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October 27, 2013

ECONOTES 2013-10-29: Environmental Headlines for the Houston Region

Featured

  1. Texas industries’ climate-changing pollution far surpasses other states’ (Texas Climate News, 10/25/2013)
    Texas industrial facilities led all other states by a huge margin in their release of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases in 2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced this week. The EPA report, based on data provided by about 8,000 facilities across the nation, showed that the ones in Texas said they emitted about 393 million metric tons of greenhouse gases last year – 12.5 percent of the nationwide total of 3.13 billion metric tons.
    http://texasclimatenews.org/
  2. Feds endorse plan to save rare bird (Matthew Tresuague – Houston Chronicle, 10/23/2013)
    The lesser prairie chicken might not be listed as threatened if enough energy companies and ranchers voluntarily agree to preserve the football-sized grouse’s habitat in Texas and other states, federal officials said Wednesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service endorsed a conservation plan by the five states in the imperiled bird’s habitat as a way to protect it while avoiding the more rigid endangered-species listing, which could put the brakes on oil and gas drilling and other activities in parts of West Texas.
    http://www.chron.com/
  3. Greenways projects underway as capital campaign begins  (Jayme Fraser – Houston Chronicle – 10/23/2013) the Houston Parks Board and its public partners hope to revive some of the city’s natural treasures through Bayou Greenways 2020, a 150-mile trail system that, once complete, will wind along the bayous long seen as an interruption to Houston’s urban sprawl. www.houstonchronicle.com
    Related:
    King: Vision of parks, trails on bayou taking shape (Bill King – Houston Chronicle – 10/24/2013)  Bill King says the use of a realistic financing system that matches bond money with private donations shows how big ideas can become reality. Bacon, a University of Texas at Austin and Rice University graduate, who started his career with Gerald Hines Real Estate, was a man possessed even back then with the idea of using Houston’s most prominent geographic feature (and we don’t have many) as the backbone for a park system. www.houstonchronicle.com
  4. Water Researchers Mull Over Prop 6 (Christie Post – KEYE TV, 10/22/2013)
    According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, fall rains continue to ease drought conditions, but our water-supply drought continues. Proposition 6 aims to solve some of these issues. But the question still remains: Will $2 billion in water projects do the trick, or should we simply wait for more rain? Researchers, policy makes, business owners and engineers discussed the answer at a water, technology and policy event at University of Texas.

    http://www.keyetv.com/

EcoNotes