“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. Four months later, the Texas Department of State Health Services found a cancer cluster in the areas surrounding the rail yard in August. But, the public didn’t find out about the cancer cluster study until much later, due to a failure by state agencies to notify city officials.
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, Texas’ environmental agency keeps moving the air emissions permit request forward. Residents are blocked at every turn by a web of complex rules to fight back. In Houston, where no zoning means anyone can build anywhere, the community is wondering: Do any of their efforts even matter? Or is the state’s public participation process just for show?
Follow up: TCEQ refers Acres Homes concrete batch plant dispute to state hearing
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.
Economy:
- Houston region’s poverty rate increases in 2018 as household income flattens
- The black-white wage gap is growing. It’s worse in Texas.
- Manufacturers see industry contracting and economic outlook darkening
- Income inequality in Texas on the rise
- Houston hosting World Series to top economic boost of 2017… as long as we win
- Fed should manage risk by acting ‘sooner rather than later’ Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan says
business —
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Millions at stake for Houston nonprofits as United Way narrows focus
- Will anyone fund Texas’ hemp industry? Entrepreneurs struggle to launch
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Beer feud in Shiner as brewers battle for Shiner Bock’s niche corner of craft beer
- After shootings, some shop in fear, others stay home over tax-free weekend
labor & workforce —
- Traumatized by workplace violence, nurses in Texas want new rules
- Federal employees squeezed as payday comes without paycheck
- Texas rule limiting worker benefits in gig economy could hurt local businesses
- Houston workers slow to benefit while CEO pay balloons
- Houston wages slow as oil bust haunts workers
- Skills training, apprenticeships target employees traditionally left out as labor market tightens
trade —
- Tariffs on Mexico could deal blow to Texas economy
- Trade war with China highlights battle for trade secrets in Texas, energy sector
- Texas companies requested the most steel tariff waivers of any state
- Houston relies on global workers and global trade. Both are at risk.
Energy:
- Experimental Texas power plant aims to make electricity cheaper, cleaner
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As Venezuelan opposition prepares to appoint a board to Houston’s Citgo, creditors circle
- University of Houston courts oil and gas for work on carbon management
- Energy industry’s recruitment efforts highlight persistent challenges for women
- Total betting on LNG strategy in emerging economies
oil —
- Oil’s tariff tumble may further slow growth for Houston economy
- Permian production saves Exxon Mobil, Chevron from steeper declines as profits fall
- Oil shrugs into New Year, still waiting for a sign to recover
Climate & Environment:
- Climate change increasingly seen as risk to business, economy
- Texas has enough sun and wind to quit coal, Rice researchers say
- 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
A few features:
- 101-year-old Houstonian embodies a century of the city’s history
- For daughters of the oil and gas industry, mothers blazed the trail
- Astronaut, entrepreneurs honored at 25th Greater Houston Black Chamber awards
- Houston architects, engineers compete to design homeless encampment solution
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.
