A federal utility assistance program favors cold-weather states, giving less money to hot places like Texas.
The program helps low-income people with heating and cooling bills, but advocates say it disadvantages Texas and other warm-weather states, even though extreme heat is a key cause of weather-related deaths.
CPS Energy receives $2.45 million federal grant for gas infrastructure upgrades
The infrastructure set to be replaced is located in a low-income community on the West Side, a CPS Energy news release said. The project, which will improve safety and performance measures, is expected to conclude by the end of the year.
Small nuclear reactors may be coming to Texas, boosted by interest from Gov. Abbott
A nuclear power plant hasn’t been built in Texas in decades because of cost and public fears of a major accident. Now the governor wants to find out if smaller reactors could meet the state’s growing need for on-demand power.
Expuestos y en el olvido: El aire tóxico en una comunidad latina de Texas revela los fallos del sistema estatal de control de calidad del aire
Los datos públicos de una red de monitores de la calidad del aire alrededor del Canal de Navegación de Houston son difíciles de interpretar y a menudo son insuficientes, dejando a vecindarios de mayoría latina, como Cloverleaf, sin saber si el aire que respiran es seguro.
Neglected and exposed: Toxic air lingers in a Texas Latino community, revealing failures in state’s air monitoring system
Public data from a network of state air monitors around the Houston Ship Channel is hard to interpret and is often inadequate, leaving Latino-majority neighborhoods like Cloverleaf unaware of whether the air they breathe is safe.
How Texas polluters classify big facilities as smaller ones to avoid stricter environmental rules and public input
Industrial developers describe large facilities as “minor” polluters to avoid federal permitting requirements, and environmental lawyers say the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality lets it happen.
This West Texas town has a lot of money in the bank. Why can't it pick up its trash?
Like local leaders in many other towns in West Texas, the Kermit City Council spent years saving its tax revenue fearing the energy economy would crash. Now it is struggling to keep up with essential services like trash and road repair.
Texan Bitcoin miners profit by using less electricity; advocates say all Texans should get the same chance
Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms made headlines over the summer for making millions by selling pre-purchased power back to the grid. The news highlighted how the grid can benefit businesses more than consumers.
Vouchers, border security, abortion: The issues you heard about in 2023 will continue to be hotly debated in 2024
After nearly a year’s worth of legislative sessions, several issues are poised to dominate Texas politics this year. Here’s a look at how things ended on several fronts last year — and where they’re headed next.
Texas Supreme Court declines to revive billionaire’s defamation lawsuit against Beto O’Rourke
Kelcy Warren, a Dallas pipeline billionaire, sued O’Rourke in early 2022, saying the Democrat defamed him with critical comments about his company’s windfall profits after the Texas energy-grid collapse in February 2021.
SA community sounds off during CPS Energy tele town hall on proposed rate increase
The city-owned utility proposed to increase its gas and electric base rates by 4.25% in a pair of meetings earlier this month before the CPS Energy Board of Trustees and San Antonio City Council. Customers during a meeting on Thursday night asked why.
Federal court overturns Texas agency’s pollution permit for Gulf Coast natural gas export terminal
Judges overturned a state air pollution permit that was issued last year, arguing that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality illegally enabled Port Arthur LNG to avoid emissions control requirements.
Seeking lower electricity rates, residents in two East Texas towns hope the state will intervene
Livingston and Jasper residents hope a lawsuit will force their municipality-operated utility company to offer lower rates and create more transparency in setting rates. They’re among the 5 million Texans living outside the state’s deregulated market and cannot choose their energy provider.
Texas’ unemployment rate is among the nation’s worst — but experts say it signals a growing economy
The state has yet to return to its pre-pandemic unemployment rate of about 3.5%, even as it leads the country in new jobs created. However, state economic experts say the unemployment rate is an indicator of Texas’s rapidly growing population and labor force.
EPA’s inspector general says agency isn’t enforcing benzene pollution rules at refineries in Texas, nationally
A report by the federal environmental agency’s internal watchdog found that EPA is failing to enforce its own pollution limits for the known carcinogen at many refineries — including some in Texas.
Texans again asked to conserve power Thursday, the 11th time this summer
A day after declaring emergency conditions for the first time this summer, ERCOT is asking residents to reduce how much power they use between 5 and 9 p.m. Thursday as continued high temperatures push the power grid into tight conditions.