The Shale Life project, the culmination of six months of reporting on the people and communities behind Texas' energy boom, launches today. It's our first-ever project that's entirely visual — and also the first we've financed via crowdfunding. 

Where there’s oil and natural gas, there’s money to be made and jobs to be found. But the challenges these dramatic booms present for communities across South and West Texas are immense. Use our 15-part multimedia series — the result of more than six months of reporting from the state's most active shale plays — to see how surging energy production is changing lives and fortunes across Texas. 

The Texas Department of Transportation has ended its controversial program aimed at converting some badly damaged paved roads to gravel, more than a year after the launch of the initiative drew national attention to the agency's budget troubles.

A steep drop in crude oil prices threatens to slow drilling in some U.S. oilfields, but officials in Texas' hottest shale plays say they're not sweating things yet. The boom is still a boom, they say, and it's way too early to walk away.

As pipeline companies scramble to provide infrastructure for the energy boom, they are paying more to build pipelines across private property. Experts say a series of cases in which juries awarded large payments to property owners are helping drive the trend.

UPDATED: The Railroad Commission on Thursday sided with Marathon Oil Company’s bid to dismiss a groundwater conservation district’s protest of its application to inject waste into part of South Texas’ Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer.

A newly released but largely unnoticed study commissioned by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality makes some dire predictions about what will happen to air quality in South Texas as the Eagle Ford Shale boom continues. 

The state doesn't track the use of acid in oil and gas drilling operations in Texas, but industry researchers have expressed concerns for years over possible dangers to workers and the environment. Read the full story at StateImpact Texas.

A new national report on water use for hydraulic fracturing suggests that oil and gas companies are at risk of running short on the precious resource — especially in South Texas.

Texas' anti-regulation stance may have hurt business when the state refused to issue required greenhouse permits for almost two years. Energy companies had to delay large industry facilities that needed the permits. As a result, they say, they have been unable to take full advantage of the area's shale boom.

In La Salle County, about an hour southwest of San Antonio, production in the Eagle Ford Shale is estimated to drive 90 percent of all 911 calls. Before November, there were just a handful of volunteer firefighters to respond.

The drought dominated environmental headlines in Texas this year, along with rising concerns about the consequences of fracking and, as always, growing disputes between Texas and the feds. 

Nearly every Texas county appears to be eligible for some state aid under a $225 million plan to help repair roads damaged amid the oil and gas boom. Some are happier about their allocations than others. 

La Salle County officials have agreed to pay a portion of the repair costs and all the maintenance costs for 20 miles of roads that the Texas Department of Transportation had intended to convert to gravel.

Dallas is considering new rules that industry backers say would effectively prevent all drilling within city limits. The debate demonstrates cities' power to shape the footprint of an industry, providing openings — even in oil-friendly Texas — to groups pushing tighter rules.

Hamilton on UT rolling out some online learning opportunities for non-UT students, Ramsey on the challenges for some political candidates to gain traction, MacLaggan details a county's efforts to ensure the census counts all its residents, Murphy updates our campaign finance analyzer, Aguilar examines a case that could impact property rights along the border, Satija looks at benefits and challenges tied to the Eagle Ford Shale, and Batheja writes about three counties getting the OK to raise vehicle registration fees: The best of our best for the week of Sept. 2 to 6, 2013.

During a meeting when local and state officials accused the agency of poor communication, Texas Department of Transportation officials confirmed plans Thursday to delay converting more asphalt roads to gravel.

Groundwater managers in Texas have applauded state lawmakers' push this year to fund a comprehensive water plan, but as a major water summit this week made clear, money alone won't fix the tangle of legal and environmental concerns facing the state's groundwater authorities.