Southwest (AZ NM OK TX)

"There is a new front in the fight over whether Texas should build more coal-fired power plants -- water."

"HOUSTON — For decades, Falcon Lake was known primarily as an anglers’ paradise, a tranquil reservoir straddling the border with Mexico  where a clever fisherman could catch enormous largemouth bass. These days, however, the lake is developing a reputation for something else: piracy."

"ARLINGTON, Texas — Mayor Robert Cluck wants to test the air near every new gas well in Arlington and a neighboring city has started its own air quality study."

"For the roughly 130 power plants, refineries and other facilities embroiled in the air permitting dispute between U.S. EPA and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, a new program being finalized by EPA could allow them to get on with business as usual."

"The New Mexico Environmental Law Center today appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower court decision that allows uranium mining in the Four Corners region of New Mexico. The appeal claims the mine would contaminate drinking water used by some 15,000 Navajo people."

"For 40 days, flares burned 500,000 pounds of toxic chemicals over BP's Texas City refinery. Yet residents didn't know until weeks later that the flare released 17,000 pounds of cancer-causing benzene."

"The Navajo Nation's proposed coal plant always rested on shaky ground. Now, it may collapse entirely."

"A BP Texas City refinery that was the site of a massive 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers has a pattern of poor operation and maintenance practices, Texas environmental regulators reported after investigating a 46-day release of toxic and cancer-causing chemicals from the plant this spring."