Erin Douglas |The Texas Tribune

The U.S. Senate voted to authorize the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin planning for a massive coastal barrier project in Galveston Bay meant to protect against hurricanes’ storm surge. Funding is not yet secured.

“We’re on the brink. We’re teetering. It’s a balancing act. It’s a 50/50 proposition,” said Gunter City Manager Rick Chaffin.

Heat-related emergency calls have spiked amid historic heat. Cooling centers are available in major cities but often close in the late afternoon — during the hottest parts of the day.

Emissions are reacting with the summer heat to create high levels of smog, hazardous air pollution that damages the lungs. But state officials are pushing back on ozone pollution controls proposed by the EPA, arguing such rules would compromise the electric grid.

Because the state is a party in Attorney General Ken Paxton’s cases against the companies, Volkswagen lawyers have argued that allowing the Texas governor to appoint justices to a case for which the state stands to win a substantial amount of money would give “the impression that the State has had undue influence.”

The high court said a cap on power plants’ carbon dioxide emissions that forces a transition to other fuels may be a “sensible” solution to the climate crisis, but that Congress did not give the Environmental Protection Agency the broad authority to make such requirements. Texas was one of 17 states that joined in the suit.

A report from the state Sunset Advisory Commission found that Texas Commission on Environmental Quality commissioners have become “reluctant” regulators and often encourage industry to “self police.”

Bleachers of the Uvalde County Fairplex were packed with young children, families and other community members Wednesday night in a mass vigil for the victims of Tuesday’s school shooting.

Hundreds of wildfires have broken out this spring. More than a dozen areas are under voluntary or mandatory water use restrictions, and more than 200 Texas counties have been designated as crop disaster areas.

Extreme weather events, water scarcity, risks of illness: Climate change is here, and it’s already affecting Texans.

Benzene is a known human carcinogen, according to the EPA. The Texas refineries were among a dozen industrial plants in the U.S. that emitted the highest levels of the chemical in 2021.

The Houston and Dallas regions may soon be designated as “severe” violators of federal smog rules, which would prompt more aggressive regulations.