Environmental Policy

Harris County Leads the Nation in Polluting Facilities. So We’ve Got That Going for Us.

It’s Getting Hot in Here: The Kyoto Protocol, Ten Years Later

Ozone Levels Getting Nasty

Best Bird-Watching

Barker Reservoir, Highway 6 at Briar Forest

Just Don't Breathe It

What Houstonians can -- and probably won't -- do to clean up the air they drive through

Letters

What Houstonians can -- and probably won't -- do to clean up the air they drive through

In The Rough

In its quest for a Municipal golf course, Lake jackson learned a valuable lesson: Never buy land without checking it out first. Unfortunately, the lesson came six years too late.

BP Pays Big (Kinda) To Settle Texas City Pollution Claims

Logo courtesy BPGood news and bad news for Texas City: The good news is that BP will be spending $167 million to reduce pollution in its plant there.The bad news is that they were polluting the area so bad it's going to take $167 million to do something about it.The Environmental Protection Agency a ... More >>

Fecal Distraction

Logo courtesy BPGood news and bad news for Texas City: The good news is that BP will be spending $167 million to reduce pollution in its plant there.The bad news is that they were polluting the area so bad it's going to take $167 million to do something about it.The Environmental Protection Agency a ... More >>

Draining the Swamp

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

Best Environmental Attorney

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

Best Use of Taxpayer Dollars

Buffalo Bayou revitalization

Best Smell

Maxwell House Factory

Smoke and Mirrors

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

Reeling

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

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.

Protect The Texas Jaguarundi!! He's Cute!!

The Jaguarundicourtesy of blueskull611Ever heard of the jaguarundi? Neither have we. Perhaps that's because this unique type of cat that lives along the Texas border with Mexico is endangered. Perhaps it's because nobody really cares. We're guessing it's a bit of both, but that doesn't mean every an ... More >>

Simon S.C. Tay

Web exclusive!

Long-Anticipated BARC Report Is Out

MCV Consulting has released its 2009 Multi-Stakeholder Initiative report on BARC, which states -- hold your breath -- "that the number one priority must be the city instating strong, competent leadership of BARC that is mandated, empowered and held accountable by the city to solve the serious operat ... More >>

Obama's EPA Accused Of "Castrating" Clean Air Act In Houston

​Clean-air advocates in Texas had such high hopes for the EPA under the Obama administration. After all, the federal environmental agency has said that, as early as today, it will significantly lower the national ozone limit and has essentially stated that some of Texas' pro-business industrial pe ... More >>

Feds To Texas' Environmental Regulators: Good God, You Suck (UPDATED With Rick Perry Saying No, You Suck)

Feds come to the same conclusion we did​The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency smacked the hell out of Texas environmental regulators earlier this week, announcing that the feds will begin taking control over the issuance of operating permits to chemical plants and refineries because the s ... More >>

People Think A Plastic-Bag Ban Is Terrible, Plastic-Bag Industry Reports

Brownsville is getting ready to implement a ban on plastic bags in supermarkets, under an ordinance passed earlier this year.You know who doesn't like that? The American Chemistry Council, which we're sure just deals with the wonders of chemistry and how it can improve lives, through the use of, say ... More >>

TCEQ & The EPA: Feds Again Slam Texas' Pollution-Control Efforts

TCEQ: Honeymoon with the feds is definitely over​The EPA took yet another bite out of the Texas air-pollution regulatory system on Tuesday when it decreed that some of state's rules violate federal clean air law.At issue is what's called the New Source Review Program. It deals with the permitting ... More >>

Texas AG Greg Abbott Grabs The Spotlight In Fight Against EPA's Tailpipe-Emissions Rule

Greg Abbott leads a mostly southern uprising​Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott wants everyone to know that he is doing everything he can to stop the federal Environmental Protection Agency from trying to implement greenhouse-gas limits on cars and trucks. In the latest of a series of lawsuit ... More >>

Good Air Pollution News in Texas? "Flexible Permit" Companies Agree to EPA Guidelines

Breath of fresh air​It's a rarity: Good air-pollution news in Texas that doesn't involve the Obama administration forcing state officials to do their job. The Environmental Protection Agency announced today that 156 Texas companies who have received the notoriously loose "flexible" permits ha ... More >>