Texas Environmental News - Week 24
SMOG IN THE BIG BEND Smog continues to creep into the Big Bend as Oil&Gas drilling in the Permian and Alpine High crank to record levels. Alpine, Texas had ozone levels higher or the same as Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Corpus Christi for five consecutive days this week according to figures obtained from government websites. Ozone is the atmospheric phenomena that creates smog through a combination of fossil-fuel derived gasses like nitrous oxide and volatile organic compounds including carcinogens toluene and benzene that when cooked with sunlight creates a serious respiratory health risk. On Tuesday, Midland-Odessa registered 119 on the ozone scale ranking 4 th nationally after Pahala, Hawaii, Ponce, Puerto Rico and the UTE Reservation in southern Colorado. FOLLOW THE MONEY In a follow the $ story, the hydrocarbon billionaire brothers of Koch Industries Inc. Bill and David, who have been accused of buying elections nationwide by donating billions of dollars to pol...