Coverage of what Texas growth runs on -- the ERCOT grid and new generation, transmission lines, data centers and the demand they bring, and the water supply, reservoirs and groundwater a growing state depends on.
Corpus Christi voters on Nov. 3 approved a charter amendment that ends the city's practice of exempting its biggest industrial water users from drought surcharges, according to the Nueces County elections office's unofficial count.
Treated oilfield wastewater can be spread across Texas farmland under rules the state’s environmental regulators adopted Nov. 4 — and on the question a neighbor is most likely to ask, how close it may come to a drinking water well, the rule gives two answers that do not match.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas will consider three proposed behind-the-meter power arrangements for large electricity users, a new demand management framework for data centers and cryptocurrency mining operations, and several major electric utility rate cases during its Thursday meeting.
The environmental commission works through a 62-item agenda in which Marathon's Blanchard Refining appears four times, the roll call of respondents reads like a tour of the Gulf Coast petrochemical corridor, and two watermaster decisions could tighten how water rights are policed in the Sulphur River and Rio Grande basins.When: 9:30 AM CT, Thursday, July 30, 2026Where: TCEQ Campus, 12100 Park 35 Circle, Building E, Room 201S, Austin — and by Zoom (webinar ID 840 8231 5129, access code 396820) or by phone at (346) 248-7799Governing body: Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Format: Commissioners' agenda meeting; 62 items Live video: TCEQ webcasts page · TCEQ on YouTubeFull agenda: Posted agenda, July 30, 2026 (PDF) · marked agenda Fifty-two of the 62 items on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's Thursday agenda are enforcement orders, and the great majority are agreed orders — negotiated settlements in which a company accepts a penalty and required corrective actions without contesting the alleged violations.
A sales tax break that cost Texas an estimated $14.6 million a decade ago is now on track to cost the state roughly $3.3 billion in a single two-year budget — and on Monday the Senate’s budget-writing committee spent the better part of a nine-hour hearing asking whether taxpayers are getting their money’s worth.
Two state administrative law judges have recommended that Texas regulators approve the Howard-Solstice 765-kilovolt transmission line along Route 4, a roughly 371-mile path estimated at about $2.18 billion, clearing one of the last procedural hurdles before the Public Utility Commission decides the case next month.
The Texas Senate's Business and Commerce Committee meets Wednesday to review the state of the electric grid, and the item that will get the most attention on its agenda is the rulebook meant to keep a wave of new data centers from raising costs and risking reliability.
Administrative law judges on July 24 denied two motions seeking to reopen the record in the disputed Howard-Solstice transmission line case, keeping the proceeding on schedule as they prepare a recommendation for the Public Utility Commission of Texas.
Governor Greg Abbott announced that Diode will not pursue a proposed data center near Cedar Creek Lake in Henderson County after the company determined the project did not meet the Governor’s directives or community expectations, according to a July 23 news release.
Two state lawmakers have formally asked the Public Utility Commission of Texas to hold off on a final decision on the Howard-Solstice high-voltage power line — and on every other 765-kilovolt segment of the state's transmission plan — until after the Legislature meets in 2027, arguing the state has not tested whether cheaper alternatives could avoid the lines entirely.
The Texas Senate Committee on Business and Commerce will take invited and public testimony July 29 on ERCOT reliability and Senate Bill 6's large-load rules, and on how a fast-expanding network of 765-kilovolt transmission lines will affect Texas landowners.
Drought across Texas contracted sharply in June after a third straight month of above-normal rainfall, according to the Texas Water Development Board's latest Water and Weather report.
The Texas Water Development Board has published the second installment of an "Ask an Expert" series in which agency hydrologist Dr. Mark Wentzel answers common questions about the reservoir data featured on the state's Water Data for Texas dashboard.
The Texas Water Development Board has awarded more than $7 million in grants to 43 groundwater conservation districts across the state, funding research and data-collection projects intended to strengthen local groundwater management and planning.