August « 2008 « TexasVox: The Voice of Public Citizen in Texas

Archive for August, 2008

Lowest energy bills in Texas: WOAI says Austin’s got ‘em

Posted in Consumers, Energy, Nuclear, tagged Austin, CPS Energy, electricity prices, Nuclear, San Antonio, WOAI on August 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

CPS Energy stakes its energy planning credibility on the fact that it has the lowest energy bills in Texas – even lower than those Austin people who get energy from hugging bunnies. But WOAI crunched the numbers and last month, Austin Energy beat ‘em. Check out the write-up and video here. -Matt

Read Full Post »

What Dennis Quaid can teach us about Corporate Responsibility

Posted in Consumers, tagged Consumers, corporate responsibility, frivolous lawsuits, heparin, preemption, quaid, tort reform on August 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

In July, Netroots Nation, a network of online progressive voices, hosted a panel including scholarly authors, film directors, and lawyers with the topic: “How Corporations and the Politicians they Fund are Fighting to Take Away our Legal Rights … and Convincing Us it’s for the Best.” The speakers highlighted how corporations and conservative think tanks [...]

Read Full Post »

What’s the Matter With Kansas? This Guy

Posted in Global Warming on August 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Original blog from Coal Block I just try to lay out the facts. Those were the words of Tom Mullikin (lawyer and nationally known speaker) at a talk he gave sponsored by the Kansas Chamber of Commerce to a “crowded hall full of business and political leaders from across the state,” as printed in the [...]

Read Full Post »

Makhijani, San Antonio discuss energy efficiency

Posted in Efficiency, Energy, Nuclear, Renewables, tagged Arjun Makhijani, CPS, San Antonio, solar on August 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

On Monday, various people including representatives from City Public Services, various county commissioners including Tommy Adkisson, commissioner candidate Chip Haass, Laurence Doxsey of HUD , Bill Sinkin of Solar San Antonio, and representatives from the Mayor Phil Hardberger’s office gathered to discuss energy efficiency with the Citizen’s Energy Coalition, SEED Coalition and the Alamo Group [...]

Read Full Post »

NRC Night at the Dome

Posted in Energy, Nuclear, tagged ESBWR, Exelon, NRC, Victoria on August 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Turnout was high at the NRC’s public meeting in Victoria on Thursday about the future of nuclear power in the area. Tara Bozick of the Victoria Advocate estimated 400 people showed up. There was so much going on it might warrant a second post. The NRC attempted to quell concerns about the fact that Exelon [...]

Read Full Post »

A Small Measure of Hope

Posted in Coal, tagged arkansas, block, Coal, fighting, global, goliath, hope, plant, warming on August 12, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Original Blog from http://www.coalblock.org August 9, 2008 I’ll be heading back to Austin soon where we hope to regroup and move on to the next steps in our efforts to stop coal plants. All in all I consider this Arkansas trip to be a large success. We had 77 people come out for the screening [...]

Read Full Post »

The future of small-scale renewable energy: Project 34890

Posted in Energy, Renewables, tagged interconnection, net metering, PUC, solar, wind on August 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

This Tuesday I spoke at the PUC’s public hearing on Project 34890, which is charged with deciding on a net metering and interconnection policy for the deregulated markets in Texas. If that description sounds arcane and confusing to you, that’s because it is. In fact, in calling around to several investor-owned utilities last week, most [...]

Read Full Post »

Netroots Memories: Clean Energy Girl vs. Dirty Coal Monster

Posted in Renewables, tagged Clean Energy, Dirty Coal, Netroots on August 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

This was by far the most flamboyant activity I have done this summer while interning at Public Citizen. I went to Netroots to promote a talk hosted by the Sierra Club, Lightbulbs to Leadership. I got a little too into character at times. I might have even jigged a bit. The most interesting moments for [...]

Read Full Post »

Washington’s off-shore oil drilling policy: Spew

Posted in Energy, Global Warming, tagged Energy, Gene Green, Global Warming, offshore drilling on August 5, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Gas prices are abominably high. The good news? It’s time to kick the oil habit. When i lived in New York City and the price of cigarettes went up to $10, my smoker friends took the hint and kicked the butt. We face the same problem with gas prices, and with the overwhelming sentiment to [...]

Read Full Post »

MIT Solar Storage Breakthrough– turn your house into a Power Plant

Posted in Energy, Renewables, tagged energy storage, fuel cells, MIT, solar on August 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Researchers at MIT have developed a fuel cell which could revolutionize not only how we get energy but how we think about it. The old model has always been to hook up your home to a power grid and an electric utility which buys electricity from coal and gas-burning power plants (and to a lesser [...]

Read Full Post »