Recent Jackson School People & Science Featured in the Media

• Current In the News
• January-June 2006
• 2005

Agriculture Consuming World’s Water

Geotimes, June 2007
Amid all the talk about climate change, a more immediate issue can be forgotten— how land-use changes can affect the quantity and quality of water supplies. A recent study by Bridget Scanlon, a hydrogeologist at the Bureau of Economic Geology, and colleagues aims to throw this issue into the spotlight.
Read the Geotimes story.

Opinion: Webber: Don't Blame China for High Oil Prices

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 26, 2007
According to Michael Webber, associate director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at the Jackson School of Geosciences, Americans should not believe the chorus of talking heads who tell us China's soaring demand is to blame for high oil prices: "America is the No. 1 energy hog in the world. If we want to find someone to blame for high energy prices, it's time we take a good long look in the mirror."
Read the Fort Worth Star-Telegram opinion piece.

Going Underground for a Greenhouse Gas Solution

Houston Chronicle, June 9, 2007
While world leaders made pledges to cut greenhouse gases at this week's G8 Summit in Germany, Sue Hovorka was in the backwoods of East Texas working to help them keep those promises. Hovorka is a geologist at the Bureau of Economic Geology. She and colleague Tip Meckel, also of the Bureau, recently tested the soil around two wellheads to see if CO2 injected last fall during a carbon capture and storage test had crept up to the surface. Apart from a small leak in one well, they found that the CO2 hadn’t migrated to the surface.
Read the Houston Chronicle article.

Quinn: More Hurricanes Only Partly Tied to Global Warming

KLBJ-AM Radio, June 8, 2007
A researcher from the Jackson School’s Institute for Geophysics says we could see more major hurricanes in the near future, but global warming may not be the only cause. Terry Quinn says that tying the increase in the number of storms to global warming is not as simple as it seems. Quinn says a study he co-authored in the journal Nature reveals rising water temperatures could play a role in hurricane activity, but vertical wind shear makes it more difficult for storms to form and get stronger. He says that was the case last year, when El Niño produced strong wind shear.
Read the KLBJ news bulletin.

Galveston Project's Critics Want Geohazard Map Used

Houston Chronicle, June 7 & June 10, 2007
Critics of the largest development ever proposed for Galveston Island are pressing the city to use a map the City Council has sidelined even though it shows areas that are hazardous for construction. The map was intended to help the city decide how to manage development on an island dangerously exposed to storms, rising sea levels and eroding beaches, while protecting environmentally sensitive wetlands. Now, a developer has requested approval to build 3,948 dwellings, two 16-story hotels and a marina on 1,000 acres considered hazardous in the new study. The refusal by the city so far to embrace the map as a basis for regulation disappoints Jim Gibeaut, the geologist who headed the team at the University of Texas' Jackson School of Geosciences. "If it just goes on the shelf and is not considered at all, that's a problem, I think," Gibeaut said. "That's denying what the island is and what it will become."
Read the Houston Chronicle articles: June 7, June 10

Current Hurricane Amount at "Normal" Level, Study Says

National Geographic News, June 6, 2007
The number of hurricanes that swirl across the Atlantic Basin has shot up in the past decade, but the increase may just be a return to normal activity after a long lull, suggests a new study. The findings throw additional fuel onto the debate over the effects of global warming on hurricane frequency and intensity. A team of scientists led by Johan Nyberg at the Geological Survey of Sweden in Uppsala has reconstructed the hurricane record of the past 270 years by studying the growth patterns of coral skeletons and the abundance of tiny fossils in a marine sediment core. Terry Quinn, a researcher at the Jackson School of Geosciences also participated in the study.
Read more...

FutureGen's Odessa Backers Optimistic

MyWest Texas, June 6, 2007
Backed by Texas' new FutureGen Omnibus Bill and commitments for $20 million and tax abatements for plant equipment and electricity sales, backers of Odessa-Penwell's bid for the $1.5 billion FutureGen plant (a federally funded demonstration power plant that burns coal and with zero emissions) are feeling good about their chances. The winner will be announced in October. A May 25 analysis by the Associated Press (based on Department of Energy environmental assessments) compared the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two Texas sites and two Illinois sites still in the running for the contract. According to that analysis, no site had a hands-down advantage or could be ruled out.
Read the My West Texas article.
Read the results of the Associated Press analysis of FutureGen candidates.

Opinion: Webber: U.S. Lacks Direction in Climate Change Fight

Austin American-Statesman, June 6, 2007
According to Michael Webber, associate director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at the Jackson School of Geosciences, it’s time for the U.S. to take the lead in combating global climate change, if for no other reason than our economic and political self-interests. “Countries like France, the world's leader in CO2-free nuclear power, and Denmark, whose companies dominate the global wind turbine market, will reap significant economic gains while trying to stave off disaster,” writes Webber. “It sure would be nice if the United States was making those profits.” It’s also the right thing to do. “Climate change is a global problem that requires action from the leading emitters, starting with the world's biggest source of greenhouse gases, the United States,” he writes. “The world cannot tackle this problem alone. It needs our know-how, our can-do spirit and our sophisticated technologies—and it's willing to pay for them.”
Read the Austin American-Statesman opinion piece.

AAPG Urges Congress to Fund Preservation of Geological Samples

My West Texas, June 3, 2007
The American Association of Petroleum Geologists has urged representatives in Washington, D.C. to fund provisions of The Energy Policy Act of 2005, which would preserve geological and geophysical data, from logs to cores and samples. Some of that historical data has gotten lost amid the merger of various oil companies. Some has been stored in repositories around the country, but some of them are getting full. One such repository is in Midland, associated with the Jacskon School's Bureau of Economic Geology. Such historical data could be important to university students—and those already working in the industry—as they look for ways to find increasingly elusive oil and gas.
Read the My West Texas article.

Crumbling Footholds

Deutschlandradio, May 31, 2007
In current climate models, the large ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are relatively immune to climate change. But the models don’t match up with recent observations. For one thing, it appears that the melting and the seaward sliding of Greenland’s ice sheets have sped up. Ginny Catania of the Jackson School’s Institute for Geophysics tried to find out why it flows more quickly. “[Lakes on the surface of the ice] fill up in the summer, until they overflow towards the valley. Some time later the water reaches a glacier crevice, where it can seep to the base of the ice. We assume that the water can form a thin film, over which the ice sheet glides. In any case, the ice moves much faster in the summer than in the winter.”
Read the Deutschlandradio transcript (in German).

Opinion: Westbrook: Attacks on Climate Skeptics Getting Personal

Energy Tribune, May 29, 2007
“Thomas Huxley stated that skepticism is the highest of duties and blind faith, the one unpardonable sin,” writes Gerald Westbrook, an honorary senior associate of the Center for Energy Economics at the Bureau of Economic Geology. “Yet over the past decade, those skeptical of global warming have been attacked with increasing frequency, shrillness, and ugliness. The attacks tend to focus on the messengers.” Westbrook is skeptical that humans are altering climate through greenhouse gas emissions and argues that there is not a consensus on the issue among climate scientists.
Read the Energy Tribune article.

Geohazard Study in Eye of Galveston Storm

Galveston County Daily News, May 10 & 25, 2007
Are Galveston city officials seriously considering shelving a geohazards study co-authored by Jim Gibeaut, a leading Texas geologist at the Jackson School’s Bureau of Economic Geology? That was a central question to two articles in the Galveston County Daily News. Gibeaut’s study concludes Galveston is caught in a squeeze play between rising sea levels and retreating beaches, but city officials have been slow to react to the study’s concerns. After spending almost two months mulling over the geohazards study presented to city council in March, city staffers decided to shelve the findings, according to a report in the Daily News. In his bi-weekly report to council, City Manager Steve LeBlanc said his staff recommended using the study as an informational tool and a guide, rather than as a springboard to adopt new policies to govern development. In a follow up article, city council members stressed they do not want anyone to think they are shelving the geohazard study. Gibeaut warned the council that the island would be more vulnerable to future storms if development were allowed to progress without any additional restrictions.
Read the Galveston County Daily News articles (free registration required): May 25, May 10

DepthX Robot Explores Space-Like Environment on Earth

NASA-TV, May 25, 2007
A film crew from NASA-TV visited a remote field site in northeastern Mexico to film the DepthX mission at Zacatón, the world’s deepest water-filled sinkhole. Scientists and engineers from the University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Colorado School of Mines, Southwest Research Institute and Stone Aerospace used the robot to explore Zacatón’s uncharted depths, identify novel microbes and test technologies that might one day be used on a space probe searching for life on Jupiter’s moon Europa.
Video: Windows Media - Quicktime

Safina Follows Turtles Across World's Wide Oceans

Earth & Sky Radio, May 24, 2007
Carl Safina is a marine biologist by trade and a conservationist by nature, also the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Genius grant and co-founder of the Blue Ocean Institute. His latest book is The Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the World’s Last Dinosaurs. . Earth & Sky spoke with Safina at the Jackson School of Geosciences about how science and conservation are changing as the climate faces an uncertain future. Safina, on campus for an outreach lecture organized by the Environmental Science Institute, explained why he chose to follow the leatherback turtle across the world.
Listen to the Earth & Sky radio segment.

Can Uncle Sam Cut Gas Costs?

ABC News, May 23, 2007
With U.S. gas prices at record highs, is there anything that the government can do to help lower the cost of gasoline? An ABC reporter asked Michelle Foss, chief energy economist at the Bureau of Economic Geology, and others about the feasibility of a range of government interventions from standardizing the types of gasoline refined in the U.S. to allowing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in offshore areas that are currently off limits. And, asked the reporter, what about increasing or decreasing state and federal gasoline taxes? Or raising fuel economy standards for autos?
Read the ABC News article.

FutureGen Task Force Meeting Attracts Diverse Group

My West Texas, May 20, 2007
Representatives from a broad range of businesses including facilities service providers, advertisers, industrial equipment suppliers, contractors, welders and plumbers met in Odessa to learn about how they could both help and benefit from the proposed FutureGen project. One of the evening's two keynote speakers, Scott Tinker, director of the Bureau of Economic Geology and head of the state's FutureGen task force, said he hoped to see how much value Odessa and the area could bring to the project. "We want local businesses to put on their thinking caps and ask, 'What can my company do to help Odessa with this project?'"
Read the My West Texas article.

DepthX Mission Draws Widespread International Media Coverage

Washington Post et al, May 14-19, 2007
Marcus Gary, a hydrogeologist at the University of Texas at Austin, and his colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University, Colorado School of Mines, Southwest Research Institute and Stone Aerospace used the DepthX robot to explore Zacatón, the world’s deepest water-filled sinkhole. There was considerable interest from media outlets around the world. Original reporting included: Washington Post, Earth & Sky Radio, Reforma Newspaper (Mexico City), Discovery News, Discovery Channel Canada, ABC News, New Scientist (U.K.), Hindustan Times (India), PressTV (Iran) and Astrobiology Magazine. Newswire pieces by the Associated Press and Reuters were picked up by many outlets including: Scientific American Online, Independent Online (S. Africa), Scotsman (U.K.), Turkish Daily News, Los Angeles Times, Ft. Worth Star Telegram, Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle.
Read the Washington Post article.
Read the Earth & Sky Radio transcript.
Read the Associated Press piece.
Read the Discovery News article.
Read the Astrobiology.com article.
Read the PressTV (Iran) transcript.
Read the New Scientist article.
Read the Hindustan Times (India) article. (LexisNexis subscription required).

Tinker Describes Opportunities with FutureGen

Odessa American, May 16, 2007
The next four to six weeks will be extremely important in the quest to bring FutureGen to Texas, Scott Tinker told a crowd of Odessan and Permian Basin residents at a program on FutureGen opportunities in Odessa on May 15th. "We have about a month before the FutureGen Alliance is going to call for our proposals," said Tinker, who leads the FutureGen Texas Team and also serves as director of the Bureau of Economic Geology. Tinker strongly urged local residents to send letters of support to the chief executive officer of FutureGen Alliance. Tinker and colleagues emphasized that if Texas is chosen, FutureGen will provide new jobs and economically valuable byproducts such as hydrogen for fuel, CO2 for enhanced oil recovery, and coal slag for road construction.
Read the Odessa American article.

Missouri Floods May Have Been Exacerbated by Global Warming

Bloomberg, May 13, 2007
The heavy rainfall that caused the Missouri River to rise as much as 13 feet (4 meters) above its flood stage in some areas may have been exacerbated by global warming, climatologists said. Global warming is expected to lead to more extreme weather events such as this. It may also increase the intensity of storms, as water vapor increases the amount of energy available to a weather system, said Charles Jackson, a climate researcher at the Jackson School’s Institute for Geophysics. “You have more damage per storm to release all that energy,” he said. That could contribute to the severe thunderstorms that have plagued the Midwest U.S. this year, as well as the weather systems that stretched from Texas to Maine.
Read the Bloomberg article.

Drillers Target Earthquake Zone

BBC News, April 18, 2007
Researchers are about to drill down into an earthquake zone at the Nankai Trough off the coast of Japan. The project, which will cost hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 10 years, is being coordinated by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. It seeks to understand the causes of deadly quakes and tsunamis by pulling up cores for study and putting down sensors to monitor changes in the rock. "We'd like to know something about what fluids do at that position," said Nathan Bangs, a senior research scientist at the Jackson School’s Institute for Geophysics. "If there are a lot of fluids there that are under very high pressure, they can essentially act like lubricants and not allow stresses to build up. But if the fluids are not present, the rocks can build up big stresses that can eventually rupture as an earthquake."
Read the BBC News article.

Climate Change Effects Being Felt in Texas

Austin American-Statesman, April 07, 2007
Texas is already feeling the heat from global climate change and will only continue to do so, experts said on the heels of a United Nations climate change report that detailed how regions will be affected. Even if humans reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, Texas and other regions seem likely to suffer from pollutants already in the atmosphere. Preliminary results from a University of Texas at Austin study suggest that lung-damaging ozone will creep up by two to three parts per billion in the next 50 years, according to Zong-Liang Yang, a professor in the Jackson School of Geosciences who builds models that translate climate phenomena from the global to local scale. In addition to health impacts, the change could force the city to forfeit federal highway money and businesses to add emissions controls. The same models showed that temperatures in the Austin area will increase by about 4 degrees in the next 50 years, Yang said.
Read the Austin American-Statesman article.

“Sustaining a Planet” Pilot Course Available to Freshmen this Fall

Daily Texan, April 5, 2007
UT students will have more options when they register for classes for fall 2007. The new course schedule introduces two pilot undergraduate studies courses. One is titled "Sustaining a Planet" and will be taught by Jay Banner, a geology professor in the Jackson School, and David Allen, a chemical engineering professor. Allen and Banner will engage students around the idea of sustaining the planet through a study of the economy, social equity and environment. "It's supposed to provide an interdisciplinary, common intellectual experience for every incoming student," said Lara Harlan, senior program coordinator for the dean of undergraduate studies.
Read the Daily Texas Article.

Mann: Decade on Track as Third Best for Giant Finds

Platts Oilgram News, April 2, 2007
After 20 years of relative silence, the world’s exploration landscape is quaking again to the sound of giants. The sound is hardly harmonious. While some experts argue a new era for giant field discoveries may be emerging, peak oil advocates contend the noise from their excited chatter is just echoes from the past. At the very least, however, it’s clear a number of factors have occurred in the last few years to get experts discussing the subject again. Most immediately, Jackson School research scientist Paul Mann of the Institute for Geophysics is about to release an academic paper predicting this decade will rank as the third most prolific in history for discovery of giant oil and gas fields, trailing only the 1960s and 1970s.
Find it at Platts Oilgram News. (paid subscription required).

Already a top research institution, Can UT Improve?

Austin American-Statesman, April 1, 2007
UT Austin is a research powerhouse, typically among the top 20 or 25 universities in national rankings based on research expenditures, faculty honors, quality of doctoral programs and other factors. But, as it seeks to rise even higher, it faces challenges: It lacks a medical school, which could attract sizable research grants and boost its rankings. UT's overall spending on education, calculated on a per-student basis, is barely half that of many major public universities. The university is also weak in an increasingly important area: financial support for graduate students. Moreover, too many other universities in the state offer doctoral programs. UT's geosciences program, already regarded as strong, has the potential to become outstanding, thanks to Dallas oilman John Jackson's $241 million bequest, the second-largest gift in the history of U.S. public higher education.
Read the Austin American-Statesman article.

Antarctic Ice Workshop & Statement Draw International Attention

Various, March 27-29, 2007
Polar ice experts met at the University of Texas at Austin in March to forge a consensus on how climate change might impact the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and how that in turn might affect global sea levels. There was considerable interest from media outlets around the world covering both the workshop and a joint statement the scientists issued at its conclusion. Texas coverage included: WFAA-TV (Dallas), KVUE-TV (Austin), KXAN-TV (Austin), News 8 (Austin), and KUT-Radio (Austin). National coverage included Reuters and Earth & Sky Radio. Overseas outlets with original reporting included: Radio Australia, Independent Online (South Africa), Hindustan Times (India), and Pattaya Daily News (Thailand). The Reuters newswire piece was picked up by many national and international outlets, including: Scientific American Online, ABC News, MSNBC, TVNZ (New Zealand), Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), Melbourne Herald Sun (Australia), Trend News Agency (Azerbaijan), and Khaleej Times (United Arab Emirates). Online outlets included: Earthtimes, Science Daily, News.com.au, Free Internet Press, and Science a GoGo (Australia).
Read the Reuters release.
Listen to the Earth & Sky radio piece.
Read the KVUE-TV transcript - or - Watch the video.
Listen to the KUT radio news piece.
Read the Earthtimes article.

Barron: Global Warming a Threat to Texas Water Supply

Houston Chronicle, March 27, 2007
Four of the state’s foremost climate scientists briefed Texas state lawmakers on what climate change might mean for Texas and what can be done about it. "How is it that I can make a decision about Texas when the things I need to know most ... are uncertain," said Eric Barron, dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences. "We are going to have to make decisions with uncertainty." The scientists agreed that Texas should focus its efforts on water resources, since a warmer climate is expected to increase evaporation and decrease precipitation in the state. Legislation to address these changes is unlikely to pass. Texas Governor Rick Perry has said he doubts that emissions from human activities are causing global warming, a link the four scientists said was conclusive.
Read the Houston Chronicle article.

Sinking the Case for Island Growth

Houston Chronicle, March 18, 2007
The first map detailing geological hazards on Galveston Island shows a potential clash between development and the environment. Several subdivisions already sit in what may be the most dangerous areas of the island - low spots where walls of water bulldozed their way through in previous storms. More construction is planned in those areas and others despite the threat of storm surges and beach erosion as well as the impact on economically important wetlands. The map may be the first to document the hazards on a populated barrier island, said Jim Gibeaut, who led a team of geologists at the Jackson School’s Bureau of Economic Geology. If a geological hazard map of the entire U.S. were prepared, Galveston Island—and all barrier islands—would be in the most hazardous zone, Gibeaut said.
Read the Houston Chronicle article. (LexisNexis subscription required).

Report Backs More Projects to Sequester CO2 From Coal

Science Magazine, March 16, 2007
A new academic study of capturing and storing carbon emissions from coal burning—the 800-pound gorilla in the climate policy debate—says that billions of dollars in demonstration projects are needed to help put the ape in a cage. Scientists at MIT propose policy and research to help governments achieve big cuts by capturing and burying the CO2. The study describes a number of daunting technical hurdles and warns against a "rushed attempt" to deploy the two leading technological fixes before the science is mature. Geologist Susan Hovorka of the Jackson School’s Bureau of Economic Geology questions the report's emphasis on giant injection sites as test beds, saying that ongoing "small tests," such as her Frio Brine tests, can give important clues in tracking CO2 behavior.
Read the Science Magazine article.

Scientists to Discuss Antarctic Ice Sheet

United Press International, March 15, 2007
More than 30 of the world's leading polar ice experts are preparing for a discussion concerning the fate of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The scientists want to seek greater scientific consensus on one of the world's major uncertainties involving future sea-level rise during the March 26-28 meeting at the University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences. The ice sheet contains the potential to raise the global sea level by several feet, thereby increasing the risk of flooding for tens of millions of people living along the world's coastal regions, scientists said. A recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change didn't include the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, with scientists acknowledging the need for greater consensus on the subject. This workshop is an International Polar Year event.
Read the Science Daily release.

Sediment Wedge Key to Glacial Environmental Stability

Science Daily, March 6, 2007
A wedge of sediment, pushed up by glacial movement, may be a buffer against moderate sea-level rise, pointing to ocean temperature rise as the key factor in glacial retreat, according to two papers published in Science Express drawing on data gathered by Ginny Catania, a research associate at the Jackson School's Institute for Geophysics. Catania used a snowmobile-towed radar to gather data in the region where ice from the Whillans Ice Stream in West Antarctica begins to float in the Ross Sea, forming the Ross Ice Shelf. That region is called the grounding line. "In the past there has been very little information about grounding lines and how they control ice flow," says Catania. "New studies reveal that grounding lines have greater control over ice flow than previously realized."
Read the Science Daily release.

Cooperative Developmental Energy Program Receives $1.19 Million

US States News, March 5, 2007
Eleven organizations, including the National Nuclear Security Administration, ExxonMobil and Shell donated $1.19 Million to Fort Valley State University's Cooperative Development Energy Program. In CDEP, students attend FVSU for three years toward a bachelor's degree in mathematics, chemistry or biology. CDEP students who choose to earn a second degree in geology, petroleum engineering or geophysics transfer to the University of Texas at Austin or Pennsylvania State University.
Read the US States News release. (LexisNexis subscription required).

Area Teachers Get First-Hand Geology Experience

Uvalde Leader-News, March 1, 2007
Under the auspices of its outreach programs, the Jackson School hosted a field trip for science and math teachers from across Southwest Texas to see firsthand how modern oil and gas exploration is done. The two day Southwest Texas Educators Workshop included lectures and demonstrations of classroom learning modules. The goal was to provide teachers with direct experiences and learning activities involving real world applications in the geosciences that integrate math and science. Many of the teachers assist with GeoFORCE Texas, a summer program organized by the Jackson School and Southwest Texas Junior College that rewards exceptional south Texas students in grades eight through 12 with geology field trips and instruction.
Read the Uvalde Leader-News article.

Mann to Present Giants Update at AAPG Meeting

AAPG Explorer, March 2007
Paul Mann, a senior research scientist at the Jackson School's Institute for Geophysics will present a project update at the AAPG Annual Convention in Long Beach California in the session “Emerging Trends from 69 Giant Oil and Gas Fields Discovered from 2000-2006.” The work locates and types giant fields around the world and relates them to their basin settings. “The term ‘giant oilfield’ gets bandied around a lot," said Mann. "My interest was to remove their mystique by taking the locations of all giant oil and gas fields and plotting them on geologic maps.”
Read the AAPG Explorer article.

TXU buyout could boost Texas enhanced oil recovery

Platts Commodity News, February 26, 2007
The buyout of TXU by a private investment firm could mean more barrels of crude oil coming out of the ground in Texas in a few years. The reason: the new TXU owners plan to drop 8 of the company’s 11 planned new conventional coal-fired power plants in Texas. And it is considering using coal or petroleum coke gasification in the new plants to fuel integrated combined cycle generating plants with hydrogen. Gasification also can generate sizeable amounts of "capture ready" CO2 for use in enhanced oil recovery (EOR). A typical 500 MW power plant can generate almost 100 Bcf of CO2, says Ian Duncan, associate director of the Bureau of Economic Geology.
Find article at Platt's Oilgram News (subscription required).

FutureGen task force working on best value proposal

Midland Reporter-Telegram, Feb. 25, 2007
Members of the Permian Basin FutureGen Task Force are seeking to land the federal FutureGen power generation project. Texas will benefit regardless of the chosen site because of the research undertaken in the state's effort to secure FutureGen, said Dr. Scott Tinker, the state geologist and director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas-Austin: "Because of the tremendous work and talent our state has devoted to the FutureGen pursuit, Texas is positioned as a premiere authority in clean coal technology."
Read story at MyWestTexas.com.

Jim Spencer's Climate Watch Report

KXAN-TV, Feb. 22, 2007
An austin weatherman has begun a new series called Jim Spencer’s Climate Watch Report. “It seems reports of extreme weather lead the news a lot lately, and now more than ever, scientists blame global warming and say larger catastrophes lie ahead,” he began his first report. “So what is going on? Are we responsible?” He turned to several experts for answers. "Whether or not you believe that global warming is due to human-induced forcing or not, you can't really argue with the fact that we're warming," said Ginny Catania, a researcher at the Jackson School's Institute for Geophysics.
Watch Video or read the KXAN transcript.

Lower carbon emissions from coal possible with improved technology

PHYSORG.COM, Feb. 22, 2007
Researchers at the Gulf Coast Carbon Center in the Jackson School of Geosciences are working with colleagues in the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering to develop a more economical technology for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fueled power plants. TXU Power will donate $1.8 million to cover a six-year program to improve an existing process for capturing carbon dioxide so it uses at least 10 percent less energy. The process reduces emissions of the potent greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by 90 percent.
Read PHYSORG.COM article.

Chevron Gift Secures Geological Storehouse for Generations to Come

United Press International, Austin American-Statesman, Daily Texan, Feb. 21-23, 2007
Chevron is donating 1,500 tons of geological cores and cuttings, as well as $1.5 million to ensure their safekeeping, to the Bureau of Economic Geology. The donation includes material collected from 120 countries during the past 60 years. It greatly enhances the world’s largest repository of geological samples. "The willingness and the generosity of companies like Chevron to make the data public, to associate that with cash contributions, is a huge contribution to future generations," said Bureau director Scott Tinker. Mishal Al-johar, a geological sciences senior, said he believes the samples could be valuable to students: "Core samples are basic sources of information that you use in your introductory classes.”
Read United Press International article.
Read Daily Texan article.

Biggest carbon-burial test will hunt for leaks

New Scientist, Feb. 16, 2007
The largest carbon burial experiment in the world began in earnest on Feb. 15 when the drilling of a 2100-meter well began in the Otway Basin in southern Australia. If all goes well, researchers will start injecting carbon dioxide into the new well in July. “We’re not going to use carbon burial unless my dad and yours believe that it’s going to work," says Susan Hovorka, a geologist at the Jackson School’s Bureau of Economic Geology. "We need to lay our cards face up, and let the public know what is going on down there. Otway should be a good opportunity to do this.“ Hovorka leads a team running the Frio Brine carbon burial experiment in Texas, and was a member of the team that reviewed the Otway Basin Project for the International Energy Agency.
Read New Scientist article.

Researcher: Rising seas threaten coast

Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Feb. 13, 2007
Most people don't think six decades ahead, but it's time to start if it means losing your home and possibly your neighborhood, says Jim Gibeaut, a geoscientist at the Jackson School’s Bureau of Economic Geology. He lectured Monday at a Coastal Issues Forum at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi about erosion effects and shoreline changes along the Gulf Coast. Using Mustang and Galveston islands as examples, he addressed the importance of dunes to beach communities and the threat of rising sea levels and erosion. "If the retreat rates continue as they have, we could lose three or four blocks of houses in 2060," he said, showing a map of the Gulf Coast and the possible land loss. "In 60 years, the beaches move and wetlands move in at the same time. With sea level rising, there's not enough sediment."
Read Corpus Christi Caller-Times article.

Dean: Climate change threatens water resources

Houston Chronicle, Feb. 12, 2007
Following projections of increased temperatures and decreased rainfall for Texas in the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Eric Barron, dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences, concludes that global warming presents the greatest threat to Texas’ water resources. "Our water resources are already vulnerable," Barron said. "My view is, if you already sense that you have a vulnerability to climate, and these models are suggesting a consistent picture, then you need to address the societal factors."
Read Houston Chronicle article.

Opinion: Webber: Scare tactics cloud debate on coal

Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News, Feb. 10 & 25, 2007
“In the overheated debate about how Texas will generate future electricity, too many parties are playing fast and loose with the truth—and in the process spooking citizens,” says Michael Webber, associate director of the Jackson School’s Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy. “We need to see past these scare tactics to take an objective look at Texas' energy future.”
Read San Antonio Express-News op-ed.

Severe drought, flooding for 22nd-century Texas

Houston Chronicle, Feb. 3, 2007
Scientists from across Texas differed on predictions of the impact of global warming on Texas, but a consensus agreed that sea levels and temperatures will continue to rise, leading to greater storm surge vulnerability, drier rivers, less rainfall but rain coming in shorter bursts, leading to more flooding. Eric Barron, dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin, agreed that water will be a central concern. "We are changing the composition of the atmosphere in a way that will promote warming, in a way that will have consequences," Barron said.
Read Houston Chronicle story.

Drier Austin, hotter Texas, sinking coast

Austin American-Statesman, Feb. 3, 2007
Climate experts are forecasting drier and hotter conditions with more extreme weather events in Texas as a result of global climate change. Predicting the effect of climate change on Texas, let alone Austin, is tricky. "It's like trying to catch a fish in a lake," said Zong-Liang Yang, a professor in the Jackson School of Geosciences who is building models that link climate phenomena from the global to local scale. "If you use big nets with big spacing, you catch big fish, not small fish. We need to use a smaller net. The global warming models have big spacing and are very coarse." Still, climate experts agree that big changes are in store for Texas and the rest of the world.
Read Austin American-Statesman article.

Barnett water usage figures released

Weatherford Democrat, Feb. 2, 2007
A long-awaited, state-sponsored assessment of just how much groundwater is needed to develop current and future Barnett Shale gas wells has been released. The Jackson School’s Bureau of Economic Geology provided crucial input and data for the report commissioned by the Texas Water Development Board. The report estimated that under a “high scenario,” corresponding to high gas prices and a high level of drilling in the area, the gas industry will use a total of 417,000 acre-feet of groundwater between 2007 and 2025. In some areas, that might put a strain on local water supplies.
Read Weatherford Democrat article.

UT researchers discuss global warming report

KXAN-TV, February 2, 2007
On the day the The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the first of four new assessments, researchers from the Jackson School and College of Natural Sciences met to discuss the report’s implications. This year’s assessments are the first since 2001 from the IPCC, a global effort involving thousands of scientists. The report details growing certainty that Earth is warming, sea levels are rising, ice sheets are melting and human activities are largely to blame. Brian Arbic, Don Blankenship, Ginny Catania, Charles Jackson, Camille Parmesan and Terry Quinn talked about why the report is significant, debated finer points and speculated on implications for society and the environment.
Read KXAN transcript.

Ambrose to Co-chair Alternative Energy Session

AAPG Explorer, February 2007
The Energy Minerals Division (EMD) of the AAPG will present its technical program and luncheon for the AAPG Annual Convention in Long Beach, California, April 1-4, 2007. William Ambrose, research scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology, will co-chair a session titled “Alternative Energy Sources: Promises and Pitfalls” with Harrison Schmitt. The session will explore the wide variety of alternative-energy sources that will be needed to satisfy the world’s energy demand as it moves from hydrocarbon-based resources to alternative resources in the 21st century.
Read AAPG notice (pdf).

Hello, This is Your Geophone Calling

AAPG Explorer, February 2007
Bob Hardage, a senior research scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology, writes about how cellular wireless technology has now entered the onshore seismic data-acquisition world. “Just as a distant friend using a cell phone can cause a system of radio tower relays to reach your cell phone and leave a message or transmit a graphic image, a small cellular wireless unit attached to a geophone can transmit the data recorded by that geophone through a system of radio antennae to a central data-storage unit.”
Read AAPG article (pdf).

Hardage Heads List of Seismic Symposium Speakers

AAPG Explorer, February 2007
Bob Hardage, a senior research scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology and editor of the AAPG EXPLORER’s Geophysical Corner column, will be the kickoff speaker for the 13th annual 3-D Seismic Symposium, set March 6, 2007 in Denver. The popular event, sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists and the Denver Geophysical Society, offers a state-of-the-art look at the seismic industries. Hardage will speak on “Seismic for Independents Exploring for Unconventional Resources.”
Read AAPG article (pdf).

Governor Perry allocates $20M for FutureGen project

Palestine Herald, Texas, Jan. 31, 2007
Texas governor Rick Perry announced Jan. 29 that if Texas is selected to host the FutureGen project—a $1 billion initiative to build the world’s first near-zero emissions coal power plant—he will include an additional $20 million in the state budget for the project. The Bureau of Economic Geology is working with state government to bring the Department of Energy project to Texas. “Governor Perry has once again demonstrated his leadership and Texas’ firm commitment to bringing FutureGen to Texas by making this a budget priority in 2007,” said Scott Tinker, director of the Bureau.
Read Palestine Herald article.

Research reveals limitations of seismic data

Nature, PHYSORG.COM, Jan. 25 & 30, 2007
Researchers report in this week’s journal Nature that an approach used for years to understand the structure of Earth's oceanic crust is flawed. "Prior to our study, there were no links between the geologic and seismological structure of oceanic crust except at a few deep drill holes," said Gail Christeson, researcher at the Institute for Geophysics and study co-author. "Our work addressed the extent to which seismic boundaries within the crust correlate with rock units at the Hess Deep rift and the Blanco transform fault," explained Kirk McIntosh, co-investigator and Institute for Geophysics scientist, "where nature offers a rare glimpse of what lies beneath the seafloor and the Earth’s crust-making processes."
Read Nature article (UT subscription).
Read PHYSORG.COM article.

Tinker: Short term rise in greenhouse gases inevitable

Helena Independent Record, Jan. 27, 2007
There are no quick fixes for climate change, according to Scott Tinker, director of the Bureau of Economic Geology. That is because major reductions in greenhouse gases won’t happen in the next decade. “We have energy systems in place that are still 80 percent dependent on fossil fuels,” he says. “The cost of transition is tremendous. It’s in the trillions and trillions of dollars. Price drives the pace that that can happen.” Tinker sees a slow transition from fossil fuels to cleaner-burning synthetic fuels over the next 25 years, followed by another 25 year transition to hydrogen power, followed by a 50 year transition to solar energy as the dominant source for power.
Read Helena Independent Record story.

Robot Seeks New Life in the Abyss of Zacatón

Science, Jan. 19, 2007, Popular Science, February 2007
With missions to other worlds in mind, explorers ready an ambitious robot to plumb Mexico's El Zacatón, a limestone sinkhole whose depth remains unknown. This week a team is preparing to plumb the mysteries of Zacatón with an audacious new robot, the NASA-funded Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer (DEPTHX), made to probe both its geology and biology. The ringleader is extreme engineer and cave explorer Bill Stone. Stone is working with Marcus Gary, a University of Texas at Austin Ph.D. student who reported last year that the system owes its vastness to volcanism that adds heat and gases to water running into the limestone. In 2003, Stone and Gary joined with a cast of luminaries in space, robotics, and microbiology to win a $5 million, 3-year grant from NASA to use Zacatón as a proving ground for a prototype robot that could explore Jupiter’s moon Europa.
Read Science article (pdf).
Read Popular Science article.

Opinion: Webber: Conservation America's oil weapon

San Antonio Express News, Jan. 11, 2007
“Iran and Russia are once again acting like bullies on the international stage, with threats to wield the ‘oil weapon’ against the West,” writes Michael E. Webber, research associate in the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. “It's time the West fought back by playing our own oil weapon.” His solution? A “high profile crash program of oil and gas savings” on the order of the Manhattan Project.
Read San Antonio Express News op-ed.

Why so warm?

KXAN-TV, Jan. 9, 2007
An unusually warm winter spell in Austin has people wondering, Why so warm? Last year was the hottest on record from Austin to the United Kingdom. "Our planet is changing. We need to pay attention. We don't know quite what all the implications will be," said Charles Jackson, a climate researcher at the Jackson School’s Institute for Geophysics. One possible implication of Jackson's research is that melting ice caps could cause sea levels to rise considerably in our lifetime.
Read transcript of the KXAN piece.

Coal gasification offers middle ground in energy debate

Austin American-Statesman, January 6, 2007
Electric utilities say they should be allowed to meet the growing energy appetite of a booming population by building more plants. Environmentalists say more coal-fired plants would send tons of pollutants into the air. Coal gasification technology could offer Texas a middle ground in the debate. It could provide more power and cut down on pollution. "It's the first real radical departure from the boil-water-make-steam-make-power technology," said Ian Duncan, associate director for environment at the Bureau of Economic Geology. "You can gasify chicken manure, literally. Anything with carbon you can gasify." Implementing the technology in Texas is proving especially difficult, though.
Read Austin American-Statesman article.

Bureau data used to classify oil and gas traps in Gulf

Oil and Gas Journal, Jan. 1, 2007
Most oil and gas exploration on the Gulf of Mexico shelf off Louisiana and Texas has been based on the search for the types of traps in which oil and gas have previously been found. The Atlas of Northern Gulf of Mexico Gas and Oil Reservoirs, published by the Bureau of Economic Geology at the Jackson School of Geosciences, provides some of this critical information.
Read Oil and Gas Journal article (with Lexis-Nexis subscription).

Tinker Candidate for AAPG President-elect

AAPG Explorer, January 2007
Scott Tinker, director of the Bureau of Economic Geology, is a candidate for the position of president-elect of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG). “I am excited to be a candidate for president-elect of the AAPG,” Tinker wrote in his response to "Why I Accepted the Invitation to be a Candidate for an AAPG Office." “I accepted because I am passionate about geology and the opportunity for AAPG to help shape the global energy future. If elected, I will dedicate considerable personal energy to build on the outstanding work of recent presidents and implement our well-considered strategic and business plans.”
Read AAPG notice.

Hidden Antarctica: Terra incognita

New Scientist, Nov. 29, 2006
Scientists in recent years have been surprised to learn that below Antarctica’s ice sheets flow streams and rivers and vast lakes. This water might harbor life forms. But it also harbors a dark side: with a little help from global warming, it might help accelerate the melting and sliding of ice sheets and boost sea level rise. "The surface may be old, cold and dry, but the bottom is warm and wet and changing," says Don Blankenship, a polar researcher at the University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Geophysics. "From the top down we thought we understood Antarctica. But from the bottom up it's a whole different world."
Listen to audio or read New Scientist article (with subscription).
Read New Scientist article at LexisNexis (free with UT subscription).

Opinion: Webber: Opportunity for energy policy

Austin American-Statesman, Dallas Morning News, Nov. 22 & 27, 2006
“By giving us divided government, the 2006 midterm elections may produce a unique opportunity for bipartisan and sensible action on energy policy,” opines Michael E. Webber, research associate in the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. “For once, our politicians even appear to get it. Within a day of the polls' closing, leaders from both parties (President Bush and Gen. Wesley Clark among them) emphasized the need for urgent action on energy. It's about time."
Read Dallas Morning News op-ed.

Burying greenhouse gas

Science Central, November 20, 2006
Research teams throughout the U.S. have been testing what they believe could be one of the viable long-term solutions to global warming: geologic carbon sequestration. Economic factors will play a big part in any decision to start implementing carbon sequestration, since right now there are no incentives for companies to voluntarily absorb the cost. "The cheapest thing to do when you burn fossil fuel is to do what we're doing now—put the waste products up the smokestack. In order to capture carbon we need a policy decision," says Sue Hovorka, a geologist at the Jackson School’s Bureau of Economic Geology and the lead researcher on the Frio Brine Pilot Experiment. She says Frio shows that carbon sequestration is safe and effective.
Read ScienceCentral transcript.
Watch Science Central video (free registration required).

7 On Your Side: Beware of Shale Oil Investment Scams

KTBC-TV, Nov. 6, 2006
You have heard of black gold and Texas tea, but what about Colorado shale? An e-mail making the rounds claims you can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars by investing in shale. Who's making those claims and why does spam continue to flood our personal email accounts? According to the email, you could find your riches buried in the Colorado Rockies. The email claims it's a secret government discovery of oil shale. It says you can learn more about it by subscribing to a newsletter. "That is laughable," UT geologist Eric Potter said. "It's no secret."
Read KTBC-TV transcript.

JSG Professors Receive Major Awards

AAPG Explorer, November 2006
Two members of the Jackson School community received honors from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Peter Flawn, president emeritus of the University of Texas at Austin and professor emeritus of the Jackson School, was awarded the AAPG Public Service Award. Amos Salvador, professor emeritus in the Department of Geological Sciences, was awarded the Robert H. Dott Sr. Memorial Award, which honors “the author/editor of the best special publication dealing with geology” published by the AAPG.
Read AAPG notice (pdf).

Hudec to Deliver Distinguished Lectures

AAPG Explorer, November 2006
Michael Hudec, research scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology, will tour the western United States Nov. 27-Dec. 8, offering two AAPG Distinguished Lectures: “Advance Mechanisms of Allochthonous Salt Sheets—Implications for Predicting Subsalt Pore Presssure,” and “Evolution of Suprasalt Minibasins in the Deepwater of the Gulf of Mexico.”
Read AAPG notice (pdf).

S-Waves and Fractured Reservoirs

AAPG Explorer, November 2006
Bob Hardage and Michael V. DeAngelo, researchers at the Bureau of Economic Geology, show “how attributes determined from fast-S and slow-S data volumes allow patterns of relative fracture intensity to be determined in a qualitative, not quantitative manner.”
Read AAPG article (pdf).

Debate continues over dinosaur demise

Geotimes Web Extra, October 26, 2006
Many paleontologists consider the cause of the extinction of most of the dinosaurs to be a closed case: About 65 million years ago, an enormous extraterrestrial object struck Earth, creating the infamous Chicxulub impact crater in Mexico, leading to worldwide mass extinction at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods (K/T). Not so, according to Gerta Keller, a geologist at Princeton. She believes core samples from Texas support her findings that the Chicxulub meteor struck about 300,000 years prior to the K/T extinction event. Sean Gullick, a geologist at the Institute for Geophysics who studies impact cratering, vigorously disputes Keller's conclusions.
Read Geotimes story.

Lawsuit could jeapordize coal-fired plants in Texas

National Public Radio, Oct. 24, 2006
New York-based Environmental Defense filed a suit to attempt to block a series of coal-fired electricity plants planned by TXU for construction in Texas. Some have called on TXU to embrace cleaner technologies for coal-fired electricity generation. Ian Duncan, associate director at Jackson School's Bureau of Economic Geology, says the few existing plants that use the new technology aren't perfect, but they offer a cost-effective way to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. "It's clear-cut that gasification is a great technology for the future. It's not clear what one would do if one was in charge of a power company at the moment having to make this decision. It's a pretty hard decision."
Listen to NPR story.

Shell president: Cut demand, increase supply

Houston Chronicle, October 17, 2006
The price of gas may have plummeted in recent weeks, but the days of $3 per gallon gas aren't gone for good, said Shell's top U.S. executive. "The supply and demand relationships that took us to $3 a gallon are the exact same supply and demand relationships that are ever present," said John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co. To change the equation, consumers must conserve more energy or oil companies must be permitted to expand exploration. "The oil industry has struggled for a long time to convey its message," said Michelle Michot Foss, head of the Center for Energy Economics at the University of Texas. Yet consumers must also be more educated about how energy is produced and the costs involved before attacking the energy industry each time the price of gasoline goes up, she said.
Read Houston Chronicle Article.

Drop in gas prices fuels political conspiracies

Austin American-Statesman, October 12, 2006
Are politicians to blame for a drop in gas prices on the eve of an election? "I find it discouraging that people want to accept the most dramatic explanation of events without considering the real causes," says Scott Tinker, director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin. "Energy is too critical a topic to treat this way." Tinker says the price drop is due to several factors: disagreements within OPEC over cutting oil production, a huge oil find in the Gulf of Mexico, application of new technology that promises similar finds, a relatively quiet hurricane season, increased sales of higher efficiency cars, and the end of summer, the peak gas consumption season.
Read Austin American-Statesman article.

Expert links hurricane intensity to climate change

KXAN-TV, SciGuy (Houston Chronicle) blog, Oct. 5, 2006
Kerry Emanuel, one of the world’s foremost experts on hurricanes and climate, told a packed house at The University of Texas at Austin that global warming is increasing the intensity of hurricanes in the Atlantic. The sea surface warming seen in recent decades, said Emanuel, “has been almost certainly due to man-made influences.” Emanuel has been at the eye of the media storm over hurricanes and global warming since his August 2005 paper in the journal Nature correlated global warming with the increasing destructiveness of tropical cyclones over the past 30 years.
Read KXAN transcript.
Read SciGuy (Houston Chronicle) blog.

Shell leader touts conservation, renewables

Austin American-Statesman, Sept. 21, 2006
The head of Shell Oil Co. is on a barnstorming tour of the country, hoping to spread his company's viewpoints on energy issues and confront a backlash against high energy prices. On Wednesday, John Hofmeister spoke at the University of Texas at Austin, touting conservation, renewable energy and nontraditional approaches to boosting fuel supplies. His talk was part of an International Energy Security Symposium hosted by the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Jackson School of Geosciences.
Read Austin American-Statesman article.

Carbon storage technique may have limits

Environmental Science & Technology News, Sept. 6, 2006
Scientists are testing a novel way of dealing with rising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere: capture carbon dioxide and inject it deep underground. Sue Hovorka, a geologist at the Jackson School's Bureau of Economic Geology, is the principal investigator for Frio, the first U.S. test of this so-called carbon sequestration technology. Scientists are confident in the ability of some rock formations to hold CO2 for a long time, says Hovorka. “But we need clear guidelines to tell a good place from a bad place,” she says.
Read Environmental Science & Technology Online News article.

Greenland’s ice loss accelerating rapidly

USA Today, Washington Post, BBC News, et al., Aug. 9-14, 2006
The meltdown of Greenland's ice sheet is speeding up, satellite measurements show. Data from NASA satellite show that the melting rate has accelerated since 2004. Most of the ice is being lost from eastern Greenland, a US team writes in Science journal. Jianli Chen of the University of Texas at Austin and colleagues, including Clark Wilson from the Department of Geological Sciences, studied monthly changes in the Earth's gravity between April 2002 and November 2005.
Read BBC story.

Greenland ice melting faster

Deutschlandfunk, Aug. 10, 2006
A new analysis of data from the twin GRACE satellites has revealed that the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet has increased dramatically in the past few years, with much of the loss occurring primarily along one shoreline potentially affecting weather in Western Europe. Co-author Clark Wilson of the Jackson School's Department of Geological Science explains the research.
Read the radio transcript from Deutschlandfunk (in German).

Oil prices hit ceiling due to pipeline shutdown

KTBC-FOX, Austin, Texas, Aug. 7, 2006
BP was recently forced to shut down part of its oil production facility in Prudhoe Bay, reducing the oil supply in the U.S. by 2.5 percent. That pushed crude oil prices up. Eric Potter, associate director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Bureau of Economic Geology, thinks the latest price increase is as high as oil will go as a result of the Alaska shutdown. In this case, Potter says, we know precisely the number of barrels per day that are affected and it is much smaller than the amount of oil from Gulf of Mexico wells cut off from mainland refineries after Hurricane Katrina.

Who's got the most oil?

Dallas Morning News, July 21, 2006
It's a simple, important question, with a far from simple answer. The size of a nation's proven oil reserves is a measure of wealth and power, and, correspondingly, the source of much argument. For decades, Saudi Arabia has held the pole position, with reserves more than double those of anyone else. Thanks to price spikes and technology breakthroughs, Canada and Venezuela are challenging the Saudi lead–and the presumption that the global center of oil power is the ever-volatile Middle East. There could be as much as 3 trillion barrels of tarlike oil in the Orinoco belt of Venezuela, said William Fisher, dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. "The potential there as in Canada is very great," he said.
Read Dallas Morning News article.

Texas towns hope to land pioneering 'clean coal' plant

Dallas Morning News, July 18, 2006
The U.S. government wants to build the perfect coal-fired power plant. Supporters call it a "technology solution" to controlling carbon dioxide emissions. "That approach seems to work better than sort of a forced regulatory approach that people can't adapt to," said Scott Tinker, Texas' state geologist, coordinating the state's FutureGen site proposals.
Read Dallas Morning News article.

Fort Worth's new noisy neighbors: gas derricks

Los Angeles Times, July 5, 2006
Although oil and gas wells have been drilled in other highly urbanized areas, the magnitude of drilling in Fort Worth sets the city apart, said Eric Potter, associate director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas. Elsewhere, gas wells are on "a few percent" of city land, but because the Barnett Shale is believed to be rich with gas throughout, virtually all of Fort Worth has become a drill site. "It's like shooting fish in a barrel," Potter said.
Read Los Angeles Times article.

New requirements for math, science may cut electives

Houston Chronicle, July 6, 2006
A new law may require high school students to take a fourth year of math and science. Advocates of earth science asked that a senior-level earth and space science course be approved. "Texas depends more than any other state economically on earth science," said Scott Tinker of the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology.
Read Houston Chronicle article.

Science center has policy goals

AAPG Explorer, July 2006
With political posturing over rising energy prices, the need to educate and formulate energy policies based on science has never been greater -- and another organization is stepping up to the plate. The newly established Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy (CIEEP) at the University of Texas at Austin was created to bring a science and engineering perspective to energy and related environmental issues.
Read AAPG Explorer article.

Fisher named chair of AAPG trustees

AAPG Explorer, July 2006
William L. Fisher, dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin, has been named chairman of the AAPG Foundation Board of Trustees. Fisher's new term began July 1.
See AAPG Explorer notice.

Also see: January-June 2006: Jackson School in the News

For more information, contact J.B. Bird, Jackson School of Geosciences, jbird@jsg.utexas.edu, 512-232-9623.