News from the South - Texas News Feed

Inside Texas’ Largest Wind Farm

Published

2 months ago

April 14, 2025

www.texasobserver.org – Josephine Lee – 2025-04-14 07:00:00

The wind blows from two directions to the Los Vientos Wind Farm, Texas’ largest and the nation’s second largest, with 426 turbines towering over Willacy and Starr counties in the Rio Grande Valley.

In one direction, the wind sweeps from the wintry north through the South Texas plains. In another, it rolls from the southeast over the chilly blue-green waters of the Gulf of Mexico, before meeting the warm Texas coast. These temperature differences produce gusts that blow inland at an average of 11 miles per hour, across the seashore saltgrass, across the sorghum and cotton fields, and across the farm-to-market roads, shaking cars, lashing palm trees, and whistling in the ears of those who live and work in the tiny town of Lyford, which sits in the Willacy County section of Los Vientos.

Here is where the nomadic Coahuiltecan Indians once roamed against the winds. Where the winds once caused ships of a scattered Spanish armada to wreck off the coast on Padre Island. Where Spanish colonists once named the area after the lake they called Laguna Del Como Se Llama, or “What’s-It-Called Lake.” Where two different railroad lines once brought white farmers from the Midwest, who settled the town and segregated Mexican-American families. Where each of the town’s three cotton gins once employed over 100 workers. Where the Lyford town center once had a hotel, a bank, a theater, several drug stores, and the county once had a hospital. All this was before the 1990s, when farms began to shrink, jobs dwindled, and local youth looked elsewhere to chase their dreams.

The view from inside a 300-foot Los Vientos wind turbine (Josephine Lee)

At a time when Lyford was in decline, Duke Energy Renewables arrived in 2012 to build the first phases of a massive new wind farm—installing 171 turbines across 23,000 acres of leased farmland here (an area roughly the size of Disney World), 30 miles west of the Gulf by U.S. Highway 69. The winds in this coastal region have proven lucrative. At least 10 more energy companies have built wind projects in the area, erecting turbines extending further than the eye can see. This section of Los Vientos is sandwiched between the larger cities of Raymondville to the north and Harlingen to the south, which has a technical college offering a wind energy tech degree. Residents there can see the turbines’ whirling blades by day and its hundreds of red pulsing lights by night.

The local wind energy boom has provided a small lifeline to the cash-strapped city and to Willacy County. Rick Salinas, a third-generation resident and former Lyford mayor, tells me wind farms have brought “good fortune” to the town—especially the tiny local school district, which has reaped new property tax revenue and direct contributions from the projects. The wind farm hires local residents for its technicians. And according to the company, now known as Deriva Energy after Brookfield Energy acquired Duke Energy’s renewable projects in 2023, it pays farmers up to $12,000 for each turbine standing on their land. Having dozens of turbines can potentially free (or at least lessen) a farmer’s dependence on cash crops and the harsh Texas weather.

Glenn Wilde has been farming cotton and grains in Lyford since his family moved to the area after World War II. The 62-year-old isn’t happy that the sky-scraping turbines have taken over the vast, once-open landscape. Still, he’s leased some of his land for turbines on his own farm and sees the upside. “This crazy wind ought to be worth something, right? It really blows down here, and so if we can capitalize on it, I’d love to see it.”

Each turbine has the capacity to generate nearly 2.5 megawatts of energy, meaning this section of Los Vientos can churn out up to 400 megawatts, enough to power 120,000 homes daily (San Antonio and Austin’s public electric utilities both buy the wind farm’s power). A cylindrical or rectangular hub is mounted atop each 300-foot tower, housing a generator and an anemometer that detects the direction and speed of the wind, oscillating or “yawing” the center hub of its three blades towards it. High-pressure air hits one side of the blade and low-pressure another, creating a lift that makes it spin. Lines from each turbine run underground to substations where the power generated is transformed to high-voltage energy that feeds the state’s grid.

When I arrived at the plant’s main building, its 23 technicians for the Willacy area had already wrapped up their morning safety meeting, received their assignments, and headed out to scale the turbines, troubleshooting the problems that inevitably arise on any given day. Each turbine is numbered, and, if one goes offline, the control center can easily identify it.

Working on the wind farm is a job for people who love the open land, the area plant manager Mason Price tells me. His father worked in the smog and grease of Houston’s shipping channel, but Price wanted something different. After finishing high school, he graduated from technical school and moved to the area to work at another wind farm before coming to Los Vientos. He’s been here for eight years.

The Los Vientos Wind Farm in Lyford (Josephine Lee)

Both farmers and wind energy producers in the area worry there aren’t enough transmission lines to deliver the energy generated by Los Vientos and other South Texas wind farms to the rest of the state, a growing problem that’s contributed to power emergencies for the Texas grid. The last major addition to the state’s transmission lines was in 2013. “Not only do we need more transmission lines, but we also need more generation on that transmission, and we need it fast,” says Deriva Energy spokesperson Mandy Meadors.

Locals like Salinas want to see the returns of this wind power stay in the community. Not head out in other directions, like many of the children born here, the energy generated here, or even the wind here, which eventually heads south.

The post Inside Texas’ Largest Wind Farm appeared first on www.texasobserver.org

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News from the South - Texas News Feed

US Supreme Court to decide if nuclear waste facility can be built in Texas

Published

6 hours ago

June 17, 2025

Staff Editor

www.kxan.com – Ford McCracken – 2025-06-17 13:38:00

SUMMARY: The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide if a high-level nuclear waste storage facility can be built in West Texas. Texas and Fasken Oil sued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to block the temporary site, arguing federal law requires waste to remain onsite at reactors unless a permanent facility exists. Interim Storage Partners, seeking to build the site, counters the law doesn’t ban temporary storage. Currently, nuclear waste is stored at reactors due to the absence of a federal site, raising concerns about safety, transport risks, and the site’s proximity to West Texas oil fields. The debate highlights tensions between nuclear energy expansion and safety.

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The post US Supreme Court to decide if nuclear waste facility can be built in Texas appeared first on www.kxan.com

News from the South - Texas News Feed

This weather pattern is now ‘likely’ this winter

Published

13 hours ago

June 17, 2025

Staff Editor

www.kxan.com – Nick Bannin – 2025-06-17 07:00:00

SUMMARY: The Climate Prediction Center now gives a 51% chance of an ENSO Neutral winter for 2025–2026, marking the first time this phase leads the forecast with over 50% confidence. La Niña odds are at 37%, and El Niño at just 12%, making El Niño winters effectively ruled out. ENSO Neutral means Pacific Ocean temperatures won’t drive winter patterns, making other, less predictable systems more influential. While La Niña could still occur, bringing drier, warmer weather to the South and wetter conditions to the Pacific Northwest, ENSO forecasts are only becoming reliable now, post-spring, as prediction accuracy improves through summer.

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The post This weather pattern is now 'likely' this winter appeared first on www.kxan.com

News from the South - Texas News Feed

Texas lawmakers reformed bail, parole to punish reoffenders

Published

15 hours ago

June 17, 2025

Staff Editor

feeds.texastribune.org – By Stephen Simpson – 2025-06-17 05:00:00

By Stephen Simpson, The Texas Tribune

June 17, 2025

“Texas made sweeping changes to bail and parole, along with increasing penalties for stolen goods” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

Texas made sweeping changes to bail reform, parole and reentry programs this past legislative session as part of its goal to keep violent repeat offenders behind bars.

Texas lawmakers proposed at least 121 bills that sought to increase criminal penalties by either creating mandatory minimum sentences or elevating punishments, according to the Texas District and County Attorneys Association. However, very few made it to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.

Criminal justice reform and a bill that provides air conditioning in all Texas prisons also failed to gain traction.

Here’s what to know about what passed.

Stricter bail requirements

Texas lawmakers approved a sweeping package to overhaul the state’s bail system, a longtime Abbott priority that had repeatedly failed in the House. Senate Joint Resolution 5, which voters will have the final say on in November, would amend the state constitution to require judges, in certain cases, to deny bail to individuals accused of committing specific violent felonies. Senate Bill 9 will limit who is eligible for a cashless bond.

But the House rejected two other constitutional amendments that Abbott had pushed for: Senate Joint Resolution 1, which would have automatically denied bail to any unauthorized migrant accused of certain crimes, and Senate Joint Resolution 87, which would have automatically denied bail to anyone charged with certain felonies if they had previously been convicted of a felony or were out on bond at the time of the alleged offense.

Under the Texas Constitution, almost everyone who is arrested has the right to be released on bail. The limited exceptions are people charged with capital murder and those accused of certain repeat felonies or bail violations. According to the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court, bail cannot be excessive, and pretrial detention should not be considered the default unless the defendant is a flight or safety risk, as criminal defendants are legally presumed innocent.

Jail reforms left on the table

Texas jails have been facing several issues over the years, including overcrowding, cooling problems during the summer, suicides and violence. Lawmakers passed a few bills to address some of these problems while ignoring others.

House Bill 3006, which would have required the installation of climate control in phases by the end of 2032, passed the House in early May. However, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the leader of the Texas Senate, never assigned it to a committee in the upper chamber, allowing the bill to miss a key deadline to advance.

This is the third consecutive time that a bill to install air conditioning in all Texas prisons has failed to gain approval from lawmakers.

House Bill 1826, which would have required jails and prisons across the state to screen each woman who is pregnant or has given birth in the past year for depression, never made it out of the House committee. House Bill 3725 would have reformed the use of solitary confinement by eliminating indefinite time in restricted housing for individuals solely based on their classification as a gang member, but the proposal wasn’t heard in a committee.

However, lawmakers did pass House Bill 413, which prohibits the pretrial detention of a defendant for longer than the maximum sentences they could receive if convicted. The bill doesn’t apply to defendants being held for mental health evaluations. The law will take effect in September.

Harsher punishments for some crimes

Texas lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1300 this session, which aims to address the $422 million in stolen goods and approximately $21 million in sales tax revenue that Texas lost to organized retail crime in 2022.

The bill increases the penalty for such crimes based on the value of the property stolen. Current law designates organized retail theft as a Class C misdemeanor, which does not permit jail time when the property taken is valued at less than $100. The bill will increase that to a Class B misdemeanor. As the value of property stolen increases, the punishment would rise, up to a first-degree felony punishable by life in prison if the total value of goods stolen exceeds $300,000.

Senate Bill 1281, which creates a specific offense for stealing mail receptacle keys or locks, with more substantial penalties for those who target elderly communities, also received approval from lawmakers.

However, House Bill 727, which would have heightened the punishment for burglarizing a vehicle when the person carrying it out has a firearm, burglarizes two or more vehicles, or uses a stolen vehicle to carry out the offense, was never brought to a vote in the House. House Bill 268, which would increase the criminal penalty for making specific false reports, such as hoax calls threatening a call for mass violence against schools, also didn’t make it out of committee.

Law enforcement salaries and collaborations with ICE

Texas lawmakers have made several changes to the way law enforcement operates within the state.

One of the more hotly debated bills this session was Senate Bill 8. The legislation would require sheriffs who run or contract out the operations of a jail to request and enter into agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which extend limited immigration authority to local law enforcement officers. The bill would cover approximately 234 of the state’s 254 counties, according to the bill’s author. This bill currently awaits Abbott’s signature.

Abbott also strongly supported and signed Senate Bill 2570, which establishes that a correctional facility guard or a peace officer has the right to use less-lethal force when necessary to control a situation. The governor said on social media that the bill was a response to protests occurring around the country and within the state over ICE raids.

Senate Bill 1321, by state Sen. Brent Hagenbuch, R-Denton, aims to increase the salaries of certain Texas Commission on Law Enforcement positions, such as peace officers, to align with those of comparable law enforcement positions, in hopes of improving retention. Abbott has already signed the bill, which will take effect in September.

However, House Bill 5228, by state Rep. Charlene Ward Johnson, D-Houston, which would have made the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, along with other law enforcement institutions in the state, develop policies to ensure the quality and accuracy of incident-based traffic stop data, failed to make it out of a Senate committee.

Big news: 20 more speakers join the TribFest lineup! New additions include Margaret Spellings, former U.S. secretary of education and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center; Michael Curry, former presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church; Beto O’Rourke, former U.S. Representative, D-El Paso; Joe Lonsdale, entrepreneur, founder and managing partner at 8VC; and Katie Phang, journalist and trial lawyer.

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TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/17/texas-bail-criminal-justice-reform-parole/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

The post Texas lawmakers reformed bail, parole to punish reoffenders appeared first on feeds.texastribune.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The article from *The Texas Tribune* provides detailed, policy-focused reporting on Texas criminal justice legislation with a largely neutral tone. However, it subtly emphasizes stalled reforms—like prison air conditioning, mental health screening for incarcerated women, and restrictions on solitary confinement—highlighting the social consequences of legislative inaction. These framing choices, while factual, reflect a modest left-leaning perspective by focusing on civil rights and humanitarian concerns. Still, the article presents Republican-backed measures fairly and without overt criticism, maintaining a primarily informative style. This balanced yet reform-conscious framing suggests a Center-Left bias overall.