Texas Oil and Gas Agency Investigating 5.4 Magnitude Earthquake in West Texas, the Largest in Three Decades

This story was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. Inspectors for the Texas […]

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Texas Activists Sit-In at DOT in Washington Over Offshore Oil Export Plans

Four climate activists from Texas and Louisiana were arrested Wednesday morning in Washington after staging a sit-in at the Department of Transportation, which could rule as soon as next week on the first of four proposed offshore oil terminals in the Gulf of Mexico.  The activists say the terminals, designed to expand the nation’s oil […]

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Activists Are Suing Texas Over Its Plan to Expand Interstate 35, Saying the Project Is Bad for Environmental Justice and the Climate

Environmental justice and climate activists are suing the Texas government over its plan to expand a section of an interstate highway that runs through the state, saying the project would exacerbate climate change, worsen air quality in neighborhoods already overburdened by industrial pollution and fail to reduce traffic as regulators say it will. In January […]

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Texas’ Environmental Regulators Need to Get Tougher on Polluters, Group of Lawmakers Says

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality needs to improve how it holds frequent polluters accountable, a state review of the agency’s effectiveness has found. A commission that looks at how state agencies perform their duties recommended Thursday that the Legislature require the TCEQ to focus enforcement procedures on repeat violators and big offenders. That recommendation […]

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For the Third Time, Black Residents in Corpus Christi’s Hillcrest Neighborhood File a Civil Rights Complaint to Fend Off Polluting Infrastructure

The Hillcrest neighborhood in Corpus Christi, Texas, started out as an upscale all-white community in the heart of the city. But after oil was discovered nearby in 1930, a growing refinery sector on Hillcrest’s edge drove many residents to seek homes elsewhere. So in 1944, Corpus Christi recommended Hillcrest be opened to Black people.  In […]

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