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Archive for the ‘Coal’ Category

PUC Chairman Ignores Impending Impact of Coal Emissions

Posted in Coal, Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 25, 2010 |

Barry Smitherman, chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Texas (PUC), made this statement regarding the “progress” Texas has been making in regards to green energy and “responsible” leadership:

Texas is the nation’s reddest state on the political map. But it produces more green energy than any blue state. The state’s top political leaders are fiercely fighting federal cap-and-trade legislation, but the state is No. 2 behind only New York when it comes to reducing the production of carbon dioxide emissions. (From the Texas Energy Report)

This is true, IF you completely ignore the plethora of new coal plants being proposed and built in Texas. Texas already has 17 coal plants (more than any other state), and there are 12 or 13 more being proposed or built (also more than any other state – by far). Current reductions in greenhouse gases include improved building codes, energy efficiency programs, replacement of pilot lights, air conditioning retrofitting, and wind farms. The reduction of greenhouse gases from all these amounts to about 16 million tons a year. If you add in the wind farms that still need transmission lines built to access their power you get around 43 million tons a year. This sounds great until you realize that the recent coal plant proposals would add 77 million tons of CO2 to our atmosphere every year – far more than offsetting these reductions.

While reductions in greenhouse gasses should, of course, be applauded, it is misleading for Chairman Smitherman to take credit for Texas reducing greenhouse gas emissions when he knows there are so many coal plants looming on the horizon that will completely overwhelm these significant reductions. If Texas were really serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions we would not allow anymore unnecessary coal plants to be built, and start replacing the old ones we have with renewable forms of power generation. This would do far more than anything to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, and the public health and environmental health benefits from getting off a fossil-fuel based electric system would far outweigh the cost.

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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.

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Rice Farmers in Matagorda County United over Water Supply Concerns, Fight White Stallion Coal Plant’s Proposed LCRA Contract

Posted in Coal, Energy, Global Warming, Good Government, Toxics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 11, 2010 |

Rice farmers in Matagorda County, Texas have united to stop the development of the White Stallion “clean” coal plant in Bay City. As Heather Menzies reported in the Bay City Tribune, local farmers have formed action groups with Public Citizen Texas’ Ryan Rittenhouse and Tom “Smitty” Smith to rally public  opposition to the plant’s extensive environmental hazards and intensive water usage.

The coalition plans to write and call state Senators Glenn Hegar and Joan Huffman in order to demand that their community’s interest be protected. If built, the coal plant will consume a substantial portion of the remaining water supply from the river basin. If there isn’t enough water, the rice farmers won’t get any, and there won’t be a rice crop. And when the Lower Colorado River Authority is already prepared to declare the 2009 drought the worst in 50 years, should significant water supplies be given to new coal plants?

Yet many local politicians and candidates feel that the coal plant’s construction and operation will create much needed jobs in a county that is starving for economic development.  On Wednesday, February 10th, the State Office of Administrative Hearings will began adjudicating the contested air permit case of White Stallion Energy Center, LLC. The hearing offers another case indicative of the greater fight against fossil fuel industries that money and muscle their way to booming profits at the expense of everyone. (more…)

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National Day of Action Against Coal Waste

Posted in Coal, Global Warming, Toxics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 28, 2010 |

TODAY is our National Coal Ash Day of Action –  please ask the White House to allow the US EPA to finally regulate coal ash as the hazardous waste it is. Currently, coal ash is less regulated than household trash!  This toxic waste stream has never been regulated and that must change, now.

1.  Please send an email to President Obama:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

2.  Call the White House:
  • Comments: 202-456-1111 – leave a message
  • Switchboard: 202-456-1414 – talk to an operator
  • FAX: 202-456-2461

This toxic waste is often stored in wet, slurry impoundments  like this TVA one that failed just over a year ago in Tennessee. Such facilities post the risk of catastrophic failure – the TVA disaster was labeled one of the worst environmental disasters in history by the EPA. Toxic sludge can leech and runoff into nearby watersheds over the course of years, contaminating the ecosystem. The ash is also sometimes stored in dry landfills, as is often the case in Texas. While these landfills don’t pose the same catastrophic risk of slurry impoundments, they still contaminate the environment through leeching, runoff and by the wind blowing the toxic dust off the piles.

It is extremely important that Texans call in because Texas tops the list of states at risk from coal combustion waste. The coal industry is attempting to get dry-ash landfills exempted from new regulations – and most of the coal ash in Texas is stored in this fashion. It is the same, exact, toxic substances in both storage facilities, the only difference is whether or not you mix it with water. ALL coal ash waste MUST be regulated as the hazardous waste it is. (more…)

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Portland General Electric plans to shut down its coal plant by 2020

Posted in Coal, Energy, Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 22, 2010 |

Austin is not alone in preparing for clean and affordable energy.

When good news like this comes across the internet like this, we have to share. From the cloudy northwest:

Portland General Electric Co. would shut down the state’s only coal-fired power plant 20 years earlier than planned under a proposal it hopes to finalize with state and federal regulators in the coming months.

Essentially, the new plan to shut the Boardman plant down 20 years earlier than planned is to avoid extra costs for pollution controls (more than $500 million by 2017) and avoid carbon risks.  PGE still owes $125 million on the plant, and replacing the 500 MW of power will have its costs too, but read on…

Based on its analysis of carbon and natural gas prices, however, PGE maintains that a 2020 shutdown would be the low-cost, least-risk plan for utility ratepayers and shareholders [emphasis mine]. Under the existing plan, both face the risk of making the huge investment to control haze causing pollution – which does nothing to control the plant’s carbon emissions — then seeing the plant close anyway if global warming legislation or a carbon tax makes its output prohibitively expensive.

Read the full article here. Coal represents about a quarter of PGE’s generation mix. (Los Angeles also has a goal to get out of coal by 2020.)

Austin Energy has similar plans to get out of its only coal plant, the Fayette Power Project. No target date is set yet, but the utility’s 2020 generation plan would reduce Austin’s dependence on it by 20-30%. The next two years will be important as Austin works with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas  (the grid operator for most of Texas) and the Lower Colorado River Authority (co-owner of Fayette) to see what the most practical and fair way out. Learn more about the resource plan and some excellent additional recommendations at www.cleanenergyforaustin.org. You can also learn a lot from AE’s website www.austinsmartenergy.com.

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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.

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Tree Sitters Halt Blasting On Coal River Mountain

Posted in Coal, Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 22, 2010 |

Blasting on Coal River Mountain was halted due to a tree sit by three activists: Eric Blevins, 28, Amber Nitchman, 19, and David Aaron Smith, 23.  On standby at the trees’ base were the direct supporters Josh Graupera, 19, and Isabelle Rozendaal, 22. Associated with Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice, these activists are opposed to the devastating process of mountain top removal (MTR) going on at Coal River Mountain. Perched 60 feet in the air in tulip poplars and oak trees just a stone’s throw from the blasting site these activists risked their own well being in a direct action attempt to halt the exploitation of Appalachia.

Too often people talk about how terrible something is without any action behind their words. These individuals not only understand that MTR mining must be stopped, they are willing to risk their safety and liberty to non-violently bring its operations to a halt – if even for only a day. If every person in this country who was concerned about MTR mining followed their example it would be shut down forever.

The time is long past when we should have stopped using coal for fuel in general. That we are now destroying the second most biologically diverse ecosystem on the surface of the planet in order to allow companies like Massey to stay competitive with other coal mining companies is grossly obscene. These individuals should be commended by anyone who cares in the slightest about the health of our environment and the health of the general public – and as many people who can should join in their acts of non-violent civil disobedience.

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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.

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Coal Fight! Kennedy vs Blankenship

Posted in Coal, Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 21, 2010 |

Thursday evening at 6:30pm Robert F. Kennedy Jr will debate Don Blankenship, the CEO of Massey Energy – the largest coal producer in West Virginia. The subject of debate is the future of coal, Mountain Top Removal (MTR) mining, and economic opportunities for Appalachia. Kennedy is the chief litigator for the Waterkeeper’s Alliance and a staunch opponent of coal power and MTR coal mining. The debate can be watched online Thursday night, January 21, 2010 at 5:15pm here. It will also be available on that website on-demand following the broadcast.

Blankenship is infamous for his denialist stance on global warming, and Massey Energy is infamous for violating the Clean Air Act with thousands of instances of environmental pollution violations – so bad that environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against them. Let us hope Blankenship and his company’s gross irresponsibility and criminal behavior will not be tolerated much longer, and that Kennedy will mop the floor with him tonight during the debate.

Stephen Colbert did a bit recently on the ills of MTR. Though in this segment they discuss how traditional mining would be better than MTR (and that is true) it is far more important to get us off of all coal mining and burning altogether. The efforts here are reciprocal – helping to end MTR mining will help stop coal plants and stopping coal plants helps stop MTR. Click on the photo to go to the video:

Hardest of all for Blankenship and his ilk will be to dispute this recent call by scientists to put a moratorium on all new MTR permits. A peer-reviewed study recently published in Science Magazine “unequivocally documents irreversible environmental impacts” due to MTR coal mining. Basically there is now hard, scientific proof of what we “crazy enviros” have been saying for years – that MTR mining is one of the most destructive practices in existence and must be ended. For some more previews of Blankenship and his anti-enviro rantings you can check out this video – but be sure to tune in tonight to see Kennedy go round for round with this baron of pollution and champion of denial.

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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.

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Insurance Group Plays at Climate Change Denial

Posted in Coal, Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , on January 19, 2010 |

According to this article from the New York Times, a “major trade group for the insurance industry” has taken the stance that global warming may, after all, be the scam all those talk radio and Fox News pundits are claiming it is. This group is the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, or NAMIC.

In a letter to insurance regulators, NAMIC makes statements denying the legitimacy of global warming science, making outlandish claims such as the University of East Anglia climatologists “actively colluded to subvert the peer-review process,” amongst other things. Apparently NAMIC prefers the cherry-picked misquotes of personal emails to the vast array of climate science available. That’s what they’ve armed themselves with to challenge the established scientific theories on anthropogenic global warming. None of these insurance businessmen are climatologists, but they feel they have the expertise and qualifications to make judgments about policy and how it relates to the threat of global climate change.

Overall, however, insurance companies still seem concerned about climate change, and for good reason. Insurance companies stand to lose vast amounts of money due to the changes scientists predict – some companies could go bankrupt depending on how bad and how quickly the effects occur. Perhaps this is just fear run amuck through certain insurance company circles, but that doesn’t make it any less irresponsible or dangerous. At a time when we need focused calculation and attention paid to the ever-increasing threats of global warming we are, instead, getting hysteria and misinformation. If NAMIC wants to join the likes of Glen Beck and Mark Levin let us at least hope that insurance regulators will take them just as seriously as those fine gentlemen.

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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.

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See “Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars” Online at Hulu

Posted in Coal, Energy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 11, 2010 |

The full documentary Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars about the fight against the TXU coal rush in Texas is now online and Hulu. Watch it here. Or, if you’re not sold yet, check out this preview:

[vimeo 2397935]

Fighting Goliath was produced by the Sundance Preserve and narrated by Robert Redford.  It features our very own Director Tom “Smitty” Smith and covers a years-long battle against coal that is still ongoing today.  As Redford has said about the film,

The heart of this film is really about issues of health, future generations and the value of our own land and resources. The film was made to support the story of the Texas coalition and their struggle against a giant power company. It is our way of giving other states and communities a model for what can happen when people take personal responsibility and get results. We want to let people know that they don’t have to give up hope.

Though 8 of the 11 TXU plants were canceled, the remaining 3 have been built and have begun operations – and they are dirtier than the 8 canceled plants combined. What’s more, there are 12 more coal plants either in the permitting process or being built in Texas – more new plant proposals than any other state in the country. Visit CoalBlock.org and StopTheCoalPlant.org for more information.

The film will also be shown on PBS during the months of January and February throughout Texas. Not all locations and times are solidified yet, but so far we have:

January 8, in College Station, Dallas, El Paso, Harlingen

January 9, in Houston

January 10, in Killeen

January 11, in Lubbock

January 21 at 8:30pm in Austin, Amarillo, Corpus Christi

Thursday, January 21 at 9:30pm and repeats Sunday January 24th at 1:30 pm for Waco

*Sometime* in January or February Midland/Odessa:

February 18 at 9pm in San Antonio

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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.

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EPA to Announce New Air Quality Standard Limiting Ozone Pollution

Posted in Coal, Energy, Toxics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 6, 2010 |

Today Texas environmentalists, legislators, and medical practitioners wait with bated breath for an announcement from the EPA about a new air quality standard for ozone pollution.  The proposed rule would strengthen the Bush administration’s ozone standard, which did not meet scientific scrutiny or standards to protect public health. Now that scientists have demonstrated that ozone is harmful at lower quantities than previously thought, the EPA will announce a revision to their ozone rule so that the threshold of ozone concentration where cities enter “non-attainment,” or violating the rule, is lower.

Three major metropolitan areas in Texas are already in non-attainment of the less-protective standard: Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston/Galveston, and Beaumont/Port Arthur.  As a result of the new rule and lower threshold, several other areas could now be in risk of non-attainment: Austin, Tyler/Longview, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Waco.  Reaching non-attainment status has some serious consequences for cities, such as losing federal highway funds.

In August of this year the new rule will go into effect, after which time the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) will submit a State Implementation Plan (SIP) to the EPA.  The SIP plan will more or less be a road-map to stay within the new standards and drastically reduce ozone pollution.  The SIP is really where the good news comes into play, because to stay in line with higher standards Texas will need new pollution controls, clean energy alternatives and transportation choices.

Oh, Santa, you shouldn’t have!  This is a much better gift than the coal we got in our stocking in the form of the Oak Grove Coal plant going on-line just days before the new year!

But there’s also a chance that this new ozone standard could ALSO give us a new opportunity to stop the coal rush.  Pollution from coal plants is one of the largest single sources of ozone, so a really awesome super-smart SIP plan could potentially give us the chance to review existing clunkers and gum up the works for new plants. Oh I hope I hope I hope!

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

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Recap: Roll Beyond Coal Tour

Posted in Coal, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 28, 2009 |

The November/December edition of Public Citizen News, a bi-monthly newsletter distributed to Public Citizen members, featured this article on our statewide “Roll Beyond Coal” Tour.  Since not all of you out there get the newsletter, I thought I’d share:

‘Roll Beyond Coal’ Tours Texas

By Geena Wardaki

It’s not often that you lug a 20-foot-tall inflatable “coal plant” around Texas to protest dirty coal-fueled power plants.

But that’s exactly what Public Citizen and the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club did in September.

The “coal plant” served as a powerful image that drove home the message to “clean up dirty power plants now,” which the groups delivered to Texas residents during the “Roll Beyond Coal” tour.

The groups visited Texas communities where proposed coal plants would be built and met with local grassroots and citizen organizations.

The two-week tour, which was part of Public Citizen’s Coal Block campaign, stopped in Waco, Dallas, Abilene, College Station, Corpus Christi, Bay City, Houston and Austin. Texas residents turned out in crowds of varying sizes to show their support and protest with the tour at each stop.

“The biggest cities actually had the smallest response,” said Ryan Rittenhouse, Coal Block campaign director for Public Citizen’s Texas office. “The largest turnouts were from grassroots movements where the issue is more local, smaller towns where proposed coal plants would be built and whose residents would be directly affected.”

Area demonstrators included members of T.P.O.W.E.R. (Texans Protecting Our Water Environment and Resources) from Waco, the No Coal Coalition from Bay City, the Multi-County Coalition from Sweetwater and the Clean Economy Coalition from Corpus Christi.

“Roll Beyond Coal” had two main objectives: one, to show support for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent finding that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s (TCEQ) rules for granting permits to new coal plants do not comply with the federal Clean Air Act; and two, to push the EPA to stop  the TCEQ from granting any permits for or allowing the operation of any new coal-powered plants and from issuing any new air pollution permits. TCEQ currently issues “flex permits,” which allow coal plants to sometimes exceed emissions as long as they don’t go over their total emission caps for the year. Eleven coal plants are proposed or under construction in Texas, more than any other state in the country.

The “Roll Beyond Coal” tour also educated people about federal climate change legislation making its way through Congress (H.R. 2454). Concern exists that new climate change legislation will grandfather proposed or newly built plants, allowing the plants to avoid the proposed emissions standards. (Senate climate change legislation also would enable new plants to be evade emission control standards for a decade.)

Public Citizen told residents to call and write Texas Sens. John Cornyn (R) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R), and urge them to vote against the grandfathering of new coal plants in the climate change legislation. (Visit www.coalblock.org to see how you can e-mail these senators, too.)

“The ‘Roll Beyond Coal’ tour was an important and entertaining way to reach out to Texas residents and get them engaged and involved in blocking dirty coal power plants,” Rittenhouse said.

“Now, people need to let their lawmakers know that coal plants should not get special treatment in any climate change legislation.”

Geena Wardaki is a Public Citizen communications intern.

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

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Jim Boston: Living in the West with Tenaska

Posted in Coal, tagged , , , , , , , on December 15, 2009 |

I’m very impressed with this op-ed from Jim Boston, which refers to the Tenaska coal plant proposed near Sweetwater, Texas.  It was originally published Monday, December 13th in the Abilene Reporter News.

Why live in West Texas when it is somewhat a hostile environment? Faced with frequent droughts, sandstorms, hail, constant wind, tornadoes, rattlesnakes, scorpions, feral hogs, mesquite trees and house cat-snatching coyotes, why do our people insist on staying here? West Texas people after a while begin to resemble, in spirit perhaps, the somewhat undesirable native species. They are gnarled and bent from leaning toward the prevailing wind direction like mesquite trees, gritty (perhaps from the sandstorms), tenacious and tough, like feral hogs, and even deadly when protecting their home turf, like the rattlesnake.

Why do we live in West Texas? I guess it is because we like it. We like seeing if we can “hang in there” and survive all that Mother Nature can throw at us, and ultimately even prosper. We appreciate seeing the horizons and breathtaking sun risings and settings (you know the good Lord made a lot of country, and what he was ashamed of he put trees on). We enjoy observing the night sky with stars and constellations invisible in a lighted urban environment. Meeting our neighbors, or even local, unknown strangers, we gratefully acknowledge their presence with customary four finger salute in the windshield of our beloved pickups or SUVs, without our hand leaving the steering wheel. We shut down our towns to enjoy Friday night football, rooting for our home teams, yet exhibiting our stubborn independence with a politically incorrect prayer before game time. Traffic, or lack thereof, is another benefit we cherish, and hope it stays that way. The same feeling goes for the absence of a lot of heavy industry, usually located near urban areas. Finally, we appreciate our wide open spaces, and relative few people per square foot. We realize the people here are special, and we revere their sense of right and wrong, and generosity.

Considering all the good things we value in living in this area, why would we want to bring in something that might degrade the quality of our existence here. I’m speaking, of course, of the controversial Tenaska project. Why do we need it? Have we done enough to further the “green cause” by supporting the largest wind farm in the world to supply power to urban areas? If selling electricity to metropolitan areas is the goal, why not locate nearer to the sales point and closer to lakes that could supply the necessary water? The same goes for if the sequestering CO2 is the goal, why not locate nearer the oil patch?

Water, of course, is the big issue with Tenaska, (more…)

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West Texans Question How Proposed Tenaska Coal Plant Would Affect Water Availability and Water Quality

Posted in Coal, Toxics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 3, 2009 |

Citizens aware of extreme drought conditions point to potential serious conflict over water if coal plant were built

(Abilene) – The Multi-County Coalition, Sierra Club, Public Citizen, and individuals from the West Texas areas of Sweetwater and Abilene raised questions about how a proposed Tenaska coal plant would affect water availability and water quantity in the region.

Water Availability

The Tenaska coal plant project, still in the early permitting stages, would obligate between one million to ten million gallons of water per day for a cooling process.

“Particularly in West Texas, we are aware of how any period of drought puts great stress on our basic water resources,” said Professor Jeff Haseltine. “The city of Abilene is taking extraordinary steps to ensure a safe and reliable water supply far into the future, and it simply makes no sense to tie up massive amounts of water to cool a coal plant. We need to continue to find ways to use all of our water resources for the direct benefit of our own community, not for the profit of an out-of-state corporation.”

Next to municipalities, power plants – both coal and nuclear use the largest volumes of water in the state.

Water Quality

The groups at Thursday’s Abilene City Council hearing spoke about mercury that the proposed Tenaska coal plant would emit if built.

“The Tenaska plant would pump 124 pounds of mercury per year into the atmosphere and that mercury from Tenaska would fall onto the rivers, streams, and lakes in the region,” said Ryan Rittenhouse of Public Citizen. “West Texans do not want to stand by and allow that fate for their vital water resources and wildlife.”

According to chemist Neil Carman with Sierra Club, (more…)

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You CAN teach an old dog new tricks . . .

Posted in Coal, Consumers, Energy, Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 19, 2009 |

Las Brisas Energy Center, a proposed pet coke power plant, is still in the midst of a protracted permitting process which most recently has taken the form of a state hearing. Opponents have claimed that projected pollution from the proposed plant has been under-estimated by engineers. Testimony ended in the hearing last Thursday, and closing statements have been ordered by January 22. At this time, the two judges, Craig Bennett and Tommy Broyles, will have 60 days to issue a recommendation to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which will ultimately make the final decision. The hearing ended with testimony from Joseph Kupper, an engineer, who was not able to confirm his calculations concerning the particulate matter projected to come from the plant.

Las Brisas might be seen as one battle in the conflict which has been escalating between the EPA and the current Texas air permitting program.

Dr Al Armendariz was scheduled to give testimony in this hearing on November 6th; however, he did not appear due to his recent appointment as Regional EPA Administrator. Dr Armendariz was appointed by Lisa Jackson just the day before. He most recently was a faculty member at Southern Methodist University in the Environmental/Civil Engineering department and has been an outspoken critic of past EPA oversight in Texas.

Dr Al Armendariz

Now, as concerned citizens, Dr Armendariz claims we should worry that “Texas has allowed big utilities and industry to operate any way they want to for decades.” We hope for the best as Dr Armendariz takes on this job with the EPA, which he is already getting on with – some say that by the end of the month the EPA will most likely “declare that Texas’ air permitting program lacks adequate public participation and transparency.”

The EPA sees three areas in which Texas fails to meet standards:

1) Public participation and transparency, which do not adhere to Clean Air Act regulations.

2) Flexible air permits given to many industrial operations (including the Fayette power plant).

3) Greenhouse gas emissions, recently brought into regulation under the Clean Air Act.

So best of luck, Dr Armendariz. If we let the numbers, facts and models speak for themselves, Texas could certainly be a cleaner place for all.

J Baker

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

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Austin has a dirty secret Happy Hour Wednesday

Posted in Coal, Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 17, 2009 |

Wednesday afternoon from 5-7 pm, let’s get together to discuss how to make Austin’s Dirty Secret a secret no more! Join us at Spider House for our group’s first ever happy hour meet-up (complete with dirty drink specials!). We’ll discuss our plans for convincing City Council to phase out Fayette by 2020 or earlier and get to know each other over beer/coffee/food. Look for us in the back near the moving screening area.  And RSVP on the facebook event page so we have a rough head count!

See you there!

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

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Copenhagen Summit: The First Step to a Journey of a Thousand Miles

Posted in Coal, Energy, Global Warming, Renewables, solar, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 13, 2009 |

Finally, Global warming is getting some international recognition. Since the Kyoto Protocol is about to expire in 2012,koebenhavn-bellacenter-20080211-dsc-0180-250 the UN, with help of the Danish government, is organizing an international summit about global warming. The summit will be held on December 7th through the 18th at the Bella Center, the largest fair and conference center in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Participants:

The main participants will be the United States, China, India(biggest world polluters) and a bloc of 27 countries of the Europian Union. But overall, there will be more than 190 countries that will be a part of this summit. Many of these countries already have been working on cutting or constraining the grow of ththeir emissions, while some refuse to make any commitments. However, though the summit hasn’t taken place yet, 11 countries that are vulnerable to climate change have dedicated 1.5% of their gross national product for climate change actions. Those countries are Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Ghana, Kenya, Kiribati, the Maldives, Nepal, Rwanda, Tanzania and Vietnam.

“We are not responsible for the hundreds of years of carbon emissions, which are cooking the planet[…]But the dangers climate change poses to our countries means that this crisis can no longer be considered somebody else’s problem.” said Mohamed Nasheed, the President of the Maldives who was a leading voice in the Climate Vulnerable Forum.

The Task:

The general set goal for the summit is to keep the increasing temperature of the globe below 2C (3.6F). That will happen through the many proposals of the participating countries. Cutting Carbon commission is a major one. Some of the European countries have agreed on cutting greenhouse emissions by 20% by 2020, the set date for these commitments. The United State’s climate change plans call for 17 percent less emissions by 2020 and by 83 percent by 2050. Janos Pasztor, climate adviser to U.N, however, told news agencies that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “”has consulted with a number of heads of state and so far the general feeling seems to be that we should try to complete the job earlier than later.” This has been part of what triggered the White House to consider other options (International agreement) that can be more efficient and faster but cover a shorter term, this is also because of the concern that Congress will fail to pass a climate change legislation this year. Unfortunately, world leaders have decided not to agree on ”Global pact” for climate change action in the Copenhagen summit but rather to come up with a “politically binding” agreement that will set the guidelines for a future pact in a possible forthcoming conference in Mexico City. This does nothing but postpone actions to deal with a urgent and a concerning phenomena such as our man-made-climate change. The postponement is due to recent assessment by the participants of the summit “that it is unrealistic to expect a full internationally, legally binding agreement could be negotiated between now and Copenhagen, which starts in 22 days,” said Michael Froman, the deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs.

In the summit, there will be plans for developed countries to help the developing countries to cut on their emissions through renewable energy sources.

The initiatives also include “measures such as building sea defenses, securing fresh water supplies and developing new crop varieties” as BBC reports.

What The People Are Doing

While the world leaders are set to meet to come up with an agreement to deal with climate change, the media reports that the number of people who believe there is a global warming is declining, much less believe it is caused by human activities.

This is the time to be concerned about our health and the environment. Scientist have said that you don’t have to be an environmentalist to care about the issue because global warming will affect a major element of our lives, the economy.

It will be some time until we will see an effective treatment for climate change but YOU can start Now. Some are doing the Climate Justice Fast, a demonstration to the world to show the need for an urgent action and also ” to inspire those who are already aware of climate change to become more politically active.” Others are holding debates about the issues to be discussed in the Summit. Some have come up with twelve-steps programs for America to become green. You don’t have to fast or go win a debate about climate change, you can even by as simple an action as turning off the light you don’t need.

You also can participate in:

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

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