According to the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), at the end of summer 2011, Texas had suffered the driest 10 months since record keeping began in 1895. Rivers, like the Brazos, actually dried up. And if that wasn’t enough, the dry weather came with brutal heat. So brutal, that seven cities recorded at least 80 [...]
Archive for November, 2011
Polluters complain to Congress about new EPA rules, but tell SEC their bottom line will be fine.
Posted in Air Quality, tagged csapr, United States Environmental Protection Agency on November 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
According to the Associated Press, across the land, large and small polluters have regaled Republican-led congressional committees with dire predictions of plant closings and layoffs if the EPA succeeds with plans to further curb air and water pollution. But their message to financial regulators and investors conveys less gloom and uncertainty. The Associated Press compared [...]
Pipelines of Poison Sidestep Stalled State Department Signoff
Posted in Air Quality, Global Warming, Tarsands, tagged Keystone Pipeline, Texas, transcanada, United States, United States Department of State on November 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Foreign Pipeline Owners Find a Way to Get Around Federal Permit Process TransCanada is attempting to outsmart the State Department and bypass federal blocks by using two existing pipelines of poison after the State Department and President Obama delayed approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline permit amidst concerns about bias, conflicts of interest, and environmental [...]
Federal Regulatory Accountability Act Puts the Public in Harm’s Way
Posted in Good Government, tagged Cost-benefit analysis, regulation, Rulemaking on November 19, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
In a state where regulatory issues are driven by ”crony capitalism” a has proposed federal bill could give industry a blank check here in Texas. The Regulatory Accountability Act (RAA) (S. 1606/H.R. 3010) is a radical measure that would severely weaken laws that protect our health, safety and the environment. A new paper from the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards, [...]
Does climate change influence extreme weather events?
Posted in Global Warming on November 18, 2011 | 1 Comment »
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) today released a special report on the influence of climate change on extreme weather events. In the United States, Americans have endured a record-setting series of extreme weather events in 2011, including the Mississippi floods, record high summer temperatures, and severe drought in Texas and Oklahoma. In a [...]
Political favors – how to stop it from ruining your community
Posted in Campaign Finance, Sunset, tagged pay to play, Texas, Texas Ethics Commission, Texas Sunset Commission on November 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
According to the Texas Energy Report, state environmental regulators appointed by Gov. Rick Perry issued a permit in January for a Houston-area industrial waste injection well to a company whose top investors include some of Perry’s close friends and campaign contributors. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) approved the permit over the objections of [...]
What is the state of your air? Check out the American Lung Association’s “State of the Air 2011″ Report
Posted in Air Quality on November 17, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The American Lung Association State of the Air 2011 report ranks the metropolitan areas based on ozone and particle pollution during 2007, 2008 and 2009. For particle pollution, they rank the areas separately with high year-round (annual average) levels and high short-term levels (24-hour) found in monitoring sites across the United States. They compile data from [...]
The Story of Broke and the supercommittee
Posted in Energy on November 16, 2011 | 2 Comments »
The deficit reduction supercommittee has a November 23 deadline to finish its work. One of the first places lawmakers should look for cuts is the dirty energy sector. From 2008 through 2010, Big Energy industries were among the top recipients of government handouts, second only to the financial industry. Big Oil alone racks up $4 [...]
Canada lobbying hard after US delays approval of tar sands pipeline
Posted in Global Warming on November 16, 2011 | 1 Comment »
After the Obama administration delayed a decision on an oil pipeline, which has been garnering more and more opposition from environmentalists, landowners and downwind communities near refineries along the proposed pipeline route that slices through the heartland of America, there are some who believe that this project could die from a number of issues that could [...]
Effort to kill the CSAPR in the US Senate fails
Posted in Air Quality, tagged air pollution, csapr, United States Environmental Protection Agency on November 14, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The U.S. Senate killed Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Kentucky) effort last week to strike down the EPA’s Cross State Air Pollution Rule regulating emissions that blow across state lines, thanks in part to your calls and emails. The measure died on a 41-56 vote with Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison voting for the [...]
IEA warns we may be at the tipping point for limiting global warming
Posted in Climate Change, Efficiency, Global Warming, tagged climate change, International Energy Agency, Texas, World Energy Outlook on November 12, 2011 | 1 Comment »
The International Energy Agency warned Thursday that the world is hurtling toward irreversible climate change in its annual World Energy Outlook. They stated that we will lose the chance to limit warming if we don’t take bold action in the next five years, spelling out the consequences if those steps aren’t taken and what needs to be [...]
Texas Enterprise Fund Grantees Failed to Deliver Jobs
Posted in Good Government, tagged jobs, Rick Perry, texans for public justice, texas enterprise fund on November 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
A new Texans for Public Justice report finds that most of Governor Rick Perry’s Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) projects failed to deliver on their 2010 job promises. The study analyzes compliance reports filed by 65 companies that received $350 million to create Texas jobs in 2010. “Governor Perry’s jobs’ stimulus program is a classic example [...]
Pipeline of Poison Paused
Posted in Global Warming, Tarsands, tagged Inspector General, Public Citizen, Texas, transcanada, United States Department of State on November 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Public Citizen joins Texas pipeline opponents in applauding the Obama administration’s decision for a ”re-do” on the environmental impact statement and routing decisions for the proposed TransCanada tarsands pipeline. This is a decision that came quickly on the heels of the U.S. State Department’s Inspector General’s announcement that they were launching an investigation into the alledged bias and [...]
Keystone XL Pipeline under investigation for bias and conflict of interest
Posted in Global Warming, Tarsands, tagged Keystone Pipeline, keystone xl, Texas, United States Department of State on November 10, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Last month we wrote about what appeared to be conflicts of interest in the facilitation of the U.S. Department of State’s public hearings (one of which took place in Austin, TX), and the environmental impact analysis of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline that would transport Canadian tar sands 1,700 miles to Texas refineries. Keystone XL is now [...]
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