By John Hall The wind industry is growing quickly around the world, especially in China and the U.S., where the total amount of electricity generated by wind turbines nearly doubled between 2011 and 2017. All told, about 25 percent of global electricity now comes from renewable sources like hydropower, wind and solar energy. As a […]
By Tim Radford The probability that some city in the U.S. state of Texas will be hit again by Harvey-sized hurricanes, rainstorms that will dump half a meter of water in a short space of time, has increased sixfold in this century and will have increased 18-fold by 2100, thanks to climate change driven by […]
The toxic aftereffects of Hurricane Harvey continue to plague Houston as the city rebuilds three weeks after the devastating storm. Testing conducted by the New York Times earlier this week found instances of E. coli contamination 135 times the legal limit in standing floodwaters around the city. ProPublica and the Texas Tribune reported Thursday that […]
By Jon Erdman Hurricane Harvey continues to intensify and will be the nation’s first Category 3 landfall in almost 12 years tonight or Saturday morning, poised to clobber the Texas Gulf Coast with devastating rainfall flooding, dangerous storm-surge flooding and destructive winds this weekend that could leave parts of the area uninhabitable for an extended […]
A new analysis of Texas’ oil and gas development underscores how there really are two sides to the energy debate. We know that drilling has brought the state billions in wealth, but its vast impacts on the environment cannot be ignored. The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST)—the state’s top scientific community—has […]
By John Rogers President Trump on Tuesday suggested putting solar panels on his infamous border wall to help pay for it (since Mexico certainly won’t). While there are more things wrong with that proposal than I can cover in this space, it’s great to see that President Trump has finally figured out solar panels are […]
The mayor of Brenham signed Monday the city council’s unanimous resolution opposing the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plans to auction lands beneath and around Lake Somerville for oil and gas development. The resolution cited concerns that loss or contamination of the lake’s water supply would be “catastrophic” for its residents. Lake Somerville is the […]
Scientists have determined that methane from a fracked well contaminated a Texas family’s water supply and triggered an explosion that nearly killed four members of the family. The family’s ranch in Palo Pinto County is located only a few thousand feet away from a natural gas well. Scientists have found that methane escaped from a […]
By Steve Hargreaves and Courtney St. John Two stories this week—both from Texas—illustrate the precarious nature of fossil fuel jobs and the economic power of renewable energy. The first, published in the New York Times, shows how oil production is making a comeback in West Texas, but many of its jobs are not. Like manufacturing […]
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