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Archive for March, 2011

Former House Speaker Tom Craddick collapses

Posted in Uncategorized on March 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Former House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, collapsed in the Capitol this morning while laying out a bill before the House Transportation Committee. His office sent out a statement saying EMS does not consider the situation serious.  For updates, we suggest checking the Texas Tribune.

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Area near Midland, Tx designated superfund site

Posted in Toxics, tagged , , , , on March 9, 2011 | 2 Comments »

After residents report green and yellow-colored well water near an oilfield company’s operation in the spring of 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigated and formally designated an area in Midland as a national Superfund site when the presence of the highly toxic solvent hexavalent chromium was found in groundwater supplies.  The Superfund list [...]

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Austin’s Fayette coal-fired power plant sued

Posted in Air Quality, Coal, tagged , , , , on March 8, 2011 | 2 Comments »

LCRA’s Fayette Power Project is under legal attack by three anti-pollution groups who filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against the coal-fired power plant located near La Grange, about 100 miles northwest of Houston. The lawsuit was filed by the Environmental Integrity Project, Environment Texas and Texas Campaign for the Environment. Claiming LCRA’s Fayette Power Project has [...]

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Railroad Commission examiners say Range Resources not responsible for well contamination

Posted in Air Quality on March 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

According to hearing examiners for the Texas Railroad Commission, Range Resources was not responsible for contaminating two residential drinking water wells in Parker County. The Fort Worth company was accused by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in December of allowing methane and other substances from its Barnett Shale hydraulic fracking operations into the wells.  But the [...]

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Are Barnett Shale residents the lab rats in the fracking debate?

Posted in Air Quality, natural gas, tagged , , , , , on March 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Are desperate school boards having to make decisions about the fiscal health of their districts now vs the long-term health of their charges in the future? Mike Norman, the editorial director of the Star-Telegram/Arlington and Northeast Tarrant County, writes about the precarious lab rat position of citizens in the Barnett Shale.  Click here to read his [...]

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Bill with the potential to poison our school children to be heard in Senate Education on Tuesday

Posted in Toxics, tagged , , , on March 7, 2011 | 1 Comment »

A bill filed by Senator Florence Shapiro (R-Plano) – SB 468 - purports to promote “flexibility of the board of trustees of a school district in the management and operation of public schools in the district,” and makes several changes to the law, including class sizes and the repeal of Section 1951.212 of the Occupations Code, [...]

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Got Solar?

Posted in Energy, Renewables, solar, tagged , , , on March 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

For many who want to add more rooftop and other on-site solar generating devices on homes and even commercial properties, there have been concerns about the prospect of being regulated as utilities.  This concern has been seen as an overly burdensome barrier to the industry, however Senator John Carona (R-Dallas) filed legislation that would make clear that [...]

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GOP’s secret EPA love

Posted in Air Quality, tagged , , , on March 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

As the administration and Congress get down to brass tacks in slashing the federal budget, one would think that President Barack Obama’s proposal to cut $1.3 billion from EPA’s budget would be well-received by Republicans who have spent a lot of time this year criticizing the agency.  In fact, according to a story by Politico, that is in [...]

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A Brave New World according to new WWF report

Posted in Renewables, tagged , , on March 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

According to a new report from the World Wildlife Federation (WWF), a fully sustainable and renewable global energy system is possible by 2050.  The Energy Report, researched for the WWF by Ecofys, a leading energy consulting firm in the Netherlands,  shows that humanity could meet 95 percent of energy needs with renewables utilising today’s technologies, and that in four [...]

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Barton, Cornyn among co-sponsors of measure to stop GHG regulations

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , on March 5, 2011 | 3 Comments »

Congressman Joe Barton’s (R-Ennis, TX) office says he might introduce Texas-specific legislation to limit the reach of the Environmental Protection Agency, but for now he’s signing on as a co-sponsor to a measure filed yesterday aimed at stopping the federal regulation of greenhouse gases. Barton is putting together a coalition of government officials at all [...]

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Department of Energy launches initiative to bring down solar energy costs

Posted in Renewables, solar, tagged , , , on March 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced $27 million in projects to advance solar development and manufacturing through its SunShot Initiative whose goal is to achieve cost competitive solar energy by 2020. The hope is that the SunShot initiative can reduce the total costs of photovoltaic solar energy systems by about 75 percent so that they are [...]

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Energy self sufficiency vs. HOA control

Posted in Efficiency, Energy, Renewables, solar, tagged , , on March 4, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Several bills filed this session, which included some heard at Wednesday’s hearing of the Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee would preclude homeowners’ associations from restricting installation of solar energy devices.  These are: Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas) – SB 238 Sen. Jeff Wentworth (R-San Antonio) – SB 302 Sen. Mike Jackson (R-La Porte) – SB 447 (identical [...]

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WSJ Poll shows Americans willing to cut $ from the budget for nuclear loan guarantees

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , on March 4, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

According to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News public opinion poll released yesterday morning, cutting subsidies for new reactors is the single most popular possible budget cut, with 57% finding such cuts either completely or mostly acceptable. No other program got more than 52% support for budget cuts, and most programs slated for cuts received far [...]

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Immigrants testify: When It Comes to Justice, We Are All United!

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , on March 3, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Phillip Martin has been writing for Burnt Orange Report since he was a wee young thing, and while I wouldn’t call him jaded, he is far from naive about politics and not an overly sentimental sort.  Yet, his post on last night’s testimony by the Dream Activists certainly brought out the idealist in him.  His [...]

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Watch the “Story of Citizens United” video: Help rescue democracy

Posted in Campaign Finance, Good Government, tagged , , , , on March 3, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Corporations aren’t people and elections shouldn’t be for sale.  If you agree, you’ll love “The Story of Citizens United v. FEC,” a new 8-minute animated short by Annie Leonard, of The Story of Stuff fame. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, we have overwhelming evidence of the damage done to our democracy. [...]

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