'All Hell Breaks Loose'

Ingleside on the Bay is a small, affluent town of 614 residents in South Texas. It is 80% white and voted for Trump by 50+ points three times. In 2024, nearly half of all U.S. crude oil exports passed through a 1.5-mile radius of its City Hall. Two oil spills later, residents have had enough. This series is a 2026 Online Journalism Awards Excellence in Science Reporting (Small/ Medium Newsroom) winner and a 2026 INNYs Best Investigative Journalism Award (Micro Division) finalist.

A child hides his head in an older man's shoulder, while the older man puts his hand on his head in frustration

Two Texas Coastal Bend residents during a TCEQ Notice and Comment Hearing involving the renewal of Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center’s Federal Operating Permit in Portland, Texas, on Jan. 11th, 2024. (Alex Ip/The Xylom)

‘You Need To Air Out Your Dirty Laundry’: An Anatomy of a TCEQ Public Hearing

A rainbow coalition of Texas Coastal Bend residents tried every tool in the regulatory process to stop the crude oil export industry. Did they ever have agency?

Alex Ip 葉清霖