Communities in Corpus Christi are left with few options: the ultimate authority of the EPA, and the leadership of their elected officials.

“This is my hometown, and I love it,” Rebecca Lyons, a graduating honors student at TAMU Corpus Christi, told Matt Tresaugue of the Houston Chronicle back in January, “But I don’t want to raise a family here because of the health risks…There has to be a better way.”

After hundreds of letters, petitions, and phone calls made to the EPA, Corpus Christi residents are taking their fight to the online world. Join us!

Take Action Online!

Copy and paste this status and video to the EPA’s Facebook pages!

Corpus Christi doesn’t want Las Brisas. Stop the air permit now! http://bit.ly/merA7n

EPA’s Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/X4FYe

Administrator Lisa Jackson’s Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/130rQ6

Are you on Twitter? Tweet with us!

@epaGOV @lisapjackson I want clean air! Stop the Las Brisas air permit in Corpus Christi, TX!
http://bit.ly/merA7n

Ready to go the distance?

Ask your elected officials if they support responsible growth, or Las Brisas. Copy and paste this to their Facebook pages:

I’m a voting constituent, and I don’t want Las Brisas. Do you?
http://bit.ly/merA7n

US House Rep Blake Farenthold: http://on.fb.me/f2XnkP

State Rep Connie Scott: http://on.fb.me/jj0qJv

State Rep Todd Hunter: http://on.fb.me/mpSG5d

Mayor Joe Adame: http://on.fb.me/km137a

State Senator Judith Zaffirini: http://on.fb.me/lbxOW5

State Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa does not have a Facebook page.
Send his office an email instead!

Tell Charlie Gonzalez how you feel– thank him for his vote and leadership by calling his office at (202) 225-3236 (DC) or (210) 472-6195 (San Antonio).

Unfortunately, in the Senate, Republicans continued to filibuster the DISCLOSE Act.  They did this a few months ago, too. At the time Public Citizen’s Craig Holman had this to say about it, and we think it’s still apt.

Texas Senators Cornyn and Hutchison voted in favor of corporate special interests who want to hide how they’re pulling the strings in Washington, and I think you should tell them so.

And because no punchbowl for Fair Elections would be complete without some corporate tool laying a dookie in it, enter Texas Rep. Joe Barton, who you may remember apologized to BP, feeling the oil-spilling giant had been mistreated by Congress.  Well, he’s still apologizing to corporations, now saying that his committee should hold hearings on Fair Elections Now, which he’s already made up his mind on (hint:  he ain’t fer it.) This is nothing more than a massive delay tactic, just like the time he made a rule that all amendments to Waxman-Markey be read aloud in committee, so the committee hired a speed-reader.

In any case, we still have a lot to be happy about.  There is some possibility we could get a full vote on Fair Elections Now before the end of the year in the House– if your member of Congress hasn’t publicly stated they will support it, they need to hear from you!  And if they have stated their support, call them anyway and thank them for standing up to special interests.

By the by, I’ll be at the National Coffee Party Convention in Louisville the next few days, where I’ll be presenting on a couple of panels about these very issues.  If you want to participate virtually, you can!  From Coffee Party’s email:

The big news today is that we are LIVE STREAMING the convention from Louisville starting at 8:30 AM ET tomorrow (Friday). Convention participants, both in person and via webcast can interact via Twitter (#CoffeeParty), Facebook, on our convention website, main website and on our newly created Ustream channel.

CLICK HERE for today’s press release about added speaker John Avlon, and HERE for Monday’s release about Lt. Dan Choi and Fair Elections Now.

We are especially excited about livestreaming the Mock Constitutional Convention on Saturday from 10:30am-4:30pm co-chaired by Lawrence Lessig and Mark McKinnon.

To read about the speakers, CLICK HERE. To review the schedule of events, CLICK HERE. To read about the break-out sessions, CLICK HERE.

You can still REGISTER online. You can also register in person at the registration desk when you arrive at the Galt House.

We are currently raising funds for the following purposes: $5,000 for Audio/Visual expenses, including production and live-streaming costs that are allowing us to document as many workshops and panel discussions as we can, which will become on-line educational tools available to the public.

It would be tremendously helpful if you could donate for this. $5, $10, $20, any amount would help.

DONATE

The convention and the web cast will wrap up Sunday night with a viewing party of MTV Networks’ television world premiere of “9500 Liberty.” This is the film that Eric Byler and I co-directed that documents how the extremists dominated the debate over immigration in Prince William County, VA in 2007 & 2008 and how the silent majority organized and restored balance to the government. On Sunday, the film will be broadcast to 100 milion homes across America.

This video explains how the lessons of 9500 Liberty inspired the creation of the Coffee Party. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8sQUYarTig

See you in Louisville, or, we’ll see you online! And, thank you so much for being part of the Coffee Party community.

Good night, good luck, and see you around the coffee pot.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

For those in Austin who don’t know, the EGRSO (the Economic Growth and Redevelopment Services Office… I had to look it up too) gets a substantial portion of its funding from the municipally-owned utility Austin Energy. What does this office do? From its city website:

[The EGRSO] implements the City of Austin Economic Development Policy as directed by the Austin City Council.

Essentially, the office provides grants and loans of city funds or services in order to promote economic development. Among its awardees are Facebook, LegalZoom, Heliovolt, Friday Night Lights, and the Home Depot Austin Technology Center.

Recently, the Electric Utility Commission voted unanimously to cut AE’s funding of the EGRSO, citing the fact that AE faces tough budget choices inside its own walls. Commissioner Shudde Fath wrote in the Business Journal that AE can no longer be the city’s cash cow.

EUC Chairman Phillip Schmandt released a statement on the matter yesterday:

I applaud EGRSO and its programs.  There are many great ideas in EGROS’ $10 Million budget.

But not every great idea should be funded with government money.

And more to the point, not every great idea should be funded from utility bills paid by our hard working customers who are struggling to make ends meet every month.

As a utility customer, I expect my utility company to be a careful steward of the money I pay to it.  There is no better economic incentive than a well run utility with low rates.

I would be much more sympathetic towards Austin Energy’s funding of EGRSO if Austin Energy controlled the spending of EGRSO.  If that were the case, Austin Energy, with its citizen oversight, could ensure that the monies were spent to promote Austin Energy’s generation and conservation plans recently approved by Council.

But the opposite is true.  Austin Energy provides the money, while EGRSO spends it.  No one at Austin Energy has oversight over the budget or can trim its growth.   As a result, EGRSO’s budget, with over 45 FTEs, has almost doubled since 2006- 2007 and its personnel has increased by 25% — while other departments  and our public safety units experience cuts and hiring freezes.

And meanwhile Austin Energy operates at a deficit and will soon need to raise its rates.

For three straight years, the Electric Utility Commission has considered EGRSO’s claims that it provides a benefit to the utility and the EUC has concluded that Austin Energy should spend less on EGRSO or have greater control over its spending.  This year the EUC escalated its recommendations by voting against the entire EUC budget on the grounds of lack of effective oversight and control over EGRSO.  I ask that you listen to your citizen advisors, who this year spoke unanimously (6-0) on this issue.

There are two reasons why this year it is so important to remove EGRSO from Austin Energy’s budget.

First,  if the rate case will be in 2012, then the 2011 budget will be the test budget on which future rates are based.  In the name of preserving Austin as an affordable city, EGRSO should be removed from Austin Energy’s budget.

Second,  Austin Energy is rethinking its business model,  The City Council recently approved spending tens of millions of dollars on consultants that will help Austin Energy wean itself from the old business model based on volumetric sales of energy.  EGRSO’s justification for its existence is based entirely on that old business model.  We should not have one city department spending tens of millions of dollars in furtherance of one mission while another city department spends tens of millions of dollars trying to abandon that mission.  That is folly.

The fact that EGRSO’s reports to Council and the EUC do not even recognize this fundamental conflict only serves to highlight how far adrift EGRSO personnel have strayed from the mission of their sponsoring agency.

We cannot expect Austin Energy’s new business model to emerge in the future whole cloth from thin air and to be seamlessly implemented.  Instead, that transition will require many incremental steps, the bulk of which will be painful.  This is one of them.

It is a poison to government to anoint one department to spend money without being accountable to those who provide the money.  Austin Energy ratepayers have no effective oversight over EGRSO.  And that structure of unchecked governance is, my friends, a bad idea – even if someone thinks the EGRSO’s budget contains some good ideas.

Budget choices are always tough. This will be an interesting one to watch in the next few weeks as city council adopts its 2011 budget.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

Having passed House Bill 3353 (known as the “green fee bill,” it was one of the few green bills passed this session and made into law) in the 2009 Texas Legislative Session, the student leaders that comprise the ReEnergize Texas coalition knew they had much work ahead of them. The legislation gave campuses administrators legislative approval to implement “environmental service fees” of up to $5 per semester if the student body voted for such a fee on that campus. But campaigns on individual campuses still had to be waged.

And so it is that ReEnergize Texas finds itself running or assisting green fee campaigns at 7 Texas colleges. And of all the green fund campaigns we’re involved with this semester, Texas A&M’s has proven the most challenging so far. The group has amassed over 1,600 members on its Facebook group and has the blessing of administrators, but still faces a serious challenge organized by a group know as Texas Aggie Conservatives (might be more relevant to visit the Facebook page).

In response to the sometimes vitriolic and often misleading criticisms leveled at the Aggie Green Fund, pro-green-fund group members put together this video to explain why the fund is needed and how it will benefit the campus:

So make sure you visit their Facebook group and leave them a friendly comment. These students are keeping it positive and moving forward with their vision against an outspoken minority that is willfully misleading the student body about both its motives and the impacts of the green fund. They deserve a great deal of gratitude for defending sustainability on the front-lines.

In a related story, students at Rice University recently passed their own green fee of $9 per year without the help of the statewide coalition (in fact, we only heard about it a couple days before the vote). It was a huge and early victory for the green fund movement and serves as an inspiration to the 7 Texas campuses still pursuing a fee, and to the campaigns taking root in Florida this year.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

UPDATE: The streaming audio from last night’s event was, unfortunately, very hard to listen to — but folks who weren’t willing to wade through the feedback can watch our video of the town hall in its entirety, which we should be able to post in the next couple days

Tonight KSTX will host a Town Hall on Energy in San Antonio to provide the forum we’ve all been waiting for — an honest and open debate of whether or not SA should invest in two new nuclear reactors and the safe, clean alternatives that SA can choose to meet its future energy needs.

The Clean Technology Forum will provide an opportunity for a similar opportunity for this discussion — but at $50 a pop, only the most well-heeled San Antonians will be able to attend.  KSTX’s Town Hall, by contrast, will be free and open to the public.  Folks who would like to attend in person should plan on being at the McAllister Auditorium at San Antonio College (SAC) from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm — but if you can’t make it, never fear.  KSTX will be streaming the conversation live from their website www.tpr.org, as well as carrying the town hall on the radio at 89.1 FM. You can also submit your question on Facebook or Twitter — three cheers for interactivity!

Should be a good show — maybe even a bit of a sparring match, judging by the panelists.  In one corner we’ve got: Michael Kotara, Executive Vice President for Energy Development, CPS Energy and Mayor Julián Castro, who supports the nuclear option even though he would rather San Antonio own 20% rather than 40% of the new reactors.  In the other, Lanny Sinkin, Executive Director, Solar San Antonio and co-founder of Citizens Against Nuclear Power and Public Citizen’s own Tom “Smitty” Smith, whitehat extraordinaire and lifelong agitator of the nuclear bad guys (because, as Smitty likes to repeat “you’ve got to agitate to get the dirt out“).

Texas Vox will be on hand to videotape the town hall, and you can follow our tweets live from @publiccitizentx.  Be sure to look for a follow up blog post and video in the next couple days!

Our regular readers already know how we feel about the issue at Public Citizen: San Antonio citizens can’t afford the huge 50% rate hikes that would result from involvement in the proposed nukes at South Texas Project. The billions that San Antonio would sink into the nuclear money pit should instead be spent in San Antonio, creating local jobs in energy efficiency, retrofitting homes and businesses, and developing clean renewable energy technologies including solar, wind and geothermal power.

Hope you can make it out to the event, listen in, or follow up on our post and videos tomorrow!  Look for event details and panelist bios after the jump.

KSTX Town Hall: Energy

San Antonio’s energy needs in the past have been met by using natural gas, coal and nuclear power. As the city and the metropolitan area’s population have grown, how the energy needs of the future will be met is being studied and discussed. Use of alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar power, are being touted as a way to provide clean energy, but which path is the right one to take to make sure San Antonio stays powered?

Join us for our next KSTX Town Hall on Energy as we host a solutions-based conversation between energy experts and the public. Texas Public Radio’s Terry Gildea will lead a dialog on how we can meet the metropolitan area’s growing energy needs while minimizing our impact on the environment.

When: Wednesday, August 26, 2009, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Where: McAllister Auditorium (San Antonio College)

1300 San Pedro Avenue, San Antonio, TX 78212

The KSTX Town Hall on energy will stream live here on www.tpr.org the day of the event. Have a question for our panelists? Email us to townhall@tpr.org. You can also submit your question on Facebook or Twitter. This KSTX Town Hall is made possible by H-E-B.

Panelists:

Mayor Julián Castro

Julián Castro was elected Mayor of San Antonio on May 9, 2009. A 34 year-old San Antonio native, Mayor Castro is the youngest mayor of a major American city. In 2001, at the age of 26, Castro became the youngest elected city councilman in San Antonio history. Throughout his tenure in public service, Mayor Castro has championed a vision of economic growth and a top-notch quality of life for all San Antonians. In 2005, Castro founded The Law Offices of Julián Castro, PLLC, a civil litigation practice. He has served on the board of Family Services Association, the Clear Channel San Antonio Advisory Board and the San Antonio National Bank Advisory Board. In addition to his community service, Mayor Castro has taught courses at The University of Texas at San Antonio, Trinity University and St. Mary’s University. Mayor Castro earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford University with honors and distinction in 1996 and a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School in 2000.

Lanny Sinkin, Executive Director, Solar San Antonio

A native of San Antonio, Lanny Sinkin is Executive Director for Solar San Antonio, an advocacy and resource center dedicated to renewable and sustainable energy. His wide-ranging environmental career has spanned over three decades. In the 1970’s, Sinkin served as Executive Director of the Urban Coalition of Metropolitan San Antonio and volunteer for the Aquifer Protection Association. As co-founder of Citizens Against Nuclear Power, he represented the group for nearly ten years in Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing hearings for the South Texas Nuclear Project, Units 1 and 2. Sinkin is also the co-founder of Rainbow Friends Animal Sanctuary, a safe haven for hundreds of homeless cats and dogs on the island of Hawaii.

Michael Kotara, Executive Vice President for Energy Development, CPS Energy

Michael Kotara is the Executive Vice President of Energy Development at CPS Energy. In this role, Mr. Kotara is responsible for power generation and wholesale energy market activities. Prior to this assignment, Mr. Kotara served as Vice President of Wholesale Energy Markets, and he also previously served as the Vice President of the Gas Business Unit. Mr. Kotara started his career at CPS Energy in 1985, and he has held several other leadership positions including Director of Fuels, Director of Generation Control & Marketing, Director of Gas Engineering.

Mr. Kotara is a licensed professional mechanical engineer in the State of Texas. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Mr. Kotara’s professional memberships include the Texas Society of Professional Engineers, Texas Public Power Association and Gulf Coast Power Association. He is also a member and past chairman of the Texas Gas Association. Locally, Mr. Kotara is a member of the Optimist Club of San Antonio, and he is an advisor on Trinity University’s Engineering Science Board of Advisors.

Tom “Smitty” Smith, Texas Director, Public Citizen

Smith has been Director of Public Citizen’s Texas Office since 1985. He is widely recognized for directing a multi-issue consumer and environmental advocacy organization: directing and managing research; developing policy initiatives; analyzing, commenting and testifying on regulatory and legislative issues; and communicating with officeholders, policy makers, the public and the press. A major current initiative of Public Citizen is the Texas Energy Efficiency partnership, a joint project with Environmental Defense and the Sustainable Energy & Economic Development (SEED) Coalition. The partnership advances state and local energy efficiency policies and actions to combat global warming.

Don’t think having to show ID to vote sounds that bad?  Think about how much more difficult it might be to keep current identification if you were elderly, or disabled, or homeless even.  Or what about low-income individuals… if you had to use public transportation to get around and worked multiple jobs, how much more difficult would that trip to DPS become?  What if you were a woman who had just gotten married, and still had a driver’s license with your old last name on it?  Or were a student with an out-of-state license, or had moved to Texas recently?  What if you had lived in Texas your whole life, but a hurricane hit your hometown just before the election — as happened with Hurricane Ike this fall.  Didn’t think to grab your ID and several bills to prove who you were?  Too bad, can’t vote.

Starting to sound like a problem, isn’t it?  Studies show that this bill has the potential to disenfranchise as many as 2 million Texans.

Good thing there’s still time to do something about it.

You know the gig by now.  Contact your Senator!  Call, email or fax your Senator and tell them you are opposed to Voter Suppression Legislation, specifically SB 362 by Fraser and Estes.  Don’t know who represents you?  Problem solved.

Still mad?  If you’re in Austin and have some free time tomorrow, you can do even more.  Attend the hearing and register your opposition to the bill, testify if you can.  There will also be a gathering at 10 a.m. on the south steps of the capitol of those in favor of the bill, which you are invited to attend with signs of your own voicing the opposite opinion.

More advice and details on action you can take after the jump, courtesy of Laurie Vanhoose, administrator of the Texans Against Voter Suppression Facebook group. Join it today, and contact your representatives about this reprehensible piece of legislation!  The rest of this post is lifted from an action e-mail she sent out Monday evening.

Register your opposition to this bill. Please stop by the Senate chambers during the debate on the 10th and sign a card against SB 362. Every citizen has the right to register their position on legislation during committee hearings. Go to the Senate chambers and tell the Senate Clerk that you want to “drop a card” against SB 362. Fill out the form and check the box that you are opposed to this legislation. The Senate Clerk will begin taking forms at 8:00am.

Give oral testimony against this bill. If you would like to deliver testimony to the Senate you may do so. Public testimony will begin in the afternoon and could run through the night, so be prepared to spend the entire day at the capitol if you intend to give oral testimony. Also, you need to bring 40 copies of your statement with you. You can sign up for testimony beginning at 8:00am with the Senate Clerk in the Senate chambers, keep in mind there may be many people wanting to give testimony so the earlier you sign in the better chance you will have of being toward the top of the list.

Attend the hearing in support of the Senators fighting this legislation. There will be a lot of different groups at the Capitol on Tuesday to show their support or opposition to this legislation. Please attend if you can. You can watch from the Senate gallery or the Capitol Auditorium (floor E1). The groups in support of this legislation are holding a rally at 10am on the South Steps of the Capitol; you are encouraged to attend with signs that show your opposition to this legislation. Please be respectful while in the Senate Chambers and gallery though.

Educate people across the state about this issue. Please write op-eds and letters to the editors regarding the potential impact of this legislation (See information below or email txelectionreform@yahoo.com if you need additional information). Write articles for local newsletters and papers. Please forward this email to everyone you know. Texans need to know the REAL impact of this legislation.

Stay engaged and be prepared to do this all over again when this legislation is passed from the Senate to the House. Once this passes the Senate we will need to start helping the Representatives defeat this legislation. This could happen in a matter of weeks after it passes the Senate, so be prepared to start calling your Representatives soon.

Talking Points

Voter Impersonation Fraud Doesn’t Exist – despite spending millions of dollars to investigate and stop voter fraud, the Attorney General of Texas has never prosecuted a single case of a voter impersonating another voter at the polls.

Voter ID measures propose an extra hurdle for many Texans that is reminiscent of the poll tax. The working poor and senior citizens are less likely to have a photo ID – or the time or ability to get one. In 2006, a study by the non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice found that 18% of citizens 65 and over, 25% of African American citizens, and 15% of voters earning under $35,000/year don’t have government-issued photo identification.

Voter ID does not address most common election fraud or other more common election related problems. Thousands of eligible Texans are denied the right to register to vote and many eligible voters are turned away from the polls every election. We need to spend time ensuring that every eligible Texan has the right to vote, not wasting time and resources on addressing something that does not exist.

We have much bigger priorities in the State- healthcare, tuition deregulation, and economy. All of these issues deserve time and resources of the Senate. These issues impact every Texan every day.

This legislation will cost the State and Counties to implement.

• Loss of revenue from issuing free DL (no ID is free, the State has to pay for it and the potential voter will have to spend time and money obtaining the documents needed to obtain a Drivers License)
• Poll worker training
• Voter Education Costs

As many as 2 million Texans could be disenfranchised:

• Women – Name on ID does not match voter registration including recently married, divorced, hyphenated names, and new middle names

• Older Texans – Lack current state issues photo identification, may have utilities and mail under relatives name
• Students – Out-state license, mail goes to university p.o. box, no utilities, attending private university

• Homeless – No Drivers license, no mail or utility bills

• Low-income – Use public transportation, move frequently and may not have bills or mail with correct address, DMV lacking in inner-city metroplexes

• Texans with disabilities –No drivers license, will need accessible transportation to obtain identification

• Victims of identity theft – Identification is stolen and may not have 2 copies of other identification at time of voting

• Natural Disaster victims – No identification or documents staying with relatives therefore no mail or utility statements in their name

• Recent arrivals to Texas – Out-of- state identification, utility bills and other mail may not be correct name at time of election

• Native American Indians – Lack photo identification and not likely to have government issued documentation.

Additional resources:

Senate Chamber Location in the Texas Capitol
Senate Chamber Texas Capitol Location – 2E.8 (2nd floor East Wing)
Senate Gallery – 3E.5 (3rd floor East Wing)

Parking -Texas Capitol, Capitol Extension and Capitol Visitors Center
Parking is available in the Capitol Visitors Parking Garage at 1201 San Jacinto located between Trinity and San Jacinto Streets at 12th and 13th streets. Parking is free for the first two hours and $.75 for each half hour thereafter (maximum daily charge: $6.00); accessible parking is available. More information available from State Preservation Board’s website.

Help Get the Word Out to friends and family across Texas.

We need to hear stories from people this will impact.
Tell your family and friends to contact us at txelectionreform@yahoo.com