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September 24, 2013

ECONOTES 2013-09-24: Environmental Headlines for the Houston Region

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  1. Harris County May Control Water Plans (Ross Ramsey – The New York Times, 9/14/2013)
    The wettest part of the state will have an outsize say in the state’s water planning. Houston could account for one-third of the votes in November’s constitutional-amendment election on $2 billion for water projects around the state. In places where the lawns are still green and relatively unthreatened, voter awareness of the state’s water problems may fall behind other concerns, like what to do with the giant hunk of concrete and steel known as the Astrodome.
    http://www.nytimes.com/
  2. River authority OKs plan to cut off water (Matthew Tresaugue – Houston Chronicle, 9/18/2013)
    A Central Texas river authority on Wednesday approved an emergency plan that could cut off critical freshwater from one of the state’s most productive bays. The plan, which still needs to be approved by the state environmental regulators, would allow the Lower Colorado River Authority to withhold water from flowing into Matagorda Bay for four months or until lake levels near Austin reach a certain height. Environmentalists, fishermen and officials in Matagorda County condemned the decision, saying the river authority has entered a dangerous phase that could upset the ecosystem’s delicate balance.
    http://www.chron.com/
  3. EPA proposal could block new coal plants (Matthew Tresaugue – Houston Chronicle, 9/21/2013)
    The Obama administration proposed rules Friday to sharply limit carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants, a move that fulfills the president’s promise to fight climate change but could block any coal-fired unit from being built. The rules, the first such federal limits on greenhouse gases, effectively require future coal plants to capture and store some of their emissions of carbon dioxide. But industry, which is already preparing to challenge the rules in court, said the emerging technology is extraordinarily expensive, making the regulatory bar too high to meet.
    http://www.houstonchronicle.com/

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