Yesterday, the Texas House refused to concur in the Senate amendments to HB 2694 – the TCEQ sunset bill. The bill has been sent to Conference Committee and the House has named its conference committee members (conferees). Importantly, no instructions were made to the conferees by the House (in other words no motion was made [...]
Archive for May, 2011
Status of TCEQ Sunset Bill (HB 2694)
Posted in Air Quality, Sunset, TCEQ, tagged HB 2694, TCEQ Sunset on May 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Texas House passes Bad Radioactive Waste Bill
Posted in Nuclear, Radioactive Waste, tagged Andrews County Texas, radioactive waste, SB 1504, Texas on May 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Guest Submission by Karen Hadden, Executive Director of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition NOTE: SB 1504 is up for third reading on the House floor later today. On May 17, 2011 the Texas House voted 108 Ayes to 36 Nays to pass SB 1504, which will allow WCS’ Andrews County radioactive waste [...]
Texas sees a 30 percent increase in energy from renewable sources in 2010
Posted in Energy, Renewables, tagged Energy, renewable energy, renewable portfolio standard, solar, wind power on May 17, 2011 | 1 Comment »
According to a press release from ERCOT, Texas posted a 30 percent increase in energy from renewable sources in 2010 with voluntary participation in renewable energy credits up 45 percent Below is ERCOT’s press release: MAY 13, 2011, AUSTIN – Texas posted a 30 percent increase in energy generated by renewable sources in 2010, [...]
Half of Texas suffering an “exceptional drought”
Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged climate change, drought, Texas on May 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Less than halfway through 2011, this country has already seen three “exceptional” meteorological events just in the past few weeks. These events that pushed the record books to the limit include: A deadly swarm of 244 confirmed tornadoes from April 25-28, (with 112 reports of tornadoes yet to be confirmed) that raked the South and [...]
Radioactive Waste? ‘No’ Vote on SB 1504
Posted in Global Warming, tagged HB 1504, radioactive waste, Texas, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, waste control specialists on May 15, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Senate Bill 1504 (by Seliger: R-Amarillo and Hinojosa: D-McAllen) the riskiest bill for the environment this session will be heard on the Texas house floor on Tuesday, May 17th. If passed in its current form, the risks include: Risk that we won’t have enough space for our own waste Risk of an unfunded taxpayer liability [...]
Chisum amendment could risk TCEQ losing permitting authority
Posted in Air Quality, Sunset, TCEQ, tagged Texas, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, United States Environmental Protection Agency on May 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says if an amendment to HB 2694 remains on the TCEQ Sunset bill, undermining federal regulations at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, TCEQ could risk losing its permitting authority and EPA might have to intervene directly in Texas permitting cases. Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Southside Place), whose sunset legislation for the [...]
Stop $50+billion in taxpayer loans for new nuclear plants
Posted in Nuclear, tagged nuclear loan guarantees, US Federal Budget on May 13, 2011 | 2 Comments »
The House and Senate Energy Appropriations Committees are beginning to work on the FY 2012 federal budget. That means they are beginning to decide the fate of the loan guarantee program for new nuclear reactor construction. The first vote in the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy is expected before June 2–within the next three weeks. [...]
TCEQ SUNSET BILL PASSES IN TEXAS SENATE
Posted in Air Quality, Sunset, TCEQ, tagged TCEQ Sunset, Texas, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, texas senate on May 12, 2011 | 1 Comment »
The Texas Senate just unanimously approved House Bill 2694, the sunset bill for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Senate sponsors Huffman and Hegar fought to pass a clean TCEQ sunset bill and Senators Watson and Huffman clarified the intent of Senators to keep this bill clean in an anticipated House-Senate conference committee. In the months leading [...]
Say No To The Las Brisas “Coal” Plant
Posted in Coal, Energy, Global Warming, tagged blake farenthold, clean economy coalition, Coal, coke, connie scott, corpus christi, EPA, facebook, joe adame, juan hinojosa, judith zaffirini, las brisas, Lisa Jackson, opic, pet-coke, petroleum coke, rebecca lyons, TCEQ, Texas, todd hunter, youtube on May 12, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Towards the end of January an independent panel of judges, the Office of Public Interest Counsel, and the EPA all recommended that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality deny the proposed permit for the Las Brisas petroleum-coke burning plant based on its multiple deficiencies and clear violations of the Clean Air Act. The Perry-appointed commissioners [...]
Major Oil Spill From Keystone Pipeline
Posted in Tarsands, tagged canada, cogswell, Eminent Domain, geyser, keystone, north dakota, pipeline, rupture, spill, Tar Sands, tarsands, Texas, transcanada, XL on May 10, 2011 | 1 Comment »
On Saturday, May 7 the Keystone pipeline had a major rupture and spill near Cogswell, North Dakota spewing 500 barrels of oil in a geyser twice the height of the surrounding trees (about 60 feet). This pipeline is owned by TransCanada, the same company proposing to build the Keystone XL pipeline (an extension of the [...]
Pedernales Electric Co-op voting begins! An overview
Posted in Co-op Reform, tagged election, Pedernales, pedernales electric coop, pedernales electric cooperative on May 5, 2011 | 3 Comments »
UPDATE: We’ve added a little here and there based on some new information we’ve gotten since first publishing this, specifically some information from NRECA (National Rural Electric Cooperative Association) and Pedernales’ counsel about the effects of converting to SMDs. Well folks, yesterday marked the beginning of voting for the board of the Pedernales Electric Coop. [...]
EPA takes over greenhouse gas permitting in Texas
Posted in Air Quality, tagged clean air act, greenhouse gas, Texas, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, United States Environmental Protection Agency on May 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Tuesday, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule allowing it to take over greenhouse gas (GHG) permitting authority in Texas . The agency said that EPA’s permitting authority to process Texas’ permit applications for GHGs was effective on May 1. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has indicated that 167 GHG-emitting sources [...]
TCEQ Sunset bill moving forward, looking better
Posted in Global Warming on May 4, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Good news! Yesterday, the Senate Natural Resources Committee took important steps toward getting the TCEQ Sunset bill back on track. They did this by doing two things. First, the bill’s Senate sponsor, Senator Huffman, offered the original bill language as the committee substitute for HB 2694. Making this substitution means that the Senate version doesn’t [...]
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