Spicewood, Texas, a small community on Lake Travis, is precariously close to becoming the state’s first community to run out of drinking water during this historic drought. On Monday, under dark clouds and with rain falling, Spicewood got its first delivery of 8,000-gallons of water after it became clear local wells could no longer produce enough [...]
Archive for January, 2012
A Texas town runs out of water, will we see more?
Posted in Water, tagged drought, lake travis, texas drought on January 31, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Texas Coalition for Affordable Power Release Report on Electric Deregulation
Posted in Global Warming, tagged deregulation, electric reliability council of texas, Texas Coalition for Affordable Power, texas public utility commission on January 30, 2012 | 11 Comments »
Texas Coalition for Affordable Power’s (TCAP) report on electric deregulation in Texas says the industry has failed to deliver, while industry and agency critics find fault with the reports price and reliability comparisons. Texans have paid higher prices for power that is less reliable – as evidenced by two rolling blackouts – during a decade [...]
RR Commission instituting “real” penalties for repeat offenders?
Posted in Air Quality, Sunset, tagged penalties, repeat offenders, Texas Railroad Commission on January 24, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Chronic violators of Texas Railroad Commission safety rules may be looking at steeper fines if they don’t clean up their acts. In response to the agency’s Sunset review last session, the commissioners who regulate the state’s booming oil and gas industry are expected to approve penalty hikes in six major categories, taking special aim at repeat [...]
Sierra Club sues TCEQ for failure to provide an opportunity for public comment on several permits
Posted in Global Warming on January 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The Sierra Club claims the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality illegally gave four coal-fired power plants passes to pollute the air. The Sierra Club says the state in December illegally approved permit amendments for Luminant Generation Co.-owned plants in Freestone, Rusk, Titus and Milam counties (Big Brown, Martin Lake, Monticello and Sandow). It claims the [...]
Senator Watson asks PUC Chair, Donna Nelson, to promote solar
Posted in Global Warming on January 19, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
As interim legislative hearings and ERCOT workshops grapple with the drought’s anticipated stresses for Texas electric generation and reliability, Sen.Kirk Watson (D-Austin), is calling on the Texas Public Utility Commission to give solar energy a push. “You stated that your highest priority as chair of the PUC is to prevent rolling outages,”Watson wrote in a Jan. 13 letter [...]
Obama’s Rejection of Keystone A Sensible Decision
Posted in Global Warming, tagged Keystone Pipeline, keystone xl, Obama administration, Public Citizen on January 18, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
In a statement this afternoon, Obama said that he received a recommendation from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton earlier today recommending that the Keystone XL tar sands Presidential permit application be denied. TransCanada’s first tar sands pipeline leaked 12 times in its first year of operation, although the company estimated it would leak just [...]
Bill would give Oklahomans the right to vote on sale of water to Texas
Posted in Coal Plants, Water, tagged Oklahoma, Texas, Water right on January 18, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
As Texas struggles to determine how they will meet their water needs in the face of what could be an extended 5 to 10 year period of drought, Oklahomans are looking to protect their water rights as their neighbors to the south look on lustfully. An Associated Press story says proposed legislation by two Oklahoma [...]
What is Environmental Justice and Why did the EPA sing, “Free At Last”
Posted in Global Warming, tagged dr martin luther, environmental justice, environmental justice movement, environmental racism, Eric Holder, Martin Luther King, United States Environmental Protection Agency on January 17, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Reprinted with permission from Christopher Searles blog – http://chrissearles.blogspot.com/ In January of 2011 U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder addressed the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Civil Rights Affirmative Employment and Diversity at an event honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “I am old to enough to have witnessed and experienced the remarkable progress that’s [...]
DFW Air Quality Standards – EPA Public Comments Sought
Posted in Air Quality, tagged Air Quality Standards, nonattainment, Public Citizen, United States Environmental Protection Agency on January 10, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The EPA has published a federal register notice to solicit public comments on their ozone designation recommendations to the states. This comment period closes on January 19th and we have included the notice for information on where and how to submit your comments. Public Citizen and Sierra Club believe the inclusion of Freestone, Limestone, McClennan, [...]
Austin Energy drought proofs its energy with new Webberville Solar Project
Posted in Global Warming, Renewables, solar, tagged Austin Energy, Renewables, solar power, Webberville solar project on January 6, 2012 | 5 Comments »
On a blustery and brilliantly sunny Texas winter day a couple hundred Central Texas citizens, that included officials and solar enthusiasts, gathered on what had been an empty 380 acre field only three years ago to usher in a new era of “drought-proof” energy for the City of Austin. On Friday, January 6, 2012, Austin [...]
Texas 2011 Drought, $93 Billion in Tree Losses?
Posted in Global Warming on January 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Reprinted with permission from Chris Searles‘ blogspot “Nobody knows the true economic value of trees.” That’s the first thing that popped into my head last week when I read the Texas Forest Service recently estimated up to a half billion Texas trees measuring at least five inches in diameter were lost due to the unrelenting [...]
Fracking – Shake, Rattle and Roll
Posted in Fracking, tagged Earthquakes, hydraulic fracturing, Wastewater on January 5, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Are small earthquakes associated with hydraulic fracturing for gas? Recent quakes in Ohio and Arkansas have taken many people by surprise, including a 2.7-magnitude earthquake that rocked Ohio on Christmas Eve, followed by a 4.0-magnitude quake on New Year’s Eve bringing the total to nine last year. All of the quakes were recorded within a 5-mile radius [...]
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