StateImpact is a collaboration among NPR and local public radio stations in eight pilot states to examine issues of local importance. The project seeks to inform and engage communities with broadcast and online news about how state government decisions affect people’s lives. In Texas, a collaboration between local public radio stations KUT Austin, KUHF Houston and [...]
Archive for the ‘Texas Legislature’ Category
NPR reports on how energy and environmental issues affect you
Posted in Air Quality, Coal, Energy, Global Warming, natural gas, Nuclear, Texas Legislature, Water on November 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Deregulation has put Texas energy security at risk.
Posted in Air Quality, Coal, Energy, Global Warming, Renewables, Texas Legislature, tagged deregulation, Energy, Public utilities commission, Rolling blackout, solar power, Texas, wind power on August 5, 2011 | 2 Comments »
The PUC wants to have a meeting at the end of August to try to figure out how to fix Texas’s experiment of a deregulated generation market, as we look like we are going to run out of energy during what could be ever increasing hot summers. It seems the current market based behavior doesn’t [...]
New Laws Offer Hope For Transparency
Posted in Good Government, Texas Legislature, tagged andy wilson, kirk watson, LBJ School, Public Disclosure Laws, Texas Legislature, texas tribune on June 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The Texas Legislature has taken steps to offer more transparency in government this legislative year. As a Texas Tribune article written by Becca Aaronson points out, lawmakers hope this will provide a lot of information to be available online. However, some people are worried that private information could be leaked to the public because of [...]
State Senator Attempts to Get Rid of His Own Amendment
Posted in Campaign Finance, Good Government, Texas Legislature, tagged campaign contributions, Campaign Finance, Rick Perry, Sen. Mike Jackson on June 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Texas State Senator Mike Jackson added an amendment to the ethics bill (HB 1616) only 48 hours before the regular session ended and seems to be regretting that decision. Now he wants Gov. Rick Perry to veto his own legislation. The amendment was written so that candidates would have been able to expunge from their [...]
Money and Politics Going Hand in Hand
Posted in Campaign Finance, Good Government, Texas Legislature, tagged campaign contributions, citizens united, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Harold Simmons, public citizen texas, robert reich, Stephen Colbert, texans for public justice, Texas Legislature on June 3, 2011 | 1 Comment »
In a recent NPR show, former Labor Secretary and political commentator Robert Reich addressed the potential executive order by President Obama to require government contractors to disclose their political spending. Reich wants to take the executive order a step farther by eliminating all political contributions from government contractors. Reich explains that contractors such as Lockheed [...]
Yesterday Texans made their voices heard, defending their property rights
Posted in Air Quality, Global Warming, Texas Legislature, tagged property rights, public citizen texas, SB875, Texas, Texas House of Representatives, texas senate on May 26, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday, Texans from across the state made their voices heard in the Texas state house by calling their state senators and asking them to stand up to industry’s power play to pollute at will. On Tuesday night, Rep. Dennis Bonnen (HB 25, Angleton), offered an amendment on SB 875 that would provide industry an affirmative defense against [...]
SB 875 – BAD BILL ALERT: Call your Rep now!!
Posted in Texas Legislature on May 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Bad Bill Alert Vote NO on SB 875 The House passed on 2nd reading a bill which would give polluters a shield against being sued for nuisance over their greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, greenhouse gases include all sorts of bad pollution, like methane, and even the pollutants that cause smog: NOx and ozone. Even worse, [...]
Green Groups in Texas highlight new revenue streams
Posted in Air Quality, Campaign Finance, Consumers, Energy, Good Government, Texas Legislature, tagged 82nd legislature, Budget, budget deficit, green revenue, Texas Legislature on March 29, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
While Texas Legislators are furiously looking under every couch cushion to find more revenue this bienium, the Alliance for Clean Texas today highlighted a half dozen strategies that could help Texas close its $27 billion budget deficit. As lawmakers are loathe to talk about the dreaded “T” word (tax), groups like Public Citizen, Sierra Club, [...]
Texas needs to still care about the Stimulus
Posted in Good Government, Texas Legislature, tagged ARRA, Freedom of Information, public citizen texas, stimulus, Texas Impact, Texas Legislature, Texas Open Meetings Act, texas public information act, transparency on March 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Public Citizen has been a member of a coalition that has attempted to bring more sunshine, more transparency, and more good government to the implementation on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as “The Stimulus.” Two years since its passage much of the funding appropriated has been spent, but there is still more [...]
PUC Sunset bill give the agency more oversight of ERCOT
Posted in Energy, Sunset, Texas Legislature, tagged electric reliability council of texas, Electricity market, Energy, Public utilities commission, Sunset Advisory Commission, Texas on March 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The Public Utility Commission (PUC) sunset bill (H.B. 2134) would give the PUC the authority to approve or change the annual budget of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), stipulates that no member of the PUC could work for ERCOT for at least two years after he or she had stepped down, and fines would quadruple [...]
A few house members defend EPA during a joint house committee hearing
Posted in Air Quality, Texas Legislature, tagged Texas, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, United States Environmental Protection Agency on February 25, 2011 | 5 Comments »
John Moritz and Patrick Graves covered the joint hearing of the House Energy Resources and Environmental Regulation committees for the Texas Energy Report, which they say continued the long-running theme at the Texas Capitol that the feds are unfairly targeting Texas industries while ignoring progress made over the decades on clean air matters. But about a half-hour [...]
Representative Lon Burnam (D-Ft Worth) taking on climate change
Posted in Global Warming, Texas Legislature, tagged climate change, environment, greenhouse gas, lon burnam, Texas, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Vulnerability assessment, Water resources on January 28, 2011 | 1 Comment »
State Rep. Lon Burnam filed legislation (House Bill 977) that would have state agencies develop plans to address the implications their policies might have on climate change. Burnam’s bill is similar to a measure he offered last session. The bill would have 12 entities in the state each publish a plan assessing that entity’s role with [...]
TPPF Energy Report Shows Lack of Vision
Posted in Coal, Energy, Global Warming, Nuclear, Renewables, solar, Texas Legislature, tagged Coal, dewhurst, fraser, natural gas, texas public policy foundation on January 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Keynote’s promotion of coal leans heavily on unrealistic view of the Texas energy market In a forum held last Thursday the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) unveiled a report that attempts to sway the debate about Texas energy policy off its current trajectory – namely ideas put forward by high-profile Republicans officials like Lt. [...]
Texas, home to Big Oil, takes shine to solar power… or does it?
Posted in Energy, solar, Texas Legislature, tagged Ken Anderson, non wind rps, public utility commission, renewable energy, rps, solar power, Texas, Texas Legislature on December 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Reuters carried a good story with this headline Texas, home to Big Oil takes a shine to solar power that describes the solar potential that exists, along with industry involvement and how it could be expanded here if we could just develop some statewide policy that supports it. Too bad the commissioners at the Texas [...]
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