Environment

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.

As the investigation continues into the cause of the oil spill that heavy rains carried into the San Antonio River on the final Saturday of Fiesta last month, officials say the spill has been remediated and restoration is almost complete. 

They said it was a perfect storm: An unknown amount of oil spilling into the street during Fiesta, when hundreds of cars had driven up and down Broadway, and a heavy rain that washed everything down the hill on 10th Street and into the river along the east bank of the Museum Reach.

Bexar County is beginning a new project in its 10-year, $500 million flood control plan, and the public is invited to ask questions about the project at tonight’s information session.

The meeting is to inform residents, business people and other members of the public what will be affected by the $8.5 million project on VFW Blvd. near Roosevelt Avenue.

Texas is included in five of 28 restoration projects across the Gulf of Mexico under a conditional agreement between BP and Natural Resource Damage Assessment trustees.

Texas Parks and Wildlife spokesman Tom Harvey said although the Texas coast was less visibly impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Texas wildlife was affected.