News & Politics
January 29, 2013
One Texas Lawmaker Wants Electric Vehicle Owners to Pay
Representative Drew Darby wants fuel-efficient vehicles, which naturally incur lower gas taxes, to be charged increased registration fees.
Energy
Reporting and commentary on the Texas energy industry and innovations shaping its future
Latest
301-350 of 428 Articles
Energy
January 21, 2013
Five of the Worst Mercury-Polluting Power Plants Are In Texas
According to a new report ranking the ten worst mercury-emitting coal plants in the US.
January 21, 2013
Inside Texas’s New Radioactive Dump
The new dump for low-level radioactive waste in west Texas will help relieve an overburdened site in Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
January 21, 2013
Midland: The Second-Richest City in America
Residents in the more upscale half of the Permian Basin make more money per capita than people in New York, San Francisco, Dallas, and Houston.
Energy
January 21, 2013
PHOTOS: Superwreck on Interstate 10
Startling images of the 140-vehicle pileup on Interstate 10 west of Beaumont on Thanksgiving Day.
January 21, 2013
Texas Business Report: How Taxpayers Subsidized Construction of Cowboys Stadium
Taxpayers, who footed a large chunk of the bill for the new $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium, got a raw deal, according to a new story in Bloomberg Businessweek.
News & Politics
January 21, 2013
Romney Visits Texas, Talks Barbara Bush and Energy
During his trips to Houston and Midland on Tuesday, Republican candidate Mitt Romney took time out to praise former first lady Barbara Bush and talk oil and gas.
Energy
January 21, 2013
Appeals Court Sides With Texas in Fight Over EPA Air Pollution Rule
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down the Environmental Protection Agency's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule.
January 21, 2013
Mexican Pipeline Expansion To Be Fueled With Texas Gas
The new $8 billion project will be fed in part with natural gas from the South Texas and Eagle Ford Shale fields.
Energy
January 21, 2013
Electric Vehicle Program Piloted in Austin Neighborhood
Mueller, a master-planned community in Austin, has the highest concentration of electric vehicles in the country as part of a pilot project focusing on clean energy.
Energy
January 21, 2013
Gulf Coast Portion of Keystone Pipeline Approved
TransCanada announced that construction of the Texas-Oklahoma segment of its pipeline will begin shortly—immediately prompting a backlash from environmentalists and conservative landowners alike.
Energy
January 21, 2013
Texans Urged to Conserve Power as Temperatures Hit Triple Digits
Energy usage for the month of June broke records for two days in a row, as ERCOT and the Public Utilities Commission scramble to prevent rolling blackouts.
Energy
January 21, 2013
The Scoop on the Problems at the Motiva Plant
The expansion of the Port Arthur plant briefly made it the largest in the country before an accident disabled the new 325,000-barrel-per-day crude distillation unit.
Energy
January 21, 2013
What the Frack is Up With ‘Dallas’?
Is TNT's reboot of the classic soap opera also a mirror of the country's changing relationship with fossil fuels?
Energy
January 21, 2013
What Does the Drought Mean for the Texas Miracle?
As much as anything, the economic boom in Texas depends on water. So what will industry do as the state gets drier? The Texas Tribune's Kate Galbraith explains.
Energy
January 21, 2013
No Endangered Species Listing for Dunes Sagebrush Lizard
The oil industry cheered news Wednesday that the tiny lizard will not be added to the endangered species list.
Energy
January 21, 2013
Is It Time to Call the Texas Railroad Commission What It Actually Is?
The powerful state agency is tasked with regulating oil, gas and other energy—not trains. Its own commissioners favor a new name: the Texas Energy Resources Commission.
Energy
January 21, 2013
Exxon Plans Expansion at Houston-Area Plants
Exxon Mobil announced plans to expand its hulking Baytown petrochemical plant and refinery Thursday.
Energy
January 21, 2013
Yes, Texas Traffic Really is That Bad
Which rush hour thoroughfares in Dallas, Houston, and Austin cracked the upper reaches of the Daily Beast's third annual "Highways From Hell" survey?
January 21, 2013
Texas Business Report: Texas Ranchers Again Investing in Cattle
With demand for beef high and herd sizes still low, ranchers are looking to buy more cows.
January 21, 2013
Texas Business Report: Appeals Court Sides with Texas over EPA
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott scored a victory over the EPA this week over when a federal appeals court ordered the federal agency to take more time to consider Texas's pollution control measures.
Energy
January 21, 2013
Energy-Loving Texas Could Be Ground Zero Against Keystone XL
Landowners who vehemently oppose TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline took to the streets and the courts to protest the project.
Book Review
January 21, 2013
Exxposé
What lies beneath the hood of ExxonMobil, the world’s largest oil company?
Books
January 21, 2013
The One-Question Interview With Steve Coll
The author of Private Empire: ExxonMobile and American Power answers the question: In terms of difficulty, how would you compare reporting on Exxon with the reporting you did for your previous book, The Bin Ladens?
Energy
January 21, 2013
Below the Surface
In 1996 a powerful South Texas ranching clan accused ExxonMobil of sabotaging wells on the family’s property. Thirteen years, millions of dollars in legal fees, and one state Supreme Court opinion later, the biggest oil field feud of its time is still raging.
Web Exclusive
January 21, 2013
An Extended Interview With Steve Coll
The New Yorker writer talks about his latest book, Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power.
Energy
January 20, 2013
That’s Oil, Folks!
Forget the Outer Continental Shelf. There’s a good old-fashioned boom happening in Midland, thanks to a crafty drilling technique that unlocked the secret reserves of the Permian Basin and revived the late, great West Texas oilman.
Energy
January 20, 2013
Spills and Bills
The BP oil spill hit the small world of Houston’s oil and gas business hard. So now that the well is plugged, who’s up and who’s down?
Energy
January 20, 2013
Made in Midland
Skip Hollandsworth talks about rigs, the trickle-down effect, and the new generation of oilmen.
Energy
January 20, 2013
New Oil: The Giddings Gamble
Oil patch old-timers said to stay away from the Austin chalk. But a few feisty newcomers refused to listen and cashed in for millions.
Business
January 20, 2013
Life After Oil
Midland’s energy companies are still laying people off a decade after the bottom of the bust. But—surprise—the city’s economy is booming again.
Energy
January 20, 2013
The Old Man and the Secret
Thirty years ago, people couldnt believe it: The old man’s elixir boosted crops, ate up sewage, and made the desert bloom. Today half a dozen Texas companies claim the elixir does all that and a whole lot more.
Energy
January 20, 2013
The Gospel According to Matthew
Why does a rich Houston investment banker spend his days traveling the globe, preaching to the uninformed and indifferent that the world’s supply of crude oil is in steep decline and the end of life as we know it is very, very near? Maybe because it is.
Energy
January 20, 2013
T. Boone Pickens
Amarillo
Energy
January 20, 2013
Eva vs. Goliath
After James and Linda Rowe were killed in a grisly refinery explosion in Texas City in 2005, their wild-child daughter could have taken a modest settlement and started to rebuild her life in a small Louisiana border town. Instead, she chose to fight—and brought a multibillion-dollar oil company to its
Energy
January 20, 2013
Oil and Water
Offshore drillers are finding mammoth reservoirs in places that were once considered barren, which is why the Gulf of Mexico is booming again.
Business
January 20, 2013
The Texas 100: The Son Also Rises
The moral of Tex Moncrief’s story: Father knew best.
Energy
January 20, 2013
Downsizing Houston
If the crash that followed the boom hasn’t exactly been our fault, the result has been that same sad sense that maybe we’ll never have fun again.
Energy
September 30, 2012
Fracked Into a Corner?
Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have given us a natural gas boom—and a whole lot of questions.
September 21, 2012
Texas Business Report: Disney Launches Cruise Ship From Galveston
A Disney cruise set sail from Galveston under new a deal that is “guaranteed to create a minimum of $2.4 million in gross revenue for the Port of Galveston.”
Energy
June 20, 2012
The Case For Saving Old Offshore Oil Rigs
Should nonproducing oil rigs be demolished, or are the habitats marine life have built around them too valuable to compromise?
Business
May 9, 2012
ExxonMobil Tops Fortune 500
With $452.9 billion in revenue and profits surging to $41.1 billion, the Irving-based company reclaimed the number one spot from Walmart.
Energy
May 1, 2012
Do Wind Farms Cause Global Warming?
A new study looking at West Texas wind farms found that local air temperatures rose 0.72 degrees Celsius. Is this something to worry about?
Energy
April 20, 2012
How the State Could Lose $4.4 Billion in Revenue
If oil and gas drilling is considered "manufacturing" instead of "mining," the industry effectively receives a huge tax exemption.
Business
April 16, 2012
Jeff Skilling Gets Denied. Again
The Supreme Court rejected the ex-Enron CEO's latest appeal, a move that is hardly surprising to most Houstonians.
Energy
April 3, 2012
Life in the Eagle Ford Boom
A dispatch on how the petrodollars from the Eagle Ford Shale boom are reshaping life in South Texas.
March 2, 2012
Texas Business Report: Blockbusted
Blockbuster shuts down one-third of its locations, international business out of Texas goes gangbusters, and home prices increase in San Antonio and Houston.
Politics & Policy
February 9, 2012
Louie Gohmert Wants to Make Sure Alaska’s Caribou Get Some
The Republican congressman from Tyler says an oil pipeline radiates heat, making it a popular "date" destination for caribou.
January 20, 2012
The Week in Business: Profits, Losses, and Everything in Between
A hedge fund scandal revolves around Dell, AT&T turns its gaze on Dish Network, and Houston executives rake it in.
Energy
December 21, 2011
More EPA Regulations Upset Power Industry Leaders
The EPA announced new mercury emissions rules that please environmentalists, but the timeline and potential price tag worries industry officials.