One year ago, just weeks after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord, San Antonio’s brand new City Council and its new mayor voted 9-1 to join a coalition of cities determined to meet the accord’s goals for reducing the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change.

The first step of the ambitious commitment was for the City-owned CPS Energy to give the University of Texas at San Antonio a $500,000 grant to study the area’s sources of greenhouse gases and come up with a plan to reduce them.

This week, the Rivard Report’s environmental reporter, Brendan Gibbons, broke the story that UTSA has been replaced by a private consulting firm. Listen to the background.

Join me every Friday for Just This. Listen in and send us your feedback. Produced by Photo Editor Scott Ball, Just This will be available here on the Rivard Report and on iTunes and Stitcher at 5 a.m.

Avatar photo

Rick Casey

Rick Casey's career spans four decades of award-winning reporting on San Antonio. He previously worked as a metro columnist for the former San Antonio Light and, later, the San Antonio Express-News.