Mayors Take Action as Texas Slacks on Climate

By John Burnett

Published November 26, 2007 at 4:00 PM EST

Texas is the country's largest emitter of global warming gases. But the state's political leaders say climate change isn't a problem and have blocked even minor efforts to address the issue. That has prompted the mayors of some of the state's biggest cities — including influential Republicans — to take the issue into their own hands.

John Burnett

As NPR's Southwest correspondent based in Austin, Texas, John Burnett covers immigration, border affairs, Texas news and other national assignments. In 2018, 2019 and again in 2020, he won national Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio-Television News Directors Association for continuing coverage of the immigration beat. In 2020, Burnett along with other NPR journalists, were finalists for a duPont-Columbia Award for their coverage of the Trump Administration's Remain in Mexico program. In December 2018, Burnett was invited to participate in a workshop on Refugees, Immigration and Border Security in Western Europe, sponsored by the RIAS Berlin Commission.

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