The staff at Public Citizen Texas would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter and a pleasant weekend with family and friends.
Thanks for taking time during the holiday to read about our energy advocacy progress.
The week in review…
Carol Geiger continued to have blogging fever. She wrote about the potential of solar power, atomic energy, and atomic safety and licensing. Plus, did you see the National Wildlife Federation video she posted on the potential threat of fire ant invasion due to climate change? Yikes!
Carol would also like to remind our readers that you can donate to Public Citizen through the EarthShare tear-off coupons found in the check-out aisles of your local H-E-B 😉.
This week Citizen Sarah worked to spread the word on the upcoming Texas Trade Up Appliance Rebate program. Make your reservation on Wednesday and save money twice: on new appliances from April 16-25 and all year long on lowered electricity bills!
David Power testified before the Texas Public Utilities Commission on Competitive Renewable Energy Zones.
Trevor Lovell had this to report: MBA students from the McCombs School of Business at UT Austin completed a working model for ReEnergize Texas that determines the financial viability of a solar panel installation under a variety of circumstances. The purpose of the model is to help people and businesses determine whether they could save money investing in solar panels, and how changes in things like rebates, compensation policy, panel and installation cost, and the market price of energy would affect their investment. The model is not yet publicly available, but will be presented to the Austin Chamber of Commerce’s “Clean Tech Group” later this month.
This is the first project being completed under the ReEnergize Texas “Clean Technology Business and Policy Practicum.”
Ryan Rittenhouse worked further on developing our tar sands campaign and on organizing an event in Bay City this month regarding the White Stallion coal plant.
Intern Mona Avalos attended the Southwestern Social Science Association‘s annual meeting this week in Houston. She and her sociology colleagues from Sam Houston State presented a paper entitled, “Health Care, Health Care Reform, and the Sociology Within.” The paper provides an overview of the health disparities across age, gender, and poverty level, how such disparities are affected by the health care system, and how the Health Reform Bill will influence the quality of care for at-risk demographics.
Intern Andrew Sauls completed his research and began drafting a report on Green Cities. He wrote his first blog post regarding the Las Brisas Energy Center in Corpus Cristi. WooHoo! They grow up so fast.
Intern Patrick Reck continued work on the Get to Know an Activist series, interviewing Carol Geiger and Ryan Rittenhouse. Look out! We might have a pirate in our midst. (Did you have a chance to watch Patrick’s interview with Melissa Sanchez?)
Tom Smitty Smith is still enjoying his time-travel extended vacation.
Cryptic quote of the week from prreck:
“The rabbits became strange in many ways, different from other rabbits. They knew well enough what was happening. But even to themselves they pretended that all was well, for the food was good, they were protected, they had nothing to fear but the one fear; and that struck here and there, never enough at a time to drive them away. They forgot the ways of wild rabbits.”
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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.
