Subject: Environmental Issues and Protection

• Raw Deal

  Oysterman Joe Nelson says pollution is slowly killing Galveston Bay. But is anyone listening?

  December 9, 1999

• Just Don't Breathe It

  February 3, 1994

• Trashing Houston

  April 14, 1994

• The Battle for Lavaca Bay

  May 19, 1994

• Decades of Delay

  May 19, 1994

• Clunkers R Us

  January 12, 1995

• From the Allens to today, Buffalo Bayou has helped define the city of Houston. Now, after decades of abuse, it may finally be making a comeback as an urban resource. If, that is, we don't blow our chance.

  May 25, 1995

• Letters

  December 14, 1995

• Smoke and Mirrors (and more smoke)

  February 15, 1996

• In The Rough

  December 5, 1996

• The Insider

  December 5, 1996

• Smile! It's Earth Day!

  April 24, 1997

• The Airport That Wouldn't Die

  September 11, 1997

• Mall Rat

  November 6, 1997

• Changing the Channel

  December 25, 1997

• Wetlands Maul?

  August 27, 1998

• Looking for Answers Down Below

  January 21, 1999

• Blowing Smoke

  February 18, 1999

• City Pork Project

  March 11, 1999

• Local Control

  June 3, 1999

• Texas Home & Garden Show

  February 12, 2009

• Three-peat Heat

  Start your engines: The latest pollution pennant race is on

  July 19, 2001

• The Sky's the Limit

  Stop wheezing and cheer up. A front group finds a bright spin on our brown air.

  February 15, 2001

• A Mighty Wind

  A mountain of garbage in northeast Houston is looking to get bigger. Neighbors cry foul.

  October 6, 2005

• First Places

  Houston Press staffers win awards

  April 28, 2005

• Wretched Excess

  Sludge, spread across the land, makes some people vomit and others very rich

  March 31, 2005

• Draining the Swamp

  A scorched-earth management philosophy is sucking the life out of our region's wetlands

  January 13, 2005

• End of the Line

  An acquittal raises more questions about pollution prosecutors' tactics

  August 19, 2004

• Passive Aggressive

  A court slaps down the D.A.'s bid to broadly expand its antipollution powers

  May 15, 2003

• Earth Quake Day

  CEC splits from an increasingly commercial fest

  April 4, 2002

• Under The Volcano

  Crown Central Petroleum spews, sputters and flares up. Neighbors of the plant view it uneasily, never quite sure when it's going to blow.

  February 14, 2002

• Best Lost Monument

  Portland Cement Association Safety Trophy

  September 20, 2001

• Red Light, Green Light

  With billboards of windmills promising gentle, nonpolluting energy, Green Mountain offers Texans a new power avenue. Will they take it? Should they?

  June 7, 2001

• Fish Tales

  Rayburn's bass diminish as debates continue over pollution discharges

  December 28, 2000

• Smoke and Mirrors

  As part of the Bush legacy, a special law can hide polluting industries

  October 26, 2000

• In the (O)Zone

  What's the fuss, TNRCC? We've got air to die for.

  September 28, 2000

• A Yenne for Your Thoughts

  Brazoria's D.A. raises privacy issues over DPS emissions tests

  June 29, 2000

• Reeling

  Bass kills and lesions on fish worry Sam Rayburn anglers. So does the state's plan to lower the lake's pollution standards.

  April 6, 2000

• We're No. 1!

  Houston seems destined to remain the country's biggest stink hole

  December 30, 1999

• Adrift

  Has the fight over port expansion turned a bay watchdog group into a rubber duck?

  September 30, 1999

• Wylie Coyote

  April 1, 1999

• Enron's Earth (Day) Quakes

  March 18, 1999

• The Exterminator

  Tom DeLay, the bug man from Sugar Land, has always despised environmental regulation. Now, as House majority whip, he's in a position to do something about it.

  November 23, 1995

• The fight to save the Katy Prairie

  January 20, 1994

• Dow Chemical, Always Helping The Kids. By Polluting The Air

  If you worry about pollution -- especially in light on the EPA's latest study of the cancer risk posed by air pollution -- you might see that instead of threatening our lives, air pollution actually helps all of us, especially those of us who are most vulnerable, the kids.For purposes of illustration, we present a case handled yesterday by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which approved an agreed order that assessed the Dow Chemical Co. a penalty of $166,465 for violating state

  June 24, 2009

• ExxonMobil Fined $600,000; We Think They Can Come Up With It

  ​Let's be honest.There aren't a lot of "bad days" for a global petrochemical company that made a record $45.2 billion profit last year, so we'll just say ExxonMobil had a less than stellar day on Wednesday when state regulators penalized it more than $600,000 for environmental crimes.ExxonMobil's oil refinery and chemical plants in Baytown were responsible for $496,201 of the penalty and its Beaumont refinery accounted for the rest.The penalty, finalized in Austin in an agreed order by the Tex

  August 13, 2009

• HEAA Slings Some Loaded Questions at Four Mayoral Candidates

  photo by frankh​ The Houston Electric Auto Association recently cornered the four biggest mayoral candidates and grilled them on environmental issues, most (unsurprisingly) having to do with the unmitigated wonderfulness of the electric car. They were also quizzed on their support of proposed or already-existing City of Houston initiatives. Peter Brown, Gene Locke, Roy Morales, and Annise Parker each participated to some extent, although Locke's hilarious response was to stonewall the i

  August 28, 2009

• Houston Touts Its Clean-Air Credentials (Yes, Dammit, We Do Have Them)

  Photo courtesy GHCVB​Everyone knows that Houston is the smog-riddled energy capital of the world, so it was with a touch of irony that the annual Clean Air Through Energy Efficiency Conference awards were announced this afternoon in Houston.Attendees from across Texas and other states, munching on a typical banquet meal of chicken cordon bleu and asparagus, were supposed to hear self-proclaimed clean-air advocate Mayor Bill White, but alas, he was too busy to show. Instead, Issa Dadoush, direc

  October 15, 2009

• Houston's Waterways Are Filled With All Kinds Of Stuff They Shouldn't Be Filled With, Group Says

  ​Stay the hell away from Houston's waterways. Don't swim in them and for heaven's sake don't eat the fish.That was essentially the message this morning at a news conference held alongside the Houston Ship Channel, hosted by Environment Texas, an environmental advocacy group, which complied data from the EPA to produce a report detailing just how many hazardous chemicals were dumped into the water in 2007.According to the report, industrial facilities released 13 million pounds of toxic chemica

  October 21, 2009

• Southwest To Make Guinea Pigs Out Of Passengers, All In The Name Of The Environment

  ​We've heard of test pilots, but Southwest Airlines is offering the chance to be a test passenger.The airline is introducing a new "Green Plane," one where the materials used on a lot of things are lighter, resulting in a plane that uses less fuel to fly.If it works.One aircraft will be outfitted with new rugs and two new types of seat covers that save two pounds per seat, the airline says.There's also this:  Life Vest Pouch -- more environmentally friendly because it offers a we

  October 21, 2009