It’s Monday, the day after the first day of summer, and it’s time for another Texas Progressive Alliance blog roundup.
President Obama, Bill White, and John Sharp are all in the same sinking DOMA boat. The Texas Cloverleaf comes off of hiatus to tell you why.
CouldBeTrue from South Texas Chisme cheers the impeachment of Judge Kent. 4 articles passed without a single nay. Lets hope the Senate is through with him by August.
BossKitty at TruthHugger finally signed up for Twitter to get updates on the Iran protests. What a day of drama and emotion it brought, Icons and Martyrs – All Day On Twitter Watching Iran. I was really meaning to highlight the regressive influences causing upheaval in personal lives, especially in Texas. Immigration Policies and Gay Rights – Contradictions
Unlike Nevada Republican Senator John Ensign, Neil at Texas Liberal makes a promise he’ll keep – He’ll never cheat on his wife! Also, Neil sings the Damned’s Wait For The Blackout at the Houston Ship Channel.
Off the Kuff takes a look, then a second look, at the bills Governor Perry vetoed.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson knows in order to solve big problems it takes leadership, Who is willing to lead, who has enough LBJ in them?.
Castle Hills Democrats heard candidates Tom Schieffer, John Sharp, Bill White, and Neil Durrance speak at the Dual County Fish Fry in north Texas. The blogger reviews their messages–and reports on feedback from the Dems in the audience. Continue Reading »
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged big gas, bill white, bluedaze, bosskitty, brains and eggs, burnt orange report, Capitol Annex, castle hill democrats, couldbetrue, drilling reform, eye on williamson, houston ship channel, hydraulic fracturing, iran, john ensign, john sharp, kansas, left of college station, liberaltexan, mcblogger, nevada, off the kuff, planned parenthood, south texas chisme, Texas, texas cloverleaf, texas liberal, texas progressive alliance, texaskaos, three wise men, truthhugger, Twitter, txsharon, wcnews, whosplayin, xanthippas |
You are invited to learn about and provide input to the Austin Pecan Street Project tomorrow, June 23 from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Capital Area Workforce Board, 6505 Airport Blvd., Suite 101-E (please enter from the Highland Mall side of the building).
The Pecan Street Project is an initiative charged with exploring the challenges Austin faces in building a modern energy system, including a smart grid. On September 25, 2008, the Austin City Council adopted a resolution directing the city to work with Environmental Defense Fund and other community stakeholders, to conduct an analysis of system improvements, technology advances, and business models that would enable Austin Energy to more fully develop its capacity for the distributed generation of clean energy.
Attendees will be provided information about the project, followed by an invitation to participate in breakout sessions encouraging discussion and soliciting feedback about the project’s technology, system design, financial and economic development aspects.
The project is a partnership among the City of Austin, Austin Energy, University of Texas, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and Environmental Defense Fund. The project has already garnered 11 corporate partnerships, including Dell Inc., IBM Corporation, Intel, Cisco Systems and others.
For a primer on just what a “smart grid” is, check out the following video. Hope to see you at the meeting tomorrow!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrcqA_cqRD8]
For more information on the Pecan Street Project, check out their YouTube channel and watch a couple of their videos.
Posted in Efficiency, Energy | Tagged airport blvd, Austin, austin city council, Austin Energy, capital area workforce board, Clean Energy, highland mall, pecan street project, smart grid, Texas, University of Texas |
An abandoned WPPSS cooling Tower
Whoops is a word with a negative connotation. It is also a word commonly associated, for better or worse, with Northwest Energy. It is an association they been trying to shake since the 1980s. They even went as far as to pay $260,000 in a 1998 lawsuit to avoid being associated with the stigma of Whoops.
It all began in late 1950’s, when the coalition of utilities now known as Northwest Energy originally came together under the name Washington Public Power Supply (WPPSS, pronounced whoops). During the seventies they developed an ambitious plan to build 5 nuclear power plants, funded by municipal bonds. For a decade the project was plagued with delays, surprise expenses and plan revisions. WPPSS had to contend with inflation, high interest rates, constantly changing safety requirements, shifting public opinion and a management team that had no experience in building nuclear power plants.
By the early eighties the estimated cost of completing the project had jumped from $4.1 billion to $23.8 billion. The WPPSS managers decided that completing the project was too expensive to be feasible and chose to default on the $2.25 billion in borrowed money they had already spent. This became the largest municipal bonds default in U.S history, and it created a decades worth of law suits from angry investors and did considerable damage to the regional economy. Responsibility for paying this money eventually fell on the member utilities, or more specifically, their customers. When in 1988 WPPSS reach a $753 million dollar settlement with many of its investors, most of them received just 10 to 40 cents per each dollar they invested.
The disaster dubbed “Whoops” has haunted WPPSS for years. By 1998, the entity decided to change its name to Northwest Energy and paid another company with the same name $260,000 for the rights to that name. This was done primarily because the WPPSS name and the reputation that went with it was hurting business. For years the remains of the abandoned power plants have stood, as well as the debt owed by the rate payers of the utilities to remind us of the Whoops debacle.
This is a really unfortunate story, but there are many important lessons to be learned from it. First of all, it shows that nuclear power plants are and have always been very expensive to build, and even more expensive to build if the appropriate safety precautions are made. This is especially true if the bill is paid by investors and the government is not pitching in. Nuclear power is literally the most expensive known way of boiling water and we should not trust claims that it is cheap. Secondly, it teaches us that we should not lock ourselves into using energy plans that are unable to adapt to changes in the economy, safety standards and consumer preferences. The story of the “Whoops” debacle should serve as a warning, as well, to entities planning on building new nuclear plants here in Texas.
Northwest Energy has expanded its game into many other energy sources over the past 3 decades. These include wind, solar and biomass. Unfortunately they have recently expressed interest in not only expanding their coal burning facilities, but are also talking about building a new nuclear plant, possibly at the location of one of the sites abandoned during the eighties.
I would urge anyone who is not satisfied with the cost effectiveness or the safety of nuclear power to voice their concern and openly question the reasoning used to justify the building of a new WPPSS plant.
The Disappointed Environmentalist
Posted in Energy, Nuclear | Tagged municipal bonds default, northwest energy, Nuclear Power, nuke, nukes, Texas, washington public power supply, whoops, wppss |
Oral Hearing Set for June 23rd-June 24th in Bay City, TX
Citizen opposition to more nuclear reactors in Texas continues. On June 23rd-24th an oral hearing will be held before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board on the Citizens’ Petition to Intervene in South Texas Project (STP) Nuclear Power Plant Units 3 and 4.
SEED Coalition, Public Citizen and South Texas Association for Responsible Energy are petitioners seeking to intervene in the proposed expansion of South Texas Project.
“Building two more nuclear reactors at STP is not in the best interest of the local community,” said Susan Dancer, a local wildlife rehabilitator. “Pursuing the most expensive and most water intensive energy source in a time of extraordinary drought and economic recession makes no sense. The local community will get stuck with more radioactive waste and bear heavy infrastructure costs if the proposed reactors get built. The existing reactors have not solved local economic problems.” Dancer chairs the Bay City based organization South Texas Association for Responsible Energy (STARE).
Attorney Robert V. Eye will represent the petitioners before the designated Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel and argue the admissibility of the 28 contentions citizens filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on April 21st. These contentions point out the inadequacies and the incompleteness of South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company’s (STPNOC) combined operating license application (COLA) to construct and operate South Texas Project Units 3 and 4. NRG Energy and San Antonio’s municipal utility CPS Energy are both applicants for the proposed reactors, which fall within STPNOC.
“NRG has failed to comply with new federal regulations regarding aircraft impacts,” stated Mr. Eye. “These new regulations are very specific and require the applicant to plan for catastrophic fires and/or explosions that would cause the loss of major critical functional components in the plant. After 9-11, an aircraft attack on a nuclear power plant is a real and credible threat. Moreover, fire hazards represent about half of the risk of a nuclear reactor meltdown. NRG’s noncompliance with these regulations puts citizens around South Texas Project in a dangerous position, which is completely unacceptable.” Continue Reading »
Posted in Energy, Nuclear | Tagged aircraft impacts, atomic safety and licensing board, bay city, bay city civic center, bob eye, clarence johnson, cola, colorado river, combined operating license application, CPS Energy, drought, economic recession, glenrose engineering, groundwater, high level radioactive waste, lauren ross, NRC, nuclear expansion, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, oral hearing, petition to intervene, Public Citizen, radioactive waste, robert v. eye, SEED Coalition, south texas association for responsible energy, South Texas Project, stare, steven chu, storage, susan dancer, Texas, Water Quality, yucca mountain |
It’s Tuesday, and that means it’s time once again to present the best of the Texas Progressive Alliance blog posts for the week.
TXsharon can’t choose one post this week! It’s a toss up between the aerial video view of Barnett Shale Industrial Wasteland Texas or the Barnett Shale drilling induced earthquakes or Erin Brockovich does Midland or the governmental warnings about defective pipeline materials on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.
Xanthippas at Three Wise Men blogs about how utterly ridiculous it is for us to pay a tiny South Pacific nation to take Guantanamo Bay detainees because we are a nation of bed-wetting, pearl-clutching morons.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson analyzes what might possibly happen in the upcoming special session, Perry calls a special – what gets done is up to him.
Off the Kuff looks at a Lone Star Project report on State Rep. Dwayne Bohac and his questionable relationship with an employee of the Harris County Tax Assessor’s office.
BossKitty at TruthHugger sees a growing pandemic of hate that erupts in violence. See the diagnosis: Scapegoat Lessons: Holocaust Museum ‘Act Of Cowardice’
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is glad that Judge Kent is going to jail. Too bad his sentence wasn’t longer. CBT can hardly wait to see his impeachment hearing in the senate.
This week, McBlogger finds out that the 290E tollway will be built using stimulus dollars. Which means Austinites will pay three different taxes to support this road.
John at Bay Area Houston> wonders about the lack of diversity at the Nancy Pelosi event in Houston.
George at The Texas Blue thinks that forced arbitration with credit card and cell phone companies is fundamentally unjust, but forced arbitration in a rape case is just disgusting.
Teddy at Left of College Station, reports on whether or not America is actually becoming more “pro-life” and looks deeper into the polls to find that opinions on reproductive rights are much more complicated, and Left of College Station also covers this week in the headlines.
Neil at Texas Liberal writes about Juneteenth. Juneteeth is June 19th and it has a Galveston origin.
Midland’s chromium 6 contamination got more linkage from PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.
Over at TexasKaos, liberaltexan asks, what exactly does the latest abortion survey mean? He answers not much new, since it does a poor job of asking the question and sorting out the nuances of public opinion. See the rest here: Are More Americans Pro-Life?
Justin at AAA-Fund Blog took some time to remember Tim Russert.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 290E, aaa-fund, Barnett shale, bay area houston, bluedaze, bosskitty, brains and eggs, burnt orange report, Capitol Annex, cbt, chromium 6, couldbetrue, drilling reform, dwayne bohac, erin brockovich, eye on williamson, galveston, guantanamo bay, harris county, holocaust museum, impeachment, judge kent, juneteenth, left of college station, liberaltexan, lone star project, mcblogger, midland, off the kuff, south texas chisme, special session, tax assessor, Texas, texas liberal, texas progressive alliance, texaskaos, three wise men, tim russert, truthhugger, txsharon, wcnews, whosplayin, xanthippas |
[vimeo 5133131]
Two of the 12 newly proposed coal plants in Texas recently had preliminary hearings for their waste water permits: “Oak Grove” in Robertson County and “Coleto Creek” west of Victoria. In both cases the local groups opposed to the plants got “standing” (meaning they can participate in the actual contested case hearings which will be held near the end of the year). Robertson County Our Land, Our Lives is the local group opposing the Oak Grove plant, and Citizens for a Clean Environment is the group opposed to the Coleto Creek power plant.
Both of these groups received standing due to the fact that they had members who lived extremely close to the plant site, and bordered the water outfall from the plant. In the Oak Grove case, a local ranch (The Rolke Ranch) was denied standing even though the outfall creek ran through about 4 miles of their property. They were denied because they lived more than just a few miles away from the plant – it was estimated they were a little less than 10 miles away.
Posted in Coal | Tagged citizens for a clean environment, coal plant, coleto creek, coleto creek power plant, Oak Grove, our land our lives, robertson county, rolke ranch, Texas, Victoria, waste water |
June 12, 2009 by Citizen Carol
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies National Commission to Engage African Americans on Climate Change and Commission Co-Chair State Senator Rodney Ellis
present
A TOWN HALL MEETING ON
CLIMATE CHANGE and
GREEN JOBS
Moderated by: Gene Norman
Chief Meteorologist, KHOU Channel 11
WHO
-
Congressman Al Green
- Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee
- State Sen. Mario Gallegos
- Rep. Garnet Coleman
- Rep. Sylvester Turner
- Rep. Ana Hernandez
- Rep. Alma Allen
- Rep. Carol Alvarado
- City Councilmember Ronald Green
- City Councilmember Jolanda Jones
- NAACP – Houston Branch
- American Association of Blacks in Energy- Houston Chapter
- Houston Citizen’s Chamber of Commerce
- Houston Area Urban League
- Public Citizen
- Environment Texas
- Environmental Defense Fund
- Sierra Club
- Houston ACORN
WHERE
Communications Workers of America, Local 6222
1730 Jefferson Street, Houston, TX 77003
WHEN
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Registration will open at 5:30 p.m. and refreshments will be provided.
For more information, contact:
Dallas Jones or Brandon Dudley
Office of Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis
713-236-0306
Dallas.Jones@senate.state.tx.us
or
Royce Brooks
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
202-789-3528
rbrooks@jointcenter.org
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged Houston Climate change green jobs, Texas |
For any of you global warming denier trolls lurking out there, here you finally have it: ANOTHER final study that undeniably shows a link between manmade greenhouse gas emissions and the warming that has occurred.
Yes, yes, and the sky is blue as well. AND the Earth revolves around the sun. I know most of us don’t need more scientific evidence that putting pollution in the atmosphere fundamentally disrupts the climate, but what is most interesting about this study is it calculates a precise amount of warming per ton of CO2 or equivalent:
Until now, it has been difficult to estimate how much climate will warm in response to a given carbon dioxide emissions scenario because of the complex interactions between human emissions, carbon sinks, atmospheric concentrations and temperature change. Matthews and colleagues show that despite these uncertainties, each emission of carbon dioxide results in the same global temperature increase, regardless of when or over what period of time the emission occurs.
These findings mean that we can now say: if you emit that tonne of carbon dioxide, it will lead to 0.0000000000015 degrees of global temperature change.
If we want to restrict global warming to no more than 2 degrees, we must restrict total carbon emissions — from now until forever — to little more than half a trillion tonnes of carbon, or about as much again as we have emitted since the beginning of the industrial revolution.
The full article will eb published in the June 11 edition of Nature.
And if that wasn’t enough, this from the HuffPo about coal ash:
Aerial photo of the Kingston fly ash spill
Just how bad has the coal ash situation gotten in the United States? So bad that the Department of Homeland Security has told Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) that her committee can’t publicly disclose the location of coal ash dumps across the country.
The pollution is so toxic, so dangerous, that an enemy of the United States — or a storm or some other disrupting event — could easily cause them to spill out and lay waste to any area nearby.
There are 44 sites deemed by the Environmental Protection Agency to be high hazard, but Boxer said she isn’t allowed to talk about them other than to senators in the states affected. “There is a huge muzzle on me and my staff,” she said.
“Homeland Security and the Army Corps [of Engineers] have decided in the interests of national security they can’t make these sites known,” she said.
There are several hundred coal ash piles across the nation, she said, all of them unregulated.
“If these coal ash piles were to fail they’d pose a threat to the people nearby,” she said. While keeping it from the public, DHS is alerting first responders as to the location of the piles.
“I believe it is essential to let people know,” said Boxer, arguing that if people knew what was in their backyard they’d press public officials to clean it up and protect the area. “I think secrecy might lead to inaction…I am pressing on this.”
Especially in the wake of Kingston fly ash disaster, which was the worst environmental disaster ever in the US– worse even than the Exxon Valdez- this seems pretty simple to me: climate change is caused by greenhouse gases, coal is the major contributor to CO2 emissions, coal ash is so dangerous we can’t even know where the dumps are because of national security… so, let’s stop burning coal? That’s a solution so easy, it’s not surprising anyone in Washington (or for that matter, Austin) hasn’t proposed it. Oh wait, we have. It’s called a coal moratorium, and we should be doing it. For more info, visit www.coalblock.org
Posted in Coal, Energy, Global Warming | Tagged Barbara Boxer, Carbon Dioxide, climate change, co2, Coal, coal ash, coal ash slurry spill, coal ash spill, coal ash waste, Global Warming, greenhouse gas, greenhouse gas emissions, Kingston, Texas |
We were ecstatic when we heard from Congressman Doggett’s office that he would be signing on as an original cosponsor of the Fair Elections Now Act, a bill which would create a public financing system for Congressional candidates. 
Public financing means that instead of spending hours a day raising money on the phone, our elected leaders can instead take money allocated to them by the government for their campaigns. No longer would any constituent have to worry that their leaders could be “bought” by their campaign donations, and no campaign donor could ever try to attach any strings, real or implied, to their donations.
Public Citizen has long been an advocate for getting money out of Washington. This is the biggest and best step we can take to make this happen.
Congressman Doggett is a leader on this issue, and will hopefully bring more attention to this issue as it moves along. We’d like to thank him, and hope you will as well, by calling his Austin office 512-916-5921 or by writing a letter to the editor of the Austin American Statesman or your other local paper (I’m looking at you, Hays County — he’s your Rep too!)
We’re all incredibly lucky to have a Representative like Congressman Doggett. He is joined in support of Fair Elections Now by Rep. Gene Green of Houston. Silvestre Reyes of El Paso is also on the record for supporting public financing, but has not yet signed on to the bill.
Posted in Campaign Finance | Tagged Austin Congressman Lloyd Doggett, Congressman Doggett, Fair Elections, Fair Elections Now Act, Lloyd Doggett, public financing, Texas |
Earlier this week, Governor Perry announced that he would, in fact, call back legislators for an extended special session. What exactly this session will cover (voter ID? please no!) remains unclear, but the Governor has committed to addressing the “sunset safety net” bill that was left on the table.
The Houston Chronicle reports,
The governor had hoped to avoid a special session to keep intact the Texas Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Insurance, as well as three others that were not renewed, but calling lawmakers back to the Capitol proved to be the only option.
The other agencies are the Texas Racing Commission, which regulates horse and dog tracks; the Office of Public Insurance Counsel, which represents the public in insurance rate cases; and the State Affordable Housing Corporation, which links low-to-moderate-income people with potential home purchase lenders.
The five agencies are set to go out of existence on Sept. 1, 2010, because the legislation reauthorizing them did not pass.
If the specter of having no department at all for transportation, insurance, or affordable housing is scary enough to call a special session, I wonder what other issues the Governor will decide are important enough to address in a special session.
Certainly of note is the specter of Texas losing its leadership role in creating jobs tied to clean energy. According to a new study by Pew Charitable Group on the clean energy economy, Texas ranks 2nd in businesses (4,802) and jobs (55,646) tied to the sector.
This is an exciting piece of information, especially considering that the clean energy industry grew twice as fast as the rest of the economy over the last decade. Furthermore, Pew cited our renewable energy policies as a critical aspect of the state’s wind power explosion.
This information makes it even more painful that we weren’t able to pass similar legislation to jump-start Texas’ solar economy. Especially when as soon as the session ended with solar still on the table, Tennessee Senators started saying they would be happy to take the solar jobs Texas snubbed.
Senator Jim Kyle of Memphis was actually quoted as saying, “Legislators in Texas have yanked the welcome mat for an industry that could pay huge dividends for their economy. To any company that had an eye on Texas, we say come on up to Tennessee.”
Salt, meet my wounds. Not only has Texas missed out on a great economic opportunity, but now we’re going to be one-upped by Tennessee? Unacceptable.
But with a special session upcoming, Texas may have another chance to revisit that solar legislation — which, by the way, passed with bipartisan support. Everyone was on board for solar, we just ran out of time to get the nuts and bolts right. Tragic.
Senator Rodney Ellis of Houston recently announced that he would like for the special session to take up lost clean energy legislation. In a statement earlier this week, he said
Texas became rich from fossil fuels, but we could easily lose our position as an energy leader because of fossilized thinking. We could create far more wealth and jobs from wind and solar energy, but only we aggressively pursue clean energy opportunities. Unfortunately, we missed a golden opportunity this session one the governor should address if he calls a special session.
Posted in Energy, Renewables | Tagged Clean Energy, economic growth, governor perry, green jobs, jim kyle, memphis, Office of Public Insurance Counsel, pew, renewable energy, Rick Perry, Rodney Ellis, solar, special session, State Affordable Housing Corporation, sunset safety net, Tennessee, Texas, Texas Department of Insurance, texas department of transportation, Texas Racing Commission, voter id, wind |
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will hold two public meetings tomorrow in Irving, Texas, on a proposed new rule that would change the emergency preparedness requirements for existing and proposed nuclear power plants. Since 9/11, there has been growing concern that the country’s 104 existing reactors are potential terrorist targets and are more vulnerable to major disasters if attacked. There is additional concern that the nuclear reactors being proposed across the country, six of which are in Texas, would not be able to sufficiently mitigate a terrorist attack such as by aircraft.
In their 2007 report, Nuclear Power in a Warming World, the Union of Concerned Scientists issued a set of recommendations that address shortcomings of current NRC regulations including a recommendation that the NRC treat the risks of sabotage and attacks on par with risks of nuclear accididents, and require all environmental reviews during licensing to consider such threats. This issue is particularly relevant to Texas because the NRC is currently hearing oral arguments by the SEED Coalition, Public Citizen, Rep. Lon Burnam, and the local citizen’s group True Cost of Nukes, who seek to intervene in the application by Luminant to expand the Comanche Peak nuclear plant near Glen Rose, Texas.
A contention regarding the lack of safeguards and emergency preparedness for the crash of an airliner into nuclear reactors is among the issues being raised by the groups, who point out that concerned citizens and groups have not had access to the full information needed in this regard.
Public Citizen intends to file comments on the proposed rule, which are due no later than August 3.
The meeting is an opportunity for the public to learn about the proposed rule and ask questions. It will take place at the Westin Dallas Fort Worth Airport; 4545 W. John Carpenter Freeway; Irving, Texas. The meeting will have two sessions, from 2:00 to 4:30 and from 7:00 to 9:30 PM.
The NRC press release for the meeting is available at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2009/09-019.iv.html.
For those who cannot attend in person, the meeting will be webcast. To participate, register ASAP at https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/8001607981/Registration.aspx?PageName=bg8044041h843dp2 and call in to 1-800-779-8609 (PIN 21726). For more information, contact Annette Stang with the NRC at 1-800-368-5642.
The proposed rule is published in the Federal Register at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-10947.pdf
The UCS report is available at http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/nuclear_power/nuclear-power-in-a-warming-world.pdf.
Posted in Energy, Nuclear | Tagged comanche peak, emergency preparedness rulemaking, FEMA, Glenrose, NRC, Texas |
Oral Hearing Set for June 10th-11th in Granbury, TX
Citizen opposition to more nuclear reactors in Texas continues. On June 10th-11th an oral hearing will be held before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board on Citizens’ petition to intervene in Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant Units 3 and 4.
“I have many grave concerns about building more nuclear reactors in Texas,” said Texas Representative Lon Burnam, District 90, Ft. Worth, one of the petitioners seeking to intervene in the proposed expansion of Comanche Peak. “The risks are simply too high. As the most expensive and most water intensive energy source, and with the unsolved problem of how to handle the radioactive waste, Texans deserve better.”
SEED Coalition, Public Citizen and the Ft. Worth-based True Cost of Nukes are also petitioners. Attorney, Robert V. Eye, will go before the designated Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel and argue the admissibility of the 19 contentions citizens filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on April 6th. These contentions point out the inadequacies and the incompleteness of Luminant’s combined operating license application (COLA) to construct and operate Comanche Peak Units 3 and 4.
“Luminant has failed to comply with new federal regulations regarding aircraft impacts,” stated Mr. Eye. “These new regulations are very specific and require the applicant to plan for catastrophic fires and/or explosions that would cause the loss of major critical functional components in the plant. After 9-11, an aircraft attack on a nuclear power plant is a real and credible threat. Moreover, fire hazards represent about half of the risk of a nuclear reactor meltdown. Luminant’s noncompliance with these regulations puts citizens around Comanche Peak in a dangerous position, which is completely unacceptable.”
“Nuclear power is dangerous, expensive and obsolete,” says Karen Hadden, Executive Director of Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition. “Wind energy is booming and the cost of solar is coming down, while the costs of proposed nuclear plants is skyrocketing. Although they’re required to do so, Luminant failed to fully consider safer, more affordable alternatives to nuclear in their license application.” Continue Reading »
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged atomic safety and licensing board, biocides, bob eye, chemicals, citizen opposition, cola, comanche peak, Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant Units 3 and 4, combined operating license application, contentions, don young, fire hazards, fort worth, granbury, hood county, j. nile fischer, Karen Hadden, lon burnam, Luminant, nita o'neal, NRC, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, petition to intervene, Public Citizen, radioactive waste, risk, robert v. eye, secretary of energy, sediment control, SEED Coalition, solar, steven chu, Texas, true cost of nukes, water, west pearl st, wind energy, yucca mountain |
Do you know some electric coops help their members get solar power and make their homes and businesses more energy efficient? It saves a lot on electric bills.
The Pedernales Electric Coop can adapt these kinds of programs… but the direction of the PEC depends on if the newly elected board really cares about clean energy.
Learn what candidates are saying at cleanenergyfortexas.org.
Vote online or by mail by this Friday — or you can vote at the annual members meeting in Johnson City on June 20th.
Listen to the radio spot here. (paid for by Public Citizen Inc.)
Posted in Energy | Tagged clean energy for texas, Energy Efficiency, Johnson City, pec, Texas |
While I’m still a little grumpy and out of sorts because the Lege didn’t pass any major energy efficiency legislation this session, I feel a little better after our office got some solar tint put on our windows on Thursday. My office used to be a heat box. The tint is really impressive. I can feel the difference already.
Andy and Sarah's office, After & Before
Our utility bill will go down now, because we’re using less energy to keep the office cool. It will also make our office more comfortable until we take the ultimate step in worker productivity: business hammocks.
If your business is in Austin, Austin Energy has a rebate for solar film or solar screens. CPS Energy in San Antonio’s got ’em too. Check to see if your utility offers a rebate. If they don’t, maybe someone should tell them their customers want one, eh?
Posted in Efficiency | Tagged Austin, Austin Energy, CPS Energy, Energy Efficiency, San Antonio, solar film, solar screens, solar tint, Texas, utility bills, windows |
It’s Monday, and that means it is time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance’s weekly round-up.
Neil at Texas Liberal writes about the relocation of the National Cash Register company from Dayton, Ohio to Georgia. Treating people like dirt for 200 years gives Southern states an advantage in creating a so-called business friendly low-tax low-wage climate.
BossKitty at TruthHugger is so amazed at the short sighted policies our state and country continue to pursue. Buy American is a path to destruction. Isolationist Trends Protect US From Reality
Lamar Smith wins South Texas Chisme’s asshat of the week award. Hyper partisan Smith thinks all media should be like Fox News.
Who would have thought that an otherwise-obscure bill about granting homestead exemptions to folks who lost their house in Hurricane Ike would become the most controversial issue in the first week post-sine die, including a threat by the Land Commissioner to refuse to follow the law if it gets signed by the Governor? Off the Kuff has the details.
Burnt Orange Report writer Todd Hill has been selected as an Archer Fellow by UT-Arlington and will be headed to Washington DC in 2010 for a semester.
Vince at Capitol Annex takes a look at the former Tyler Mayor looking to replace State Rep. Leo Berman.
Over at TexasKaos, liberaltexan argues that even Christians at Liberty U should be able to dissent. What a radical idea!
A Devon Official strongly suspects a connection between recent North Texas earthquakes and the widespread hydraulic fracturing. Devon and other operators are leaving their mark on TXsharon‘s statcounter. She wonders what they are so worried about on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.
Teddy at Left of College Station reports on the College Station red light camera debate, and covers the week in headlines.
Bay Area Houston has the scoop on Perry calling a special session on Voter ID.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the excellent first session for Williamson County’s Democratic state representative, Diana Maldonado, Freshman of the Year.
The Texas Blue looks at the big winners and losers of this year’s legislative session in Sine Die: The Aftermath.
Robert Reich describes how Big Pharma and Big Insurance plan to kill the public health care option, excerpted at Brains and Eggs.
WhosPlayin has AARP’s call for Michael Burgess to act decisively on health care.
This week, McBlogger takes a look at some fashion advice from Details.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged aarp, archer fellow, bay area houston, big insurance, big pharma, bluedaze, bosskitty, brains and eggs, burnt orange report, Capitol Annex, diana maldonado, drilling reform, eye on williamson, fox news, health care, Hurricane Ike, lamar smith, land comissioner, left of college station, leo berman, mcblogger, michael burgess, national cash register, off the kuff, robert reich, south texas chisme, Texas, texas liberal, texas progressive alliance, texaskaos, todd hill, truthhugger, txsharon, tyler mayor, washington dc, wcnews, whosplayin |
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