News

So Much Solar, Cities with Dangerous Smog, and A New Face in the Office

In a packed meeting last week at ERCOT, regional planning staff presented analyses of the effect of two new environmental regulations on the electric grid and Texas power plants -- the new limits on regional haze pollution and the Clean Power Plan...

We are pleased to introduce Ruthie Redmond as the Sierra Club, Lone Star Chapter’s Water Resources Specialist. Ruthie will focus on water policy issues across Texas including water conservation, drought response, sustainable groundwater management,...

At a time when Texas representatives in Washington are denying scientific evidence on climate disruption, and the state is leading a massive lawsuit against the EPA over the Clean Power Plan, a new poll by the University of Texas at Austin says more...

In a welcome development, the State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) proposed rules earlier this month that would raise the minimum energy codes in Texas for new construction to 2015 standards. The proposed rules – published in the Texas Register...

Today, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the grid operator for most of Texas, released an analysis of the potential impacts of the Clean Power Plan - the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new standards for carbon pollution from...

Today, Austin City Council approved a resolution on an 8-2-1 vote authorizing Austin Energy, the city-owned utility, to contract approximately 162 megawatts of solar energy. This decision means that Austin Energy will have approximately 600 MW of...

In an extraordinary (and long) joint meeting of Austin’s Resource Management Commission (RMC) and Electric Utility Commission (EUC) last night, both bodies took slightly different approaches but sent a simple message to Austin City Council: Buy....

The major Texas urban areas of Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston-Galveston-Brazoria have had the worst ozone (aka smog) pollution in the state since the 1970s, when ozone monitoring began. In fact, these two areas have had among the nation's worst smog...

In a series of filings with the Texas Public Utility Commission, El Paso Electric is making some strange moves on solar, making them almost seem two-faced. Sometimes they seem to like solar, but in their proposed rate case, they would create a new...