This story was produced in partnership by Inside Climate News and the Texas Newsroom, the state’s network of public radio stations.
Amid a spate of historic political upsets across Texas, voters in the industrial port city of Corpus Christi on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a citizen-led petition to impose steep fees for water use on the region’s refineries and chemical plants during future droughts.
The measure passed by a two-to-one margin despite heavy spending by industry groups in opposition—a dramatic rebuke of industrial interests in a port city that leads the nation in crude oil exports.
“The people have woken up,” said Sylvia Campos, a member of the Corpus Christi City Council and the Democratic Socialists of America who supported the measure. “We overcame all that money.”
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The city’s referendum was part of an earth-shattering election across Texas, a fortress of conservative politics and the seat of the nation’s energy sector, which saw Democratic challengers wipe incumbent Republicans out of every statewide office on the ballot.
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