The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is the state’s environmental agency. It enforces clean air, water, and waste management laws and issues air and water operating permits.
The TCEQ, which began operation as the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission in 1993, was established by the Legislature in 1991. The TNRCC consolidated the responsibilities of the Texas Water Commission and ...
We're liveblogging this weekend from The Texas Tribune Festival's Energy & Environment track, which includes panels on the future of water in Texas, the state's electricity woes, eminent domain and the upcoming legislative session.
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The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency unfairly disapproved of a Texas permitting program for air emissions. The opinion says the EPA must further consider the program.
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State employees leaving jobs with the state of Texas to work for the very industries they regulated is legal and commonplace. But as Dave Fehling of KUHF News reports for StateImpact Texas, critics say the state's ethics laws on the matter are too lax.
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Texas is one of the nation's only producers of uranium, and mining companies are gearing up for expansion. That's causing concern among environmental groups, some of which have been battling uranium mining for decades.
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The Environmental Protection Agency is rolling out a rule aimed at improving air quality above national parks like Big Bend by focusing on big industrial plants.
Full StoryThe Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will vote Wednesday on whether to prohibit state agencies from participating in contested case hearings on permits and licenses issued by the commission.
Full StoryMark Vickery, the executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, will retire in May — and his successor has yet to be chosen.
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A brawl is brewing in South Texas, but this one has nothing to do with cartels or drug smuggling — it's an environmental battle over a proposed surface-mining site that some Eagle Pass residents worry will ruin their way of life.
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Terrence Henry of KUT News and NPR's StateImpact Texas spoke with one longtime resident of Corpus Christi trying to get families to speak out about the health problems they've faced living on what some call Refinery Row.
Full StoryIn the Houston area, several industrial plants have repeatedly violated federal clean air standards. Dave Fehling of NPR's StateImpact Texas reports that while one has been the target of EPA enforcement actions for years, its chemical emissions have only increased.
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We'll be liveblogging throughout the weekend from the Texas Tribune Festival's energy and environment track — which includes panels on the coming crisis over water, big oil and national security, and whether green energy is an oxymoron.
Full StoryEven as the Obama administration delighted conservatives last week by pulling back on a broad regulation to combat ozone pollution, the controversial "cross-state" rule that would also reduce smog-forming pollutants in Texas remains on track.
Full StoryMore than 100 Texas refinery, chemical and utility plants have told the Environmental Protection Agency they plan to apply for federal air permits, which Gov. Rick Perry has said will cut jobs. Erika Aguilar of KUT News looks at whether the EPA's new requirements have done that.
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Texas is summoning all of its political firepower to do battle against the Environmental Protection Agency. A newly announced task force of state and federal lawmakers will try to prevent the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases and abolishing the state's flexible permitting system for refineries and other big plants.
Full StoryThe Environmental Protection Agency announced a new national standard this week that will require coal-fired plants in Texas to reduce mercury emissions. As Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports, the tighter regulations could prove costly for Texas' electric companies.
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With drilling on the rise, the Texas Railroad Commission and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality answer questions about whether Texans need to worry about radioactivity in their water.
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Texas leaders aren't talking about secession, after an outbreak of conversation a couple of years ago. But the germ of the idea remains in the anti-federalist talking points that fueled Gov. Rick Perry’s re-election campaign last year and provided the outline for his book, Fed Up!
Full StoryThe Environmental Protection Agency is developing new drinking-water regulations for a toxic rocket-fuel ingredient found in 26 states — including Texas.
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The politics and rhetoric of the Environmental Protection Agency's multi-front battle with Texas make for a grand spectacle. Behind the scenes, however, there are signs that big industrial plants are trying to move past the stalemate on their own, talking with federal regulators and, in some cases, preparing to meet the demands of the agency.
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In Texas, the largest oil producer in the United States, the demand for carbon dioxide is soaring, because it can help squeeze oil out of formations deep in the earth. That's why the idea of of capturing it and pumping it underground is gaining traction in the power sector. It sounds like an exercise in environmental idealism: Take the heat-trapping gas — belched prolifically from coal plants, which generate 45 percent of the nation’s electricity — and bury it, benefiting the atmosphere and combating global climate change. Of course, it is something of an environmental conundrum that stowing the greenhouse gas underground can also help to produce more fossil fuels.
Full StoryTexas's bid to suspend a federal efforts to regulate greenhouse gases hit another roadblock today, when the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals turned down the state's request for a stay of a move to force states to implement federal plans.
Full StoryWith a panel of state legislators set to decide the future of a number of Texas agencies, the state's environmental agency seems likely to get the green light to operate for another 12 years, but with some changes. As Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports, environmentalists are calling the situation a mild victory.
Full StoryHu on the Perry-Bush rift, Ramshaw on the adult diaper wars, Ramsey's interview with conservative budget-slasher Arlene Wohlgemuth, Galbraith on the legislature's water agenda (maybe), M. Smith on Don McLeroy's last stand (maybe), Philpott on the end of earmarks (maybe), Hamilton on the merger of the Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Education Agency (maybe), Aguilar on Mexicans seeking refuge from drug violence, Grissom on inadequate health care in county jails and my conversation with Houston Mayor Annise Parker: The best of our best from November 15 to 19, 2010.
Full StoryThe Sunset Advisory Commission's staff report on the Railroad Commission, released today, recommends getting rid of the agency and replacing it with a similar entity headed by five part-time gubernatorial appointees.
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Texas has fired off another volley of legal challenges against federal environmental regulators.
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