Chapter 14 Public Policy Resources

Question 1

Hundredth Meridian

Answer 1

Of longitude; the imaginary north-south line that runs through Texas, west of which average rainfall drops off to fewer than twenty inches a year

Question 2

Rule of Capture

Answer 2

A Texas legal principle under which a private landowner has the ownership and control of all the water under his or her property

Question 3

Estuary

Answer 3

An area of coastline where a river flows into the sea, mixing salt and fresh water

Question 4

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ)

Answer 4

The state agency with authority to protect Texas’s natural resources

Question 5

Faustian Bargain

Answer 5

A metaphor for a type of decison opportunity in which every alternative offers great benefits but also comes at a terrible price

Question 6

Fracking

Answer 6

A contraction of the phrase “hydraulic fracturing,”in which a mixture of water chemicals is injected underground under high pressure, thus shattering rock formations and permitting the recovery of the oil or natural gas trapped inside

Question 7

NIMBY

Answer 7

“Not in my backyard,” everyone wants to find a situation to the problem of nuclear waste, but nobody wants it buried near them

Question 8

Pragmatism

Answer 8

The philosophy that advocates the rule of behavior, “if it works, its good.”

Question 9

Light-rail metropolitan transit

Answer 9

Within-city public transportation via subway, monorail, streetcar, or some other small railroad line

Question 10

Greenhouse Effect

Answer 10

A cause of the warming of the Earth’s climate, a result of the burning of fossil fuels for energy