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

Archive for October, 2008

BOO!!! Scary Halloween Nuclear Nightmare!!!

Posted in Global Warming on October 31, 2008 | 1 Comment »

We had a great time at our press event this week talking about the dangers of nuclear… ahhem, sorry… “Nuke-u-lar” energy. I hope you’ll enjoy our little Halloween play, complete with monsters, dragons, and radiation… Oh My! And the worst part– billionaires trick-or-treating for our taxpayer money in Congress and State Legislature! As I say [...]

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If you thought this financial crisis was bad…

Posted in Global Warming on October 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Nicholas Stern, formerly of the British Treasury, said over the weekend that the risks of inaction over climate change far outweigh the turmoil of the global financial crisis. The risk consequences of ignoring climate change will be very much bigger than the consequences of ignoring risks in the financial system… That’s a very important lesson, [...]

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Reprocessing nuclear fuel & the Catch 22 Legacy

Posted in Nuclear, tagged Nuclear, union of concerned scientists on October 24, 2008 | 3 Comments »

Generating electricity using nuclear power includes processing uranium. After 40 years, the waste from the process can safely be put into containers for storage, though it is still dangerous to living things. After 10,000 years, the leftovers, the nuclear waste, will no longer be dangerous. Currently in the U.S., we leave the waste in ponds [...]

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Supress the Vote!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Elections, harris county, Paul Bettencourt, Voter supression on October 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Another post from our field contributor Sarah McDonald: When I was deputized as a voter registrar in Harris County, I was warned to carefully double-check all forms to make sure every box was checked, every “i” dotted and each “t” crossed. If anyone forgot to check the appropriate boxes, include their full address, or listed [...]

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Support Austin’s Retrofit Ordinance; Ask for More

Posted in Consumers, Efficiency, Energy, tagged Austin Energy, City Council, Multi-family, point of sale, Retrofit, Task Force on October 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Austin City Council will soon deliberate on the recommendations from the Energy Efficiency Retrofit Task Force: a group of stakeholders charged with coming up with ways to make more homes and businesses in the city more energy efficient. The central recommendation of the Task Force is to require energy audits to be performed on all [...]

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Putting Off the Problem

Posted in Global Warming on October 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

From our contributor Sarah McDonald: Usually when a problem suddenly becomes much more severe, you expect whatever is being done to solve the issue to also ramp up a notch. For example, if a tropical storm in the gulf suddenly turned into a category 3 hurricane, hurricane preparedness efforts would increase dramatically over night. Or [...]

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Gimme! Nuclear industry asks for $122 billion from Uncle Sam

Posted in Energy, Nuclear, tagged bailout, Department of Energy, Friends of the Earth, loan guarantee, Nuclear on October 16, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Call it a preemptive bailout if you like, my Friends… …but the Department of Energy recently issued a press release stating that they have received 19 applications for federal loan guarantees to build 14 nuclear power plants. The price tag: $122 billion. http://www.energy.gov/news/6620.htm I know after the $700 billion bailout package, on top of $100+ [...]

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Nuclear Misenergy

Posted in Global Warming, tagged Energy, nuclear energy, solar, uranium mining, wind on October 10, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Nuclear power is not an answer to our collective energy problem. Essentially, turning to nuclear power as a primary solution to the current carbon-based system is like borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. It is not an “alternative”. Considering that, in resource-availability terms, we could already be powering most structures in this state with solar [...]

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Sparkle, Sparkle, little coal plant…

Posted in Coal, Energy, Global Warming, tagged Coal, corpus christi, Global Warming, las brisas, plant, TCEQ on October 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Corpus Christi – October 7, 2008 The “Sparkling City by the Sea” has been losing its sparkle through the years, as more and more refineries pollute its air and water. Now a new threat looms to increase the pollution that is damaging and degrading what should be the glistening jewel of the Texas Gulf Coast. [...]

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Don’t forget to register to vote!

Posted in Uncategorized on October 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Today is the deadline to register to vote in Texas. If you’re not currently registered and you want to vote in the election, contact your county’s election office and find out where you can register. Happy hunting!

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