Travis Bubenik

Latest Stories (20)

Not plain sailing for Texas oil exports

Mar 8, 2019
In Texas, energy companies are scrambling to find a home for the record amount of oil they’re producing.
In Texas, energy companies are scrambling to find a home for the record amount of oil they’re producing.
MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images

In West Texas, growing oil production comes with deadly highways

Mar 4, 2019
A combinations of dense traffic and time-pressed truckers has led to a spike in fatal crashes.
Trucking instructor Don Jefferies outside the training class he teaches at Houston Community College. 
Travis Bubenik for Marketplace

Despite liquefied natural gas export growth, Houston still worries about trade tensions

Feb 8, 2019
U.S. trade tensions with China could cause problems for the booming American LNG industry, experts warn.
President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping leave a business leaders event at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Nov. 9, 2017.
NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images

Houston homeowners say the government owes them for flooding their homes after Hurricane Harvey

Feb 6, 2019
The lawsuit filed by Houston residents whose homes were flooded could set precedent for disaster liability.
Flooded homes are shown near the Barker reservoir following Hurricane Harvey August 30, 2017 in Houston, Texas.
Win McNamee/Getty Images

In Houston, a growing debate about flooding and sand mining

Dec 31, 2018
In business-friendly Texas, lawmakers could crack down on sand mines amid flooding concerns.
Excavators dig massive pits at the River Aggregates sand mine near Houston, Texas.
Travis Bubenik for Marketplace

EPA moves raise questions about future of methane reduction market

Dec 26, 2018
Texas is of course a big oil state, but it’s also home to a growing industry focused on reducing emissions of oil field methane, a climate change causing gas. But the Trump administration is loosening the rules on methane, which could leave these methane-reduction companies with a smaller market for their products and services. The […]
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Houston’s refineries and plants are vulnerable to hurricanes. Will a $32 billion plan save them from flooding?

Nov 27, 2018
When hurricanes hit Texas, the whole country feels it. Now, there’s a plan to lessen the blow.
A view of the Houston Ship Channel.
Travis Bubenik for Marketplace

Carbon capture could help curb climate change. But will anyone foot the bill?

Nov 5, 2018
Scientists say we have to do something about all the carbon we’re spewing into the air, and fast. A recent United Nations climate study says capturing carbon dioxide — even sucking it from the air — is going to be crucial in the fight against climate change. But once you’ve caught it, where do you […]
The smoke stacks at American Electric Power's Mountaineer coal power plant in New Haven, West Virginia, Oct. 30, 2009. In cooperation with AEP, the French company Alstom unveiled the world's largest carbon capture facility at a coal plant, so called 'clean coal,' which will store around 100,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide a year 7,200 feet underground.
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

After Harvey, the Red Cross tries to speed up relief with drones

Sep 22, 2017
The Red Cross has been using drones in Texas to help steer relief efforts to those places that need them most.
A tethered drone hovers over a pasture near Hankamer, Texas, looking for damage from Harvey. 
Travis Bubenik/ for Marketplace

Energy companies look to tech to make oil production easier and cheaper

May 26, 2017
The technology changes will also affect the industry workforce.
Jack Gregg, senior global marketing director with Honeywell Process Solutions, explains one of his company’s touch-screen control boards, used for a variety of remote operations centers in the oil and gas industry.
Travis Bubenik