“They’re still dying”: Neighbors contend with rail yard after decades of contamination.
A railroad yard asked the state to limit its environmental responsibility to clean up more than 30 years of toxic waste. The community it neighbored didn’t know anything was wrong. In this historically black neighborhood, it seems everyone knows someone who died of cancer or had the disease themselves. Now, they’re coming to terms with how a plume of creosote lurking below may have affected their lives — and could still be polluting their homes today.
Impact: After the story published, state regulators asked Union Pacific to test the air in homes affected by contamination. Then, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee held a town hall to push for a health study on the contamination.
One Houston neighborhood is putting Texas’ air quality rules to the test. It’s losing.
Acres Homes residents are trying to stop a company from building a concrete batch plant in the heart of their neighborhood. But despite impressive community organization and tireless persistence, Texas’ environmental agency keeps moving the air emissions permit request forward, while residents are blocked at every turn by a web of complex rules to fight back. While a distinctly Houston problem, where no zoning means basically anyone can build basically anywhere, the community is wondering: Do any of their efforts even matter? What’s playing out on De Soto Street may prove that Texas’ public participation process is just for show.
Traumatized by workplace violence, nurses in Texas want new rules.
Nurses get spit on, cursed out, shoved, hit or slammed to the ground at work. For many, abuse is seen as just part of the job. Yet, they also say these incidents are traumatizing – forever. Policymakers in Texas are just beginning to address the problem.
Swallowed in paperwork, Texas steel products firms lose customers while Trump’s tariffs drag on.
When the steel tariffs were first enacted last March, the Commerce Department anticipated only 4,500 requests would be filed each year. It received over 66,000. Nearly four out of five exemption requests filed by Texas companies remain unprocessed. Related: Texas companies requested the most steel tariff waivers of any state.
Economy:
- Manufacturers see industry contracting and economic outlook darkening
- Houston wages slow as oil bust haunts workers
- Will anyone fund Texas’ hemp industry? Entrepreneurs struggle to launch
- As Venezuelan opposition prepares to appoint a board to Houston’s Citgo, creditors circle
trade —
- Tariffs on Mexico could deal blow to Texas economy
- Trade war with China highlights battle for trade secrets in Texas, energy sector
- Houston relies on global workers and global trade. Both are at risk.
labor & workforce —
- Texas rule limiting worker benefits in gig economy could hurt local businesses
- Energy industry’s recruitment efforts highlight persistent challenges for women
- Federal employees squeezed as payday comes without paycheck
Energy:
- Experimental Texas power plant aims to make electricity cheaper, cleaner
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Texas has enough sun and wind to quit coal, Rice researchers say
- University of Houston courts oil and gas for work on carbon management
oil —
- Oil’s tariff tumble may further slow growth for Houston economy (Houston Chronicle)
- Oil shrugs into New Year, still waiting for a sign to recover
- For daughters of the oil and gas industry, mothers blazed the trail
Environment:
- New French Ambassador Philippe Étienne sees climate partner in Houston
- Natural gas flaring in West Texas severely under-reported, satellite analysis shows
- Companies pin excessive 2017 air pollution on Harvey, one-time events
Erin Douglas is the economy reporter for the Houston Chronicle. She interned for Bloomberg in 2018 and for her hometown newspaper, The Denver Post, in 2017.
