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

Archive for September, 2008

Wall Street’s crisis shows need for Fair Elections

Posted in Campaign Finance, tagged AIG, bailout, Campaign Finance, Fair Elections Now Act, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, wall street on September 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Make no mistake about it, we face an economic crisis of enormous proportions. But the rush to bail out Wall Street firms with a “hair on fire” urgency rings so hollow when you consider how much the American people have already gone through. Millions of people have lost their homes to foreclosures. Many are being [...]

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Letting Go of Ethanol

Posted in Global Warming, tagged ethanol, solar on September 24, 2008 | 2 Comments »

I’ve been wanting to write a piece arguing that just because ethanol isn’t a complete solution to global warming and oil prices, it is still an alternative to oil and therefore good. Unfortunately, I can’t honestly say that because ethanol isn’t even a partial solution; it’s just a bigger problem. I really wanted to like [...]

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Abandon All Hope…

Posted in Coal, Diesel, tagged ADEQ, AEP, arkansas, Coal, Global Warming, hope, plant, SWEPCO, Turk on September 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

…ye who enter the Turk plant. Last Thursday in Hope, Arkansas there were two meetings. One was widely attended, the other was not… mostly because hardly anyone had heard of it. They hadn’t heard of it because it snuck in under the wire, with barely (if at all) the proper notices and alerts. It was [...]

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The Wheels On the Bus May Go Round, But What Does the Exhaust Do?

Posted in Diesel on September 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

When I think of cliché images from grade school, I think of two things—apples and big, yellow school buses. Apples aside, school buses are a typical part of the grade school experience. Unfortunately, school buses are also some of the oldest and most polluting vehicles on the roads today. School buses emit toxic soot, which [...]

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The Threatdown on Global Warming – Tyson Slocum on Colbert!

Posted in Global Warming on September 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Many of us here at Public Citizen love The Colbert Report. We had to give a brief shout-out to our very own Tyson Slocum who works in our DC office for appearing on Stephen Colbert’s eponymous Report last night. http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/184943/september-16-2008/tyson-slocum Listen to Tyson explain how energy companies are fleecing us while people run amock at [...]

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Who’s paying for the Hookers and Blow?, pt 2

Posted in Campaign Finance, Consumers, tagged Campaign Finance, offshore drilling on September 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Our cohorts at Citizenvox had this to say about the recent scandal breaking at the Department of the Interior. I think this follow up well what they wrote about the recent GOP and Dem conventions, asking “Who is paying for the Hookers and Blow?” And these are the people who will be put in charge [...]

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Oil Drilling in the U.S.—-To Change or Not to Change: That is the Question

Posted in Efficiency, Energy, Global Warming, Renewables, tagged Efficiency, electric car, hybrid, offshore drilling, presidential election, renewable energy on September 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

This is so very cool. GM is “leaking” photos of its new VOLT concept electric vehicle. So the car maker is finally reaching its goals, as stated in the 1980 first edition of The Cousteau Almanac, An Inventory of Life on our Water Planet. To wit: “The great car hope of the future, of course, [...]

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More effects of global warming! (and some solutions)

Posted in Consumers, Global Warming, tagged 401(k), allergies, allergy, David Letterman, Efficiency, Flat Hot and Crowded, Global Warming, google, investment, renewable energy, Thomas Friedman, tropical disease on September 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Sneezing, sniffling? The culprit may be global warming according to this report. Experts are also warning us that allergy season may be extended or aggravated as the climate warms. An article in the Austin American Statesman also discusses how climate change is spreading previously exotic diseases to places like Texas. While you’re at it, watch [...]

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Obama’s Mistake on Public Financing (and how McCain is skirting the law, too)

Posted in Campaign Finance, tagged Barack Obama, Campaign Finance, John McCain, public financing on September 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Today’s New York Times reported that life is not all peaches and cream for the Obama campaign after they opted out of the presidential public financing system. (See Article “Straining to Reach Goal, Obama Presses Donors“) Pushing a fund-raiser later this month, a finance staff member sent a sharply worded note last week to Illinois [...]

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The Silver Bullet

Posted in Global Warming, tagged Coal, Global Warming, plants, renewable energy, silver bullet on September 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

The big coal interests have a favored saying: “There is no silver bullet.” This old adage suggests there is no single solution to the growing energy needs and concerns of this country. While this is obviously true, the only solution (or “silver bullet”) that these charlatans ever talk about is “clean” coal. Ironically enough, “clean” [...]

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