwhile, experts are warning – again – that a warmer climate will bring more high smog levels.
TCN Journal June 7, 2011
High hopes in 2009 were dashed in a last-minute legislative logjam. This time, even "trimmed aspirations" were "daunted by the resistance to renewables and energy efficiency in the House," one key environmentalist says.
TCN Journal May 17, 2011
A second national survey detected “stabilized” attitudes on climate change. Meanwhile, a recent Houston poll found more doubt about manmade warming in the oil capital than the two other surveys did nationwide.
TCN Journal May 9, 2011
Drought, heat and wildfires in Texas. Tornadoes in the Southeast. As with other events in recent times, scientists are being asked yet again to parse possible links to humanity's impact on climate.
TCN Journal April 30, 2011
Texas Republicans have played key roles in the legislative drive to block or delay the EPA's regulations to reduce emissions of climate-changing pollutants by major industrial facilities.
TCN Journal April 13, 2011
"The economic development argument for coal plants is relatively weak," especially compared to the jobs potential of options for meeting electricity demand through efficiency, researchers concluded.
TCN Journal April 6, 2011
Hopes for a U.S. "nuclear renaissance" – pitched as a key remedy for climate change – have been shaken by the Japanese disaster. Texas, which seemed poised to lead a nuclear revival, has felt the impact.
TCN Journal March 22, 2011
The House budget resolution would block EPA regulations, stop creation of a Climate Service, slash spending on emissions-data collection and halt U.S. funding of the U.N. climate-science panel.
TCN Journal February 22, 2011
While some coal and natural gas units are being blamed for electricity outages during last week's very cold weather, proponents say Texas' wind industry continued to generate power at expected levels.
TCN Journal February 10, 2011
Blizzards and deluges: Scientists have been busy offering explanations of possible links among recent weather disasters, an increasingly human-influenced climate and development patterns.
TCN Journal February 1, 2011
The state agency is creating a Washington job to track federal initiatives. Meanwhile, the EPA opposed giving a permit to the contentious Las Brisas power plant. The TCEQ granted it anyway.
TCN Journal January 26, 2011
Your tax-deductible donation to Texas Climate News will be received and transferred to TCN by our official fiscal sponsor, the nonprofit Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources (IJNR).
Thank you for your crucial support.
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