News Releases

News Release | Environment Texas Research and Policy Center

71% of Texas schools test positive for lead in drinking water

AUSTIN – 779 Texas schools have found lead in their drinking water, according to an analysis of testing data by Environment Texas. The analysis, an update of one completed in March, includes hundreds of additional tests from Austin, Houston, Humble, Alief, Garland and Northwest Independent School Districts. Environment Texas also offered a new toolkit to help parents, teachers, and administrators Get the Lead Out of schools’ drinking water.  Citing a lack of accurate information on lead contamination in water and how schools should prevent it, Environment Texas encouraged parents and teachers to put the new toolkit on their “back to school” reading list.

News Release | Environment Texas Research and Policy Center

Ten years of progress positions Texas to take renewable energy to the next level

AUSTIN - Since 2007, Texas has seen a 21,466% increase in the amount of electricity it gets from the sun and a 639% increase in wind power production, according to a new report released today by Environment Texas Research & Policy Center. The report also highlights Texas’ leadership in the use of energy storage and electric vehicles, but finds Texas ranked 47th for improvements in electricity energy efficiency programs. 

News Release | Environment Texas and Environmental Integrity Project

Texas fails to penalize 97 percent of illegal air pollution releases

Texas imposed penalties on less than 3 percent of illegal air pollution releases during industrial malfunctions and maintenance from 2011 through 2016, even though these incidents emitted more than 500 million pounds of pollutants, according to an analysis of state records by the Environmental Integrity Project and Environment Texas. A new report, “Breakdowns in Enforcement,” ranks the worst illegal air pollution events from oil refineries, chemical plants and other industrial facilities across Texas in 2016. The report concludes that the infrequency and small size of the state’s fines (averaging just three pennies per pound for pollution) are a major problem, because the lack of enforcement means that the owners are less likely to invest money to upgrade and repair known problems.

News Release | Environment Texas

President Trump to pull out of Paris Climate Accord

President Trump has got it exactly backwards: there’s no sound economy in our future without a healthy planet.  If national leadership chooses to ignore that reality, then local governments, businesses and institutions must step in to fill the leadership void to show the world that Americans will do our part to address the climate crisis.

News Release | Environment Texas Research and Policy Center

UT Faculty Urge University Lands to Reduce Methane Pollution

AUSTIN – Faculty of the University of Texas System released a letter today urging UT Chancellor McRaven to reduce the climate-damaging methane emissions occurring at oil and gas facilities on land managed by the UT System. The letter has more than 177 faculty signatures and ran as an ad in the Wednesday edition of UT Austin’s student newspaper, The Daily Texan. “UT wants us to be leaders for our students,” said David Matiella of UT San Antonio’s Department of Architecture. The professors who signed onto this letter want UT to step up and be a leader on managing our public lands.”

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