Tagged: drought

Members of Environment Texas gathered in front of the Governor’s Mansion to urge Gov. Rick Perry to sign into law two bills that address residential water conservation efforts.

"The first, Senate Bill 198, would prohibit homeowner's associations from preventing their members from installing drought-resistant landscaping or xeriscapes. We heard a number of cases of HOAs preventing people from changing their own property to be more drought tolerant," said Environment Texas Executive Director Luke Metzger.

Gov. Rick Perry has signed into law bill providing $2 billion for water-related projects . The bill provides the funding for the next 50 years of water-projects.

"It should help supply our water supply for generations, even though we are expecting rapid population increases and economic growth. Water is an essential part of everyone’s life, it is ensuring that those adequate supplies are available, means better jobs, it means stronger communities, it means healthier families," Perry said.

National forecasters are predicting another hotter-than-normal summer. That could mean more of the rolling blackouts likes those San Antonio experienced in 2011.

Climatologists predict temperatures will be above normal this year and the power grid may not be able to keep up. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation projects the Texas grid will have the lowest percentage of power reserves this summer of any region in the country.

The problem is rapidly-growing demand combined with a lack of new power plants being built.

Republicans in the Texas House are planning to revive a water bill that died on the House Floor last week due to a technically.