Environmental Year in Review Survey

Halfway through each year (and again at the end of the year), we like asking our readers to tell us what they might put on a top-ten list of the most significant environmental accomplishments, controversies, issues, news, and events in the greater Houston region impacting the environment. We last asked you in May of this year. A lot has changed in the past six months! Please suggest additions to this list using this survey.

We’ll share results at the end of the year. (And put your thinking caps on about what you’d like–or expect–to see in 2018.)

Here’s what our readers shared in May and June (in no particular order):

• Passing the City of Houston Bike Plan
• San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund Record of Decision: Full Removal (read more from the Galveston Bay Foundation and the EPA, which is hosting a meeting on Monday, Dec. 4, 2017)
• People’s Climate March (and Women’s March & Science March)
• Climate change & related flooding/storm surge threat (and that was before Harvey)
• Proposed widening of I45, which is proposed to cover Little White Oak and impose even greater air quality, noise pollution, and lack of connectivity burdens on a large, mostly disadvantaged part of Houston
• At the Texas Legislature:
  • Preventing a ban on local reusable bag regulations (see commentary from Texas Campaign for the Environment, one of many advocated pounding the pavement in Austin earlier this year)
  • Efforts to remove municipalities’ ability to regulate local issues such as tree preservation that are essential to combating urban heat island effect
• In Washington DC:
  • Trump Administration Proposes Steep EPA Budget Cuts (more information available on the website of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies)
  • Toxic Substance Control Act is updated and called The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act
  • Trump pulling US out of Paris Climate Accord (read some of the converage from Houston Public Media)
• Terry Hershy’s legacy lives on (see article in Houston Chronicle)

Curious about past suggestion? Check out 2016 results.