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Archive for the ‘Global Warming’ Category

WCS – A potential bailout without any authorization from the Texas Legislature?

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , on June 27, 2012 |

We’ve recently realized that TCEQ allowed stock from Waste Control Specialists (WCS) sister company, Titanium Metals Corp to be put up as the financial assurance for their radioactive waste dump and that stock isn’t performing well right now. So we want to know, where does that leave the state of Texas and its citizens?

We hope to have this addressed at the upcoming Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission (Compact Commission) meetings that are coming up this week.

  • Thursday, June 28th 5:30 PM – Joint subcommittee meeting at the Capitol – E1.028 Technical and Legal Committees
    (The process for addressing applications is yet to be determined, although the applications could be voted on the next day)
  • Friday, June 29th – 9 AM Full Compact Commission Meeting – at the Capitol – E1.028
    The Friday meeting should be televised live (but won’t be archived) and will be available for viewing at “Texas legislature online“

Do come to these hearings if you are able.

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NOAA says last 12 months are warmest on record . . . and Texas helped.

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , , , on May 8, 2012 |

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the last 12 months have been the warmest in the U.S. since record keeping began in 1895, averaging 55.7 degrees Fahrenheit — nearly three degrees warmer than the average May-April, and depending on the numbers for May 2012, the June 2011-May 2012 period will likely surpass this 12-month record.

But more importantly, NOAA is concerned about the lack of precipitation and the development of drought going into summer and the agricultural growing season. This includes the regions of: the Southeast, the Southern Rockies and Southern Plains, and the Northeast.  But parts of Texas are already slipping back into drought status.  We hope that the current rains will help Central Texas, but we have a lot of summer to go and our groundwater levels are still at lower than levels than many communities like.

Highlights from the NOAA report:

12-month temps: Between May 2011 and April 2012 temperatures were 2.8 degrees above average, topping the earlier record of 2.7 degrees warmer set in November 1999 to October 2000. All 10 warmest consecutive 12 months have been since 1999.

Cities with record warmth in January-April include: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Philadelphia, Tampa and Washington.

April temps: Last month was the third warmest April on record at 55 degrees — 3.6 degrees above average.

The monthly report follows one issued by the agency for March that found 15,000 records were broken in what is now the warmest March on record.

NOAA does not attribute the warmer temperatures solely to manmade global warming since other, natural factors influence weather as well. Instead, it notes that that the warmth is indicative of what one would expect with climate change.

Texas contributed greatly to the warmth of the nation for the past 12 months.

All-Time Record Highs (Any Month)

These Texas cities recorded temperatures in 2011 that exceeded any temperature on record for any month.

  • Amarillo, Texas – 111 on June 26 (records since 1892)
  • Borger, Texas – 113 on June 26 (records since 1949)
  • Dalhart, Texas – 110 on June 26 (records since 1948)
  • Childress, Texas – 117 on June 26 (records since 1893)
  • Austin, Texas – 112 (tie) on August 28 (records since 1897)
  • Houston, Texas – 109 (tie) on August 27 (records since 1889)

Heat Streaks & Days of 100+ Heat

  • Midland, Texas – Record 64 days with 100+ degree highs in 2011. Previous record: 52 days in 1964.
  • Wichita Falls, Texas – Record 52 straight days with 100+ degree highs June 22 through August 12. Record 100 days of 100+ highs and 12 days of 110+ highs. All previous records from 1980.
  • Austin, Texas – 27 consecutive days with 100-degree highs July 17 through August 12. Breaks previous record of 21 straight days (July 12 – Aug. 1, 2001). 85 days of 100-degree heat in 2011 breaks record of 69 days in 1925.
  • Dallas, Texas – 70 days with 100-degree heat sets new record for any year. Previous record: 69 days in 1980.
  • Waco, Texas – Record 44 straight days with 100-degree highs June 30 – August 12. Record 87 total days of 100+ heat in 2011 (old record from 1980).
  • Tyler, Texas – 46 consecutive days with 100-degree highs June 28 through August 12. 79 days with 100+ highs in 2011 also sets new record.
  • Amarillo, Texas – 50 days with 100-degree heat in 2011 sets new record for any year. 58 straight days of 90+ heat also sets new record.
  • San Angelo, Texas – 98 days with 100-degree heat sets new record for any year.
  • Abilene, Texas – 80 days with 100-degree heat sets new record for any year.
  • Houston, Texas- 24 straight days with 100-degree heat August 1 through August 24 breaks the longest streak on record of 14 days in 1980. 46 days with 100-degree heat      in 2011 breaks record of 32 days in 1980.
  • College Station, Texas – 66 days with 100-degree heat in 2011. Old record 58 days in 1917.
  • Lufkin, Texas – 62 days with 100-degree heat in 2011 breaks record of 42 days in 1998. Record 26 straight days of 100+ degree heat (previous record: 14 straight days in July 1980).
  • Del Rio, Texas – 83 days with 100-degree heat in 2011 breaks record of 78 days in 1953.
  • Victoria, Texas – 56 days with 100-degree heat in 2011 breaks record of 42 days in 1912.

While all indications are that this summer will not be as bad as last summer, there are still concerns about the state’s water supplies, the stability of our electric grid and the impact another drought, even a mild one, will have on the state’s agricultural industry.  So let’s all hope for more rain in May to fill up our lakes and our aquifers.

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Wild Fire Risk in Texas

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , on May 7, 2012 |

The wildfire season has started in Texas as two large fires rage in Jeff Davis County.  The Texas Forest Service, working with Texas A&M University, has developed a website that can provide some information about your area’s risk of wildfire and also tells you what you can do to diminish your risk.

Click here to get to the Texas Wildfire Risk Assessment site.

While the drought has diminished somewhat in parts of the state, we are not out of the woods yet.  Given the devastation of last year’s wildfires here in Texas, knowing more about your risk can help you plan for this possibility.

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A new scientific study for climate change deniers to bash

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , , , , on April 4, 2012 |

MSNBC reports that a scientific paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature on Wednesday concluded that during the end of the last Ice Age (12,000 years ago), global temperatures rose after carbon dioxide levels started to rise.  This provides even more scientific evidence that there is a connection between warming temperatures and rising carbon dioxide.

For this study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, researchers reconstructed temperature records from ice and soil cores at 79 sites around the world from around the same time period.

Earlier studies postulated that changes in Earth’s orbit may have triggered the warming trend by causing ice sheets to melt, but the new study suggests CO2 played a more important role.

Click here to read the MSNBC story that also includes comments by skeptics.

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EHF – going broke. Will Texas declare it “too big to fail”

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , on March 29, 2012 |

The Dallas Observer is reporting that there is a good chance that Energy Future Holdings (EFH) (or TXU for most of us) the state’s largest power generator, will go broke – click here to read their story.

The question now becomes – are Texas ratepayers going to have to pay for EHF’s bad bet?  Two weeks ago, in an op-ed by Public Citizen’s Texas director, Tom “Smitty” Smith, and its policy and outreach specialist for coal and renewable energy, Kaiba White, they wrote about this question.  We have published that op-ed below.

Energy Future Holdings is going broke because of coal and it may be time to pull the plug on the old and dirty coal plants that are bankrupting the company.

Utility after utility has looked at the future of coal and made the decision to retire more than 100 coal plants rather than to retrofit them. If we wait for them to go bankrupt, the choice will be made by the courts, who will sell the plants to the highest bidders and you’ll pay the price in higher costs and unrelenting air pollution.

Energy Future Holdings bet on the wrong fuel when it bought the old TXU. The company got smoked.

TXU was worth about $32.3 billion; EFH paid $45 billion at a time when the price of natural gas was high and the cost of coal was lower than it is now. Today, the costs are reversed. Natural gas prices are at a 10-year low and it’s now cheaper to generate electricity with gas or wind than it is with older, inefficient coal plants. EFH’s generating subsidiary Luminant is very dependent on coal and, as a result, EFH is losing money quarter after quarter, and is losing customers as well.

The losses can’t go on much longer. The big Wall Street analysts and even Warren Buffet, a major EFH investor, are predicting that this company will fold unless natural gas prices rise.

We have known for years that pollution from the big coal plants to the south and east of the DFW area affect air quality in North Texas. Pollution from Big Brown, Martin Lake and Monticello, all owned by Luminant, was estimated to cause 136 early deaths; 204 heart attacks and 149 asthma hospitalizations a year, according to an Abt Associates study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force in 2010. These three plants are the largest sources of sulfur dioxide emissions in Texas and are some of the worst in the country. They also graced the EPA’s top 10 list for nitrogen oxides emissions in Texas.

For more than 20 years the EPA worked on the recently announced rules to reduce pollution from power plants. In order to meet the lower emissions limits, EFH estimates it will have to spend $1.5 billion on pollution controls. The Sierra Club estimates those controls could cost as much as $3.6 billion.

EFH doesn’t have the cash or credit to retrofit these plants. So it has gone on a PR warpath, claiming that the new pollution rules will make the lights go out. Officials are just blowing smoke. We predict they will ask the Texas Legislature to bail them out. Lawmakers shouldn’t rescue these Wall Street slicksters who made a bad investment.

Other Texas coal companies have begun to invest the money and add the pollution control devices needed. CPS of San Antonio looked at the cost to upgrade one of its old coal plants and decided to retire it and invest the money in renewable energy projects, rather than sink the cash into an outdated technology.

Just two weeks ago, GenOn Energy announced it was closing eight coal plants in three states between June 2012 and May 2015 because it would be less expensive to shut them than to fix them up to protect public health.

So what do we do to keep the lights on in Texas? CPS in San Antonio has a plan to replace its old coal plants and create local jobs with energy efficiency, solar and wind energy, and a new natural gas plant. Utilities across the country are doing the same because it’s cheaper than fixing up their old coal plants, reduces healthcare costs and creates local jobs rather than ones at Wyoming coal mines.

The Texas Senate will be studying this issue over the next several months and should develop a plan to reduce air pollution and the risk of bankruptcy while developing new cheaper ways to meet Texas’growing energy needs. But money talks, and EFH has long learned it’s cheaper to invest in politicians and lobbyists than pollution controls. Texans should call their senators and tell them not to let EFH’s smoke get into their eyes. Your tax dollars shouldn’t be used to bail out Wall Street bankers

We’d like to know what you think.            [polldaddy poll=6090363]

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If you build it, radioactive waste will come

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , on March 28, 2012 |

With the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission (TLLRWDCC) approving rules that open up of the WCS dump site to out of compact waste, we may soon see low level radioactive waste from Nebraska Public Power District’s nuclear facility heading to Texas.

The deal between WCS and Nebraska’s Cooper Nuclear Station still must be finalized, but the waste they are looking to send would include radioactive resins, filters and other equipment.  Currently, low-level waste from Cooper Nuclear Station is stored in on-site pools that also hold used nuclear fuel rods because no other disposal site took either out of compact waste, or did not take the “hotter” C level waste.

With the opening up of the Texas waste site, you can bet other nuclear power plants around the country are looking to free up space in their spent fuel pools as these aging plants near the end of their planned life.  Many of these plants are at a point where they are looking to get relicensed, and with the lack of a national respository for the spent fuel rods, will need to show that they have adequate on site storage for another 20 years of spent fuel.  Removing “low-level” radioactive waste from on site is going to be important to that process, and Texas is looking good to them as an option to making that happen.

While there was concern about there being enough room at the WCS site for Texas and Vermont (the two states in our Compact), the commission set aside space for our two states, however you can be sure other states will be clamoring for what’s left.  Then what – an expansion of the site?

Oh, just another thing to ponder over.  The San Antonio Current reported in their Que Que blog that in 1992, an earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale struck Lea County, New Mexico, just across the Texas-New Mexico border from the radioactive waste dump operated by Waste Control Specialists in western Andrews County.

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EPA Sets First Limits on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , on March 27, 2012 |

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency issued the first limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants.

“Today we’re taking a common-sense step to reduce pollution in our air, protect the planet for our children, and move us into a new era of American energy,” EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said in a statement announcing the limits. “Right now there are no limits to the amount of carbon pollution that future power plants will be able to put into our skies – and the health and economic threats of a changing climate continue to grow.”

This rule has been years in the making and was approved by the White House after months of review.  The rule will require any new power plant to emit no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt of electricity produced. The average U.S. natural gas plant, which emits 800 to 850 pounds of CO2 per megawatt, meets that standard; coal plants emit an average of 1,768 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt which could essentially end the construction of conventional coal-fired facilities in the United States.

The rule provides an exception for coal plants that are already permitted and beginning construction within a year. There are about 20 coal plants pursuing permits; two of them would meet the new standard with advanced pollution controls.  The proposal does not cover existing plants.

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Governor Perry names Toby Baker to replace Garcia at TCEQ

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , on March 26, 2012 |

On Friday, Governor Perry announced he is appointing Toby Baker, a former policy and budget advisor to Perry on energy, natural resources and agriculture, to replace Garcia who continues to serve in a TCEQ commissioner’s spot that officially expired in August 31, 2011.  Mr. Baker’s term will begin April 16 and will expire Aug. 31, 2017.

At the governor’s office, Baker has also served as a liaison between the office and Texas Legislature, Railroad Commission, TCEQ, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas Department of Agriculture and the Texas Animal Health Commission. Formerly, he also worked as a natural resources policy advisor to Sen. Craig Estes (R-Wichita Falls) and is a former director and clerk of the Texas Senate Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Affairs and Coastal Resources.

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President Obama Sacrifices Gas Policy for Gas Politics on Keystone XL Pipeline

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , on March 22, 2012 |

Statement of Trevor Lovell, Environmental Program Coordinator,  Public Citizen’s Texas Office

It is unfortunate that President Barack Obama has decided to ignore news stories in Business Week, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News and Financial Post, among others, explaining in simple terms how the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline will raise gas prices for American consumers.

Public Citizen has long warned about Keystone’s health and safety risks, the environmental devastation associated with tar sands mining and its disproportionate impact on global climate change, and the unconscionable contributions to local air pollution in Port Arthur, Texas. Port Arthur is one of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “Environmental Justice Showcase Communities” due to a concentration of environmental health risks that disproportionally burden minority communities.

But Keystone XL also poses another risk – a risk to U.S. consumers and the fragile economic recovery. Analysts and economists agree that building the southern leg of this pipeline will alleviate a glut of oil in Cushing, Okla., and allow more oil products to be exported to other countries, thereby reducing domestic supply and raising gas prices.

The southern leg of this pipeline does not bring oil into the country (a goal our organization does not endorse), but does create a clear path to get oil out to export markets. Since refined oil products are now the largest export commodity in the U.S., it is obvious that pushing more oil to the Gulf Coast will result in more export activity and less supply for Americans.

Today, Public Citizen renews its call for the president and relevant agencies to treat this pipeline as a tar sands pipeline. As construction has not yet begun, it would be imprudent to build the pipeline when we anticipate new findings from a congressionally mandated study on the unique dangers of tar sands pipelines, which may inform new regulations for this industry.

Texas may be an oil and gas state, but the health and safety of our citizens is no less important than it is anywhere else. Our water resources are threatened now more than ever, and this pipeline would cross the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer in East Texas, which serves 60 counties and as many as 12 million people. When the presidential permit was denied earlier this year, the inadequate study of threats to Nebraskan water resources was cited as a central concern. Apparently water resources in Texas do not require the same kind of thorough review. Texans deserve protection from our elected and appointed leaders, and today President Obama has shown he is ready to sacrifice that protection for election-year politics.

—————————————————————————————————————————

Below is a statement issued by Independent Texans by Julia Triggs Crawford

Response from Julia Trigg Crawford to President Obama’s support for TransCanada’s Keystone Pipeline Project

Julia Trigg Crawford, a Texas farmer who is challenging TransCanada’s use of eminent domain to take an easement across her property for TransCanada’s Keystone pipeline, issued the following statement in response to President Obama’s Thursday morning press conference in Cushing, OK:

“Today President Obama indicated he’s taking an “All of the Above” strategy to his energy policy, and in doing so will expedite the Cushing to Houston leg of TransCanada’s pipeline. While his decision was not unexpected, it is disappointing that this issue continues to be a political football during this election game.”

“Where I come from you’re only as good as your word, and I am proud to stand by my principles no matter the pressure that’s applied. And there’s no doubt about it, TransCanada’s applying pressure anywhere they can, from Washington D.C. to small towns along the proposed pipeline route, and not everyone can hold up.”

“I stand by my belief that TransCanada illegally asserts that its pipeline is a common carrier and is for the public good. My attorneys tell me we have a strong case and we are eagerly awaiting our day in court. Should we win, and I wouldn’t be in this fight if I didn’t think we would, I hope that our case will give strength to other landowners who are still fighting for their property, and to those being bullied by a company falsely wielding the club of eminent domain.”

“I’m just a farmer caring for a piece of good Texas earth, up against a foreign corporation with the power to bend the will of a President, so I’m under no delusion that this will be easy. I am reaching out to my fellow Americans and anyone who believes in an individual’s right to private property to help me in this fight. You can go to www.standwithjulia.com to take action and to contribute to our legal defense fund so that we can face TransCanada on an even playing field.”

“So here is my “All of the Above“ strategy. Stand by one’s principles, hold onto and protect those property rights afforded to every American by the United States Constitution, and never bow to pressure that runs contrary to the promises you’ve made”.

“Thank you and God bless.”
Julie Triggs Crawford

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What good are rules if they are not enforced?

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , on March 21, 2012 |

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has a proposal to pardon as many as 3,000 environmental rule breakers.

Tell the TCEQ that pardoning polluters is no way to make the air and water in Texas cleaner.

The TCEQ is changing the rules to allow those with a “poor” record of complying with Texas’ weak environmental laws to be upgraded to “satisfactory” — which means they would get fewer inspections, lower fines and new permits granted more easily.

In addition, the new rules would allow the TCEQ’s executive director to pardon “repeat” violators — without even explaining why.

The TCEQ refuses to tell us which polluters get the break. When we asked, they sent us almost 10,000 pages of unsortable data.

Actions like these tell citizens that the TCEQ would rather dole out favors for polluters than protect the health of Texans.

Tell the TCEQ not to give rule breakers a pass.

The TCEQ is the world’s second largest environmental agency. Taxpayers have a right to expect the agency to enforce a minimum standard of regulatory compliance. Lowering the grading standard does not mean businesses perform better — it just means the TCEQ is slacking on enforcement.

The deadline for voicing your concerns to the TCEQ is this Friday, March 23, so take action right now.

See the press release that went out from several advocates here. 2012-03-21 Press release – Texas Pardons Pollution

You can download an ASCII file of all compliance histories statewide by clicking here.

You can download the TCEQ test report on the current data by clicking here.

You can download a file that Public Compiled from the current compliance history data and compared side by side with the test data by clicking here.

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Comment Period for TCEQ Compliance History rule changes extended to March 23rd

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , on March 19, 2012 |

The comment period for the proposed new TCEQ Compliance History rules was extended in large part due to Public Citizen making the public aware that the TCEQ had run test scores on their data from the previous year’s posting but were not willing to release that information to us, the Austin American Statesman or the public.  When they did release the data and then subsequently extend the comment period, the data was not in a format that was useful to most folks.

After much wrangling with the agency, they finally released the test scores this afternoon and they can be accessed below:

Proposed Chapter 60 Compliance History Test Scores

The test Compliance History scores for proposed revision to 30 TAC Chapter 60 (Compliance History) rule are available here.

The test Compliance History scores available below are intended to provide approximations of what scores might look like under the Commission’s proposed Chapter 60 (Compliance History) rule.  These scores were generated as part of the agency’s proposed rulemaking process.

These are not official Compliance History scores and therefore, are not subject to the Chapter 60 appeal process. Due to computer programming limitations during rule development , individual scores do not reflect all aspects of the formula as proposed. Rather, the scores represent approximate numbers using a simplified model, as explained below. Limitations include the following:

  • The scores were generated using applicable compliance-history data from September 1, 2006–August 31, 2011, made public on October 1, 2011 and thus to regulated entities so they can make corrections, as necessary, since that date.  Upon rule adoption, new compliance-history scores will be generated using data from September 1, 2007–August 31, 2012.
  • The scores do not accurately reduce points for compliance with administrative orders. Under the proposed rule, two years after the effective date of an order, if an entity is compliant with all ordering provisions and has resolved all violations, the points attributable to that order will be reduced.  The reduction will be 25 percent for year three, 50 percent for year four, and 75 percent for year five.  The simplified model does not take into consideration compliance with the order. Therefore, under the simplified model, all orders receive the total reductions allowed each year under the proposed rule.  Entities that have not yet achieved compliance with an order receive a reduction under the simplified model that is not warranted.
  • Points awarded for “small entities” are not completely reflective of the proposed rule.  Under the proposed rule, points are allocated to small entities.  The simplified model allocates points for small businesses but does not allocate points for small cities and counties.
  • Reductions for voluntary programs are not completely reflective of the proposed rule.  The proposed rule allows for a maximum 25% reduction of compliance history points for implementing voluntary programs, such as an environmental management system.  If an entity has multiple voluntary programs, the simplified model does not accurately apply reductions for all programs.
  • Changes to the proposed formula and associated compliance-history components may be made as part of the rule adoption process.  Any changes to the proposed formula or components as a result of the rulemaking process would change scores that will be calculated on September 1, 2012.

To download test Compliance History scores click the link below:

http://www.tceq.texas.gov/enforcement/history/compliance-history-test-data.html

Please note that these reports are large files and, depending on your connection speed, may take several minutes to download.

These scores will only be available to download for the duration of the Chapter 60 public-comment period, which has been extended and will close on March 23, 2012.

You may comment on this rule via eComments.

We have provided sample comments for you to use in submitting your own.  We have also provided information on where and how to submit your comments below.

Comments of _Your name here_ on 2011-032-060-CE: HB 2694 (4.01 and Article 4): Compliance History Draft Rules.

Polluter-friendly amendments, proposed in the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality’s new regulatory rules, serve to increase the degree of noncompliance a company is permitted with no consequence. More noncompliance means more unauthorized toxins in the air, water, and ground in communities across Texas.

We are unsatisfied with the compliance history proposals because:

  • The TCEQ has jurisdiction over 250,000 entities all around the state. Holding one public hearing at 10 a.m. in Austin does not give citizens enough of an opportunity to give feedback. I would like to have a meeting hosted at the TCEQ office in my region so that I can participate in this process.
  • Increased compliance history leniency will cut the percentage of companies considered unsatisfactory from 5% to a mere 3% without reducing an ounce of pollution.  Compliance standards should be raised the longer a regulation has been in place, not made less effective by changing the unsatisfactory rating cutoff from 45 to 55 noncompliance points.
  • The executive director will be able to pardon polluters at his discretion—instead of adhering to a standard protocol. Why have formal classifications if the director can reclassify an entity or decide that a repeat violator charge should not apply? This is a nontransparent, unstipulated and unacceptable loophole.
  • Polluters will improve their compliance history score by signing up for supplemental environmental programs, regardless of effectiveness. Mere participation in a voluntary pollution reduction points does not warrant a 5% reward. The formula should call for measured returns for measured results.
  • The TCEQ has not presented information that calculates how the new formula will affect entities. Given the denseness of the proposal’s language, I would like to have a way to interpret the new compliance history ratings.
  • The proposed language for repeat violations would make it very difficult for any facility with many “complexity points” to ever be considered a repeat violator. Because so many points are given for different kinds of permits, authorizations and even hazardous waste units, getting to “25” complexity points will be easy for any large industrial facility or major entity, meaning that the only way they would be penalized for being a repeat violator would be to have four or more violations over the last five years.

I urge you to utilize TCEQ’s rulemaking process to implement changes that will benefit the health, communities, and resources of Texas citizens and not the pocketbook interests of businesses.

Comments due by 5pm on March 23, 2012.

Texas Register Team – MC 205 General Law Division Office of Legal Services TCEQ P.O. Box 13087 Austin, TX 78711-3087

Tips on Commenting Effectively

You will be providing comments for the rulemaking – 2011-032-060-CE: HB 2694 (4.01 and Article 4): Compliance History

  • Identify who you are and why the regulation affects you;
  • Explain why you agree or disagree with the proposed rulemaking;
  • Be direct in your comment; and
  • Offer alternatives, compromise solutions, and specific language for your suggested changes.

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ACT and other organizations sign on to comments on the TCEQ Compliance History Rules

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , on March 15, 2012 |

Last week, Public Citizen filed comments that had been developed with other Alliance for Clean Texas (ACT) partners.  Since we filed our comments, the TCEQ agreed to  extend the  comment period.  We have simple comments in an earlier blog for citizens to submit, but if you want more detailed comments for developing your own, take a look at these. ACT Comments on TCEQ Compliance History Rule

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2012 Tornado Season: Fasten your seat belts boys, it might just be a bumpy ride.

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , , , on February 23, 2012 |

While March is generally considered to be the beginning of tornado season, this year the season got an early and deadly start in late January when two people were killed by separate twisters in Alabama, and just yesterday, dozens of homes were damaged by a tornado in Georgia that knocked out power and forced schools to close. Preliminary reports showed 95 tornadoes struck last month, compared with 16 in January 2011.

The season usually starts in March and ramps up over the next couple of months, but forecasting tornado seasons is even more imprecise than predicting hurricane seasons. Small and too short-lived, tornados eluded scientists’ ability to make seasonal predictions. They pop in and pop out, and if the weather service can let people know 20 minutes in advance, it’s considered a victory.  Despite the difficulties in predicting the tornado season, forecasters are telling the Southeast and heartland to get ready again.

All this is remincent of one of the worst tornado years in U.S. history. Tornadoes in 2011 started on New Year’s Day killing hundreds, injuring thousands and causing billions in damage. The 2011 season continued on to break records for the most tornadoes in a single day and in a single month.  Still, tornado experts just don’t know what that means for this year.  Keep in mind, climate scientists have told us that the impacts of climate change include more incidences of extreme weather events, so folks should be aware as we head into another tornado season.

You just might want to bookmark the following two websites:

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A plan to teach climate change skepticism in schools leaked

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , on February 17, 2012 |

The other day at a dinner party I sat across from a climate scientist (seriously, a professor at a major university in the earth sciences department), who commented that his trips to the Artic this summer were somewhat daunting.  When I asked him who were all these folks Governor Perry said were funding work like his in support of the science of climate change, he said he’d like to know that too since he wasn’t getting any of that funding and in fact could probably get rich and have the ire of his colleagues heaped upon him if he took the opposite stance.

Now, according to MSNBC, internal documents have been leaked from the Heartland Institute, a Chicago nonprofit think tank, showing its plans to fund leading skeptics of global warming and develop a curriculum to teach climate change skepticism in schools (K-12). An anonymous person leaked the documents to several publications and activists supporting the science of climate change which is funded by huge corporate and foundation funding from U.S. businesses, including Microsoft, Koch Industries, Altria (parent company of Philip Morris) RJR Tobacco and more.  Click here to read the MSNBC article.

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A little bit of rain, a little less drought?

Posted in Coal Plants, Global Warming, Nuclear Plants, Water, tagged , on February 10, 2012 |

drought monitor Feb 7, 2012While only 23 percent of Texas remains under “exceptional” drought, 90% of the state is still under some level of drought in spite of the recent rains many parts of the state have experienced.  But we can’t get cocky, as the U.S. seasonal drought outlook indicates most of Texas can expect the drought to persist or intensify through April of this year.  If we are lucky, the next outlook won’t be so dire as we head toward another Texas summer, hopefully not like our last one.

Drought Outlook thru April, 2012

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