News Release | Environment Texas

Obama Administration to Protect Americans’ Health by Setting Carbon Pollution Standards for New Power Plants

AUSTIN—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today proposed historic new limits on carbon pollution from new power plants. Carbon pollution fuels global warming, which leads to poor air quality that triggers asthma attacks and other respiratory problems. Scientists also predict that global warming will lead to more devastating floods, more deadly heat waves and the spread of infectious diseases. Coal-fired power plants are the largest single source of carbon pollution in the U.S., yet there are currently no federal limits on this pollution from power plants. The proposed Carbon Pollution Standard will correct that for new power plants by limiting emissions to more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide pollution for each megawatt of electricity produced. Texas currently leads the nation in emissions of carbon pollution from power plants.

News Release | Environment Texas

84 Percent of Texans Live in Areas Hit by Recent Weather Disasters; New Report Says Global Warming to Bring More Extreme Weather

AUSTIN - After a year that saw Texas hit by scorching heat, devastating wildfires, and extreme drought, a new Environment Texas report documents how global warming could lead to certain extreme weather events becoming even more common or more severe in the future.  The report found that, already, 84% of Texans live in counties affected by federally declared weather-related disasters since 2006, including last year’s wildfires. 

News Release | Environment Texas

House Transportation Bill Drives Us to Deeper Oil Dependence

AUSTIN— This afternoon, Representative John Mica (R-FL), Chairman of the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, officially introduced a major transportation reauthorization bill. The bill cuts all funding for biking and walking safety and cripples environmental review for transportation projects.  It also includes proposals to open the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as well as the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, and to open landscapes in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming to oil shale extraction. At the same time, On top of this, Speaker of the House John Boehner has said that he would attach approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline to this bill if it were not otherwise immediately approved.

News Release | Environment Texas Research & Policy Center

Nuclear Power Plants Threaten Drinking Water for 1.2 Million Texans

AUSTIN – The drinking water for 1.2 million people in Texas could be at risk of radioactive contamination from a leak or accident at a local nuclear power plant, says a new study released today by Environment Texas Research and Policy Center and the Texas Public Interest Research Group (TexPIRG). See map here, key below. 

News Release | Environment Texas

President Obama Expected to Stand Up to Big Oil on Keystone XL Pipeline

AUSTIN – According to media reports, President Obama and the State Department today will reject an effort to force administration approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.   Environment Texas Director Luke Metzger issued this statement in response: