Kate Galbraith, Texas Tribune

Posted on June 8, 2013 · Barnhart, a small community about 50 miles southwest of San Angelo in West Texas, has run out of water after the town's only municipal water well failed. Officials say that the water demands of oil drilling are a factor.

Posted on June 1, 2013 · In Houston, air pollution worries usually are about ozone, but scientists are paying increasingly close attention to fine dust. It’s more dangerous than ozone, some say, and the EPA will soon decide whether Houston has too much.

Posted on May 25, 2013 · If lawmakers don't do something quickly, the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas in the state, could disappear.

Posted on May 11, 2013 · The Texas Rangers and the McLennan County sheriff's office are launching a criminal investigation into the fertilizer plant explosion last month in West.

Posted on February 16, 2013 · Renewable energy advocates are bracing to defend critical policies that have helped Texas become the leading wind-power state. The ascendancy of the Tea Party, an abundance of cheap natural gas and tighter budgets have reduced the sway of the wind industry. Solar power advocates anticipate limited gains at best.

Posted on October 28, 2012 · Wholesale electricity prices on the Texas power grid will be allowed to go twice as high as is currently possible, following a vote Thursday by the Texas Public Utility Commission. What this move means for Texans' electric bills is unclear.

Posted on September 16, 2012 · Texas is the top wind power state, but the expiration of a key tax credit at the end of this year could significantly impact the state, which contains about a fifth of the nation's turbines.

Posted on July 1, 2012 · The Public Utility Commission approved a 50 percent increase for the cap on wholesale electricity prices on the Texas electrical grid. That will mean higher prices for ordinary Texans, consumer advocates fear.

Posted on June 2, 2012 · A 135-page report by a Massachusetts-based consulting group is the latest analysis suggesting that the Texas electric grid does not have adequate reserves for future years.

Posted on April 1, 2012 · By mid-summer last year, it was so hot and dry that many West Texas cotton farmers gave up hope of producing a crop. Yet they had to keep watering, pumping from diminishing aquifers like the Ogallala, to claim crop insurance.

Posted on March 4, 2012 · John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas' state climatologist since 2000, has seen his duties explode in the last 18 months amid public clamor for information on the drought.

Posted on February 4, 2012 · Unlike other Gulf states, Texas beaches did not get soaked with oil after the BP spill two years ago. Nonetheless, $100 million — and possibly far more, depending on the courts and Congress — is about to start flowing to Texas from BP for coastal restoration