Texas
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Record heat causes nation's water pipes to 'burst like geysers'
The EPA helps towns with infrastructure upgrades that can prevent the problem. Too bad politicians in Texas want to shut the agency down.
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Rick Perry to run for president; climate deniers cheer
The climate skeptics can finally get excited about the 2012 election: Texas Gov. Rick Perry, their candidate of choice, is about to officially throw his hat in the ring.
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Must-see photo essay about the drought
George Steinmetz' photo essay in Time about the drought in Texas, New Mexico, and Georgia is absolutely gasp-inducing. That's thanks to the beauty of the images, sure. But it's also the magnitude of the disaster (crops fail, waterways recede or disappear) and the shocking evidence of wastefulness (homeowners irrigate their lawns despite the record-setting drought; […]
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Rick Perry prays for an end to drought and EPA regulations
The rain prayers haven't worked yet -- maybe the Texas governor's prayers against the EPA won't, either.
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Record heat, no solar means Texas is paying 40 times more for power
Texas is hotter than balls right now, and it's not just the state's farmers and wildlife that are paying the price for it: Last week, the state set a record for electricity usage that led to its grid operator paying a whopping $3,000/MWh for peak electricity. To give you some perspective on this, $3,000/MWh translates to $3/KWh, or 40 times the $0.08/KWh a resident of that state normally pays for electricity at home.
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Texans drinking urine, consulting Bibles in face of ongoing climate apocalypse
Texas is now in the midst of its worst-ever one-year drought. Austin, Texas' capital, has received less than two inches of rain since October, a period that would normally see 18 inches. Here are just a few of the impacts of the state's ongoing drought, which is entirely consonant with the northward march of the world's subtropical deserts that will continue, unabated, as climate change intensifies:
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Solar could help with that
A major heat wave is causing record demand in Texas–Monday set a record of 66,867 MW, and Tuesday is expected to set another. As a result, the grid operator is asking that people help avoid blackouts by reducing electricity usage between 3 and 7 PM. And as of 3:45 PM today, Texas paid $3000 MWh […]
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A True Grassroots Victory in San Antonio
We’re still celebrating last week’s announcement by San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro that not only will the city shut down its 900 megawatt Deely coal-fired power plant by 2018, but San Antonio plans to replace the power with a combination of traditional sources like natural gas, renewable energy, including solar energy, and energy efficiency. In […]
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In the worst drought in Texas history, 13.5 billion gallons of water used for fracking
Texas is experiencing the driest eight-month period in its recorded history. But in 2010, natural gas companies used 13.5 billion gallons of fresh water for hydraulic fracturing, and that could more than double by 2020. Where's all this water coming from? Oh, it was just lying around, in these aquifers! You guys weren't using it to drink or irrigate or anything, right? Guys?
