Our readers in Nacogdoches are invited to join Coal Block activist and Public Citizen’s own Ryan Rittenhouse at a screening of Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars today.
When: Thursday, May 07 2009, 6:30pm – 8:00pm
Where: Cole Art Gallery in Nacogdoches,TX. Located at Main and Church St.
Contact: Denise McDonald dentim@suddenlink.net
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged Fighting Goliath Screening, Nacogdoches, Public Citizen, ryan rittenhouse, Texas |
We’ve been putting a lot of effort into pressuring US Congressman Charlie Gonzalez to support a strong climate change bill, but according to an article in the Houston Chronicle this morning, Congressman Gene Green from Houston is another key swing vote on cap and trade:
A 17-year veteran of Washington politics known for his low-key style and behind-the-scenes approach to legislation, Rep. Gene Green has seen his popularity skyrocket in recent days — at least with lawmakers eager to write new climate change rules.
The celebrity status comes courtesy of Green’s role as one of a handful of moderate Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee. His support is crucial to advancing a sweeping energy and climate change bill.
Looks like Gene Green wants to vote for the bill, but won’t support it without some pretty significant concessions to industry. Shocking.
The good news for Waxman, Markey and other proponents of the so-called cap-and-trade plan is that Green believes “the United States has to lead” in limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
The bad news? Green worries about the potential price tag for oil refiners along the Houston Ship Channel he represents.
“I’d like to vote for a bill,” Green said. “But I’m not going to vote for one unless I think it’s going to be good for the area I represent.”
Green has become the main lawmaker pushing for free allowances for refiners, as one of just four Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee representing states with big refining operations. The others are Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., Charlie Gonzalez, D-Texas, and Jim Matheson, D-Utah.
In order to support the bill, Green wants to give away 5% of pollution permits to refineries for free, and hand over 40% of allowances to utilities. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, GIVING AWAY ALLOWANCES IS A TERRIBLE WAY TO WRITE THIS BILL.
As I wrote a few weeks ago in a blog post scolding Charlie Gonzalez on this same issue,
Charlie Gonzalez just doesn’t have his facts straight on this one. If you’re really concerned about consumers, giving away pollution credits for free is about the worst way you can write this bill. Giving away allowances would force customers to pay for industry and utilities’ right to pollute without even cutting carbon emissions. There is a right and a very wrong way to write a good climate change bill, and Charlie is supporting the wrong way.
EPA’s most recent analysis say that giving away pollution credits is “highly regressive”, meaning it hurts low-income families the most. At best, this is a bailout and a free ride for the polluters. At worst it will create windfall profits for huge energy companies at the expense of every lower and middle income family in Texas.
Whether Green can make this bill good for the area he represents depends on what he means by “area.” If by “area”, Green is referring to his constituency, which is a majority-minority district made up of primarily low and middle income families, Green is going to have to think again. Giving away pollution allowances to industry sells out working families. It allows industry to jack up their prices without doing any real work to reduce their emissions and charge families extra for their “compliance costs”.
If this was just our opinion here at Public Citizen, you could dismiss it, but everybody agrees that giving away pollution credits for free hurts poor and working families. Who? Well, the Wall Street Journal, for one:
“There are a lot of things in the bill I need to have changed,” said Rep. Gene Green (D., Texas). Mr. Green, whose district is home to the largest petrochemical complex in the world, wants Mr. Waxman to give some pollution permits to oil refiners for free. “If that’s not in the bill, I can’t vote for it,” he said.
Refiners are lobbying to get for free 30% of the pollution permits, an amount that corresponds roughly to the share of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions produced by transportation fuel. Without such allowances, the industry says, it will lose out to refineries in India and the Middle East that ship their product to the U.S. and don’t operate under carbon caps at home.
“The electric utilities want 40%, and if they’re getting 40%, the refiners say ‘Why shouldn’t we get 30%?”‘ Mr. Green said. Mr. Green said he has asked Mr. Waxman to give the refining industry a smaller share of the allowances — roughly 5%.
Economists say generally that consumer prices will rise regardless of whether permits are given away for free, and that giving them away for free will divert money from other purposes in the public interest, such as tax cuts for consumers.
As we mentioned before, the EPA’s analysis showed that giving away credits was “highly regressive.” When both our government’s environmental agency and our nation’s top conservative-dominated-hard-headed-economist-driven-Australian-tycoon-run newspaper agree on something, there’s a consensus, people.
Ok– time to put on our tin foil hats for a moment– but one explanation these actions is that when Gene Green is talking about his “area”, he really means the five refineries and “more chemical plants than (he) can count” inside his district. Green received significant campaign contributions from both the Oil & Gas and Electric Utilities industries. Check out the following chart from OpenSecrets.org:
To put these numbers in perspective, Green spent a total of $860,643 on his last campaign. Of that, $139, 949 came from the same folks Green is now trying to score free pollution credits.
If that weren’t enough, it looks like the refineries don’t even know their own business. They claim that paying for carbon will hurt them and force refining to markets like China who aren’t regulating their environment. Well, first, a new economic analysis shows that “Cap and Trade Won’t Push Heavy Industries Overseas”. Second, on what planet does it make economic sense to pump oil out of Texas, ship it literally halfway around the world to China, refine it, and then ship it back? You would need a PRETTY hefty price on carbon to make that economically feasible. And lastly, China is beginning to implement export taxes on steel and other carbon intensive products, making it even more unlikely that refining would ever move there.
Bottom line: Green can’t have his cake and eat it too on this one. He can either protect the families in his district by supporting a full auction of pollution credits that puts the revenue to work in renewable energy, energy efficiency programs, and rebates, or he can fill the pockets of polluters by demanding free carbon giveaways.
And, I do need to give Green some props– he is sponsoring the Fair Elections Now Act, which would create a public financing system for Congressional campaigns, freeing him forever from having to raise money from the fossil fuel industries or other special interests whose views may not coincide exactly with the greater good of the people of the 29th congressional district. We can only hope for such a world– we know Gene Green has to raise money for his campaigns, he certainly can’t get it from the working class people of his district, and we know that when special interests give it is not out of the kindess of their hearts but because they want access and influence.
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged ACES, American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, Carbon Dioxide, charlie gonzalez, climate change, Coal, Fair Elections Now Act, Gas, Gene Green, Global Warming, houston, houston chronicle, oil, refining, Texas, Waxman-Markey bill |
Looks like our friends over at ReEnergize Texas have scored a couple interviews with two 2010 Senate race hopefuls, Democratic Mayor of Houston Bill White and Republican Chairman of the Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams.
Trevor Lovell, Statewide Director for ReEnergize Texas, reports:
We are not joining the throng of cable news reporters more concerned with the 2010 election than with fixing the country in the meantime. But we did score big with two interviews that could help shape the midterm US Senate race here in Texas.
The US Senate race in Texas has a slightly funny story. Longtime US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison is expected to step down and throw her hat in the ring to become the next Texas Governor. The spot she may vacate (but has not yet vacated) is already being contested by a number of potential candidates, the most notable being John Sharp and Bill White on the Democratic side, and Michael Williams and Florence Shapiro on the Republican side.
Check ’em out:
[vimeo 4482130]
[vimeo 4127055]
[vimeo 4124878]
Read on for Lovell’s analysis of the interviews! Continue Reading »
Posted in Global Warming, Nuclear, Renewables | Tagged 2010 senate race, bill white, carbon policy, clean coal, climate change, democrat, energy storage, florence shapiro, houston mayor, interview, john sharp, kay bailey hutchinson, michael williams, nuclear energy, reenergize texas, renewable energy, republican, Texas, texas governor, texas railroad commissioner, trevor lovell |
Phillip Martin at Burnt Orange Report reports that VoteVets.org is running a telelvision ad in San Antonio urging Congressman Charlie Gonzalez to support the American Clean Energy and Security Act (aka the Waxman & Markey bill, the federal cap and trade bill, or, as Trevor over at ReEnergize Texas has taken to calling it, the Bill That May or May Not Save the World — take your pick).
As you may recall, we’ve been pushing on US Congressman Gonzalez lately to support a strong climate change bill ever since we heard he might want to go over to the dark side and give away free carbon credits to utilities. Two weekends ago we hit him up at the King William’s Fair in San Antonio to make sure he heard the message loud and clear: No Giveaways for Polluters.
Giving away allowances would force customers to pay for industry and utilities’ right to pollute without even cutting carbon emissions. This is exactly what went wrong with the European Union’s cap and trade experiment. They gave away carbon credits, so that industries had a free ticket to pollute — but then industry turned around to consumers, raised rates because they could pretend they had “compliance costs” to cover, and working families had to foot the bill while energy companies made windfall profits.
But according to a new EPA analysis of the Bill That May or May Not Save the World, making polluters pay would actually leave families better off than before:
Assuming that the bulk of the revenues from the program are returned to households, the cap-and-trade policy has a relatively modest impact on U.S. consumers. . . . Returning the revenues in this fashion could make the median household, and those living at lower ends of the income distribution, better off than they would be without the program.
This new VoteVets ad explains how tackling climate change and moving toward clean energy is also a national security matter. Phil posted the following quote from Patrick Bellon, an Iraq War Veteran from Texas that speaks in the ad,
Getting America less dependent on foreign oil and towards clean energy is a national security matter,” said Bellon, who also is a member of VoteVets.org. “Congressman Gonzalez has a chance to vote for a comprehensive clean energy jobs bill that would lessen those Middle East oil profits that help fund terrorism, and would create jobs right here. As someone who’s fought against insurgents in Iraq, this bill is a no brainer, and we’re hoping the Congressman feels the same way.
Check it out for yourself:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGpwzTtTGqQ]
Word is that the ad will run over 600 times in the San Antonio market, and a similar ad is running in Congressman Gene Green’s district. Many thanks to Phil at BOR for bringing this to our attention 🙂
It really warms my heart that VoteVets has joined in this fight, adding another crucial voice to the cap and trade choir. Done right, this bill could reduce our emissions such that the US can steer clear of runaway global warming, jump-start a new clean energy economy and set the standard for strong climate legislation at Copenhagen in December.
There are a lot of good reasons to support this bill, and only two real voices that oppose it: those that don’t believe global warming is real, and the monied interests that benefit from the status quo. Looking at what we and future generations stand to lose, neither represents a legitimate argument.
On a related note, San Antonio folks have another opportunity this afternoon to show Charlie their support for a strong climate change bill at a MoveOn.org rally. Details after the jump. Continue Reading »
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged advertisement, american clean energy and security act, burnt orange report, carbon credits, charlie gonzalez, Clean Energy, european union, Gene Green, iraq war, king william's fair, national security, patrick bellon, polluter giveaways, San Antonio, Texas, veterans, votevets, waxman-markey |
Original post created for the Alliance for a Clean Texas:
Over the past weekend, the Texas Medical Association (TMA) adopted the following resolution:
BE IT RESOLVED, That the Texas Medical Association (TMA) urges our state, local, and federal government leaders and legislators to act promptly and aggressively to reduce the health burden of pollution from vehicular, diesel, air toxics, and NAAQS criteria pollutant emissions.
TMA is to be applauded for adding its authoritative voice to the growing medical consensus that legislative action is necessary to protect the health of Texas citizens.
Right now, Texas medical organizations are joining together and calling for action. Last week, Health Professionals for Clean Air (a member of The Alliance for a Clean Texas) released its Consensus Statement on Reducing the Health Burden of Air Pollution in Texas. The following medical specialty societies have already endorsed the consensus statement:
Additionally, five other leading societies are currently reviewing the consensus statement (including the Texas Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Society).
With four weeks left in the session, the Texas medical community has given the 81st Legislature a prescription: pass legislation that will reduce air toxics, vehicular emissions, mercury emissions, and improve overall air pollution “by basing air quality standards principally on human health.” This week is crucial for clean air legislation: SB 16 – Senator Averitt’s omnibus clean air bill – is still in House Environmental Regulation. (There’s a committee meeting this afternoon upon adjourment.) Additionally, the school bus idling bill (HB 4298), the school siting bill (HB 1839), the enhanced air monitor technology bill (HB 4581) and the comprehensive emissions database bill (HB 3582) have all been reported out of committee and should be on the House calendar.
Posted in Toxics | Tagged alliance for a clean texas, clean air, HB 1839, HB 3582, HB 4298, HB 4581, Health Professionals for Clean Air, house environmental regulation, sb 16, Texas, texas medical association |
Didn’t make it out to the Old Settler’s Music Festival? If so, I hate to say that you missed out big time — on four days of the best bluegrass, Americana, and and acoustic jazz & blues, camping, late night camp fire jam sessions — and of course the bright shining faces of Public Citizen’s best. But never fear, as sponsors, we worked up a video of the weekend to entice y’all to come out next year:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWD_ABh0glo]
Only 345 days until OSMF 2010, April 15-18. Save the weekend 🙂
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged americana, bluegrass, camping, old settler's music festival, public citizen texas, Texas |
Election day for Austin municipal elections (city council and mayor) is May 9th, but early voting is going on NOW through Tuesday, May 5th.
Election day you can only vote at your specified location, but during early voting you can vote at any polling location. A list of Travis County voting locations can be found here.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Austin, early voting, municipal elections, Texas, travis county, voting location |
Impressive nuclear headlines in the papers these days, largely as a result of a new report released by our office entitled: “Costs of Current and Planned Nuclear Power Plants in Texas: A Consumer Perspective. The report finds that the proposed expansions of nuclear power plants in Bay City (South Texas Project) and Glen Rose (Comanche Peak) could cost $22 billion, boost the cost of electricity for consumers and curtail investment in energy-efficiency programs and solar power.
The headline in the San Antonio Express News yesterday morning, just below the banner no less, read: Nuke Plan May Cost $22 Billion
This morning the Fort Worth Star Telegram also ran an article titled Anti-nuclear group: Comanche Peak expansion could cost $27.6 billion
The San Antonio Current’s Queblog also reports: Projected nuke power’s price tag inflating.
In addition to a real cost estimate for nuclear power plant expansions in Texas, the report also compares the cost of nuclear power to the cost of alternatives such as wind, solar, and energy efficiency. I’d encourage anyone who complains about the expense of renewable energy but claims that nuclear power is “cheap” to take a gander at the following graph:
Wow. Even on the low estimate end, energy efficiency costs just a fifth of what we would spend to get that kind of power from a nuclear plant, and wind and solar both come in well under that cost of nukes. Take that, naysayers!
A major concern brought up in this report is that the massive capitol outlays for nuclear power options may drain available financial resources for making advancements in deploying more cost effective alternative resources. In San Antonio, this could mean that CPS Energy chooses to partner with the South Texas Project Nuclear Expansion at the expense of Mission Verde, Mayor Phil Hardberger’s aggressive plan to green the city’s infrastructure, businesses, energy sources and technology.
“This new report indicates that we’re going to have to decide now which energy future we want for San Antonio,” said Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson. “If CPS becomes a partner in the South Texas Project expansion, we are simply not going to have the financial resources to front Mission Verde. We can either choose the most expensive option possible and send our jobs to Bay City and overseas contractors, or pay a fraction of the cost to create thousands of jobs here at home and power the city with clean, green energy.”
For more information on how consumers could get stuck with the check if the nuclear plant goes over-budget or can’t meet its construction schedule (as they are notoriously wont to do), check out our press release.
The San Antonio Current’s Queblog reports,
Prior to deregulation in 2001, ratepayers were drained of $5 billion in capital costs for the nukes in North Texas and Bay City, according to Johnson’s “Costs of Current and Planned Nuclear Power Plants in Texas.”
Also, much of the overruns associated with Comanche Peak and STP have been borne by electric consumers in Texas’ deregulated market since, who “continue to pay off at least $3.4 billion for nuclear assets through transition charges, as well as $45 million in annual payments for nuclear decommissioning,” Johnson writes.
Additional associated STP costs have also been passed along by AEP and CenterPoint to their customers.
Those interested in the report may also download either the full report or a short fact-sheet detailing the report’s major findings.
Along these same lines, turns out today is the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS)’s national call-in day to end coal and nuclear subsidies. Continue Reading »
Posted in Energy, Nuclear | Tagged bay city, clarence johnson, comanche peak, costs of current and planned nuclear plants in texas, CPS Energy, fort worth, fort worth star telegram, Glen Rose, mayor hardberger, mission verde, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Power Plants, nukes, San Antonio, san antonio express news, South Texas Project, Texas, tommy adkisson, true cost of nukes |
Original post found at the ReEnergize Texas blog, courtesy of Trevor Lovell:
At a hearing of the Texas Senate Committee on Higher Education today SB 2182, known as the green fee bill, “was reported favorably to the Calendars Committee by unanimous vote, clearing another hurdle on its way to becoming law.
Only two weeks ago the bill was looking badly wounded after staff working for Higher Education Committee Chairwoman Zaffirini (D-Laredo) noted “philosphical concerns” with the bill’s statewide approach to approving environmental service fees, prompting bill author Sen. Eliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso) to pull the bill from a scheduled hearing. In response and virtually overnight, ReEnergize Texas mobilized an Earth Week campaign, generating constituent phone calls from El Paso, Austin, San Antonio, College Station, and elsewhere throughout the state.
Aggie Adrienne Jones (seen here talking to US Rep. Lloyd Doggett) sent a letter supporting SB 2182
Walking into the Senate Higher Education Committee office on Earth Day, ReEnergize Texas Director Trevor Lovell was greeted by staff holding ironic smiles and saying “Our phones have been ringing off the hook… you wouldn’t have anything to do with that, would you?”
Adrienne Jones, seen here talking to US Congressman Lloyd Doggett, sent a letter supportin SB 2182
Aggie Adrienne Jones (seen here talking to US Rep. Lloyd Doggett) sent a letter supporting SB 2182.
By the following Monday SB 2182 had been set for a Wednesday hearing. Students from UT Pan America, South Texas College, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and UT Austin wrote letters to the members of the committee, asking them to support the bill. Continue Reading »
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged Austin, college station, committee on higher education, earth day, el paso, green fee bill, reenergize texas, San Antonio, shapleigh, Texas, texas a&m, texas tech university, trevor lovell, university of texas el paso, zaffirini |
photo courtesy of Karen Hadden & SEED Coalition
Our ambush of U.S. Congressman Charlie Gonzalez at the King William’s Fair in San Antonio this weekend was both a blast and a great success.
If you couldn’t make it out, never fear — Greg Harman at the San Antonio Current did, and just posted a great blog post with full coverage from the parade. Be sure to check out the video, featuring our very own Sarah McDonald, ReEnergize Texas’ Patrick Meaney, and cameos from a whole host of Public Citizen, ReEnergize Texas, and SEED Coalition staff and volunteers.
More good news from the Curblog is that Charlie Gonzalez is still listening to both sides of the auction-or-free-allowances debate, Bloomberg article to the contrary.
Harman reports,
Ginette Magaña, a spokesperson for Rep. Gonzalez, said her boss had not committed to either side on the matter of carbon credits.
Not only that, but no letter exists as reported in the Bloomberg article, she insisted.
“There is no letter,” Magaña said. “He’s still looking at the bill and trying to find the best decision. I don’t have anything other than that right now … Charlie had never signed on to that letter … There is no letter.”
Things are certainly looking up. Check out this diary from Trevor Lovell of ReEnergize Texas fame for another perspective on the parade:
Sorry Charlie, Giveaways Aren’t Green
“This feels like one of the good old campaigns,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, Executive Director of Public Citizen’s Texas office, Saturday afternoon in reference to activists swarming Congressman Charlie Gonzalez’s carriage in the King William Parade that morning in San Antonio.
Smitty may have been showing his age a bit (he’s directed Public Citizen’s Texas office for the last 25 years, and become a local legend and then some in the process), but the sentiments were positive among organizers young and old alike.
Congressman Charlie Gonzalez is the key swing vote on a subcommittee considering the Waxman-Markey bill. A conservative Democrat, Gonzalez has joined a misguided throng calling for CO2 credits to be given away, a solution deemed unacceptable by environmentalists and economists who point out that such a system would create unfair profits for polluters and cripple any attempt at CO2 real reductions.
Learning late Thursday that Congressman Gonzalez would be in the King William Parade, a Fiesta celebration for the well-to-do and well-connected King William neighborhood of San Antonio, activists at Public Citizen, SEED Coalition, and my group, the ReEnergize Texas student coalition, got together and planned a full scale outreach and publicity action to let the Congressman know that giveaways are unacceptable. Continue Reading »
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged charlie gonzalez, Congressman Charlie Gonzalez, Curblog, Gonzalez, Greg Harman, king william's fair, Public Citizen, reenergize texas, San Antonio, san antonio current, SEED Coalition, Texas |
Charlie Gonzalez Update!!
Tomorrow morning at the King William Parade in San Antonio, we’ve got a great opportunity to put some pressure on Congressman Charlie Gonzalez to support strong cap and trade legislation. Done right, a cap and trade bill would bring San Antonio thousands of green jobs, increased energy efficiency programs, and renewable energy. Done wrong, it would force families and consumers to pay for industry and utilities’ right to pollute without a considerable reduction in carbon emissions.
So far, Congressman Gonzalez has come out in support of the latter 🙁 He is a swing vote on this issue, and how he decides to vote may influence many other important legislators.
Lucky for us, we’ll have him as a captive audience at the parade tomorrow. He’ll be riding on a float in the parade, and that’s our
chance to make an impact when he least expects it.
Please join us tomorrow morning. We’ll be meeting up at the 8 AM at the San Antonio Peace Center, at 1443 S. St. Mary’s — but don’t let the early hour scare you, if you can’t make it out before breakfast, the parade doesn’t start until 10. Come by — we’ll have banners, materials to make a signs, and sign on letters. Costumes are encouraged — after all it is a party 🙂
Free parking will be available at 1901 S Alamo Street.
For more information on this issue, check out the following statement from Andy Wilson, our Global Warming Program Director on how U.S. Rep. Charlie Gonzalez Wants to Give San Antonio’s Municipal Utility a Free Ride
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged cap and trade bill, charlie gonzalez, energy efficieny, green jobs, king william parade, peace center, San Antonio, Texas |
According to a Bloomberg article this morning, San Antonio Representative Charlie Gonzalez has joined
a group of Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee (who) want to give utilities free permits for all their existing carbon emissions, according to people familiar with a plan sent to the committee’s chairman.
The article continues:
Representative Rick Boucher of Virginia sent the four-page list of recommendations to Henry Waxman, the committee’s chairman and the author of draft climate-change legislation that some of his fellow Democrats are seeking to temper, said the people, who declined to be identified before the plan is made public. Courtney Lamie, Boucher’s spokeswoman, didn’t respond to e-mail and phone messages.
Waxman’s measure would establish a cap-and-trade system of pollution credits designed to cut carbon dioxide 20 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. He needs to win the support of Boucher and the other Democrats pushing for changes in his plan because no Republicans are likely to vote for it, Representative Gene Green, a Texas Democrat, said yesterday.
“It’s all about the consumer,” said Representative Charles Gonzalez of Texas, whose San Antonio-area district has oil and gas operations. “It’s also the economic interests of a member’s district or region.”
Charlie Gonzalez just doesn’t have his facts straight on this one. If you’re really concerned about consumers, giving away pollution credits for free is about the worst way you can write this bill. Giving away allowances would force customers to pay for industry and utilities’ right to pollute without even cutting carbon emissions. There is a right and a very wrong way to write a good climate change bill, and Charlie is supporting the wrong way.
EPA’s most recent analysis say that giving away pollution credits is “highly regressive”, meaning it hurts low-income families the most. At best, this is a bailout and a free ride for the polluters. At worst it will create windfall profits for huge energy companies at the expense of every lower and middle income family in Texas. However, an auction fixes these problems. EPA continues:
“Assuming that the bulk of the revenues from the program are returned to households, the cap-and-trade policy has a relatively modest impact on U.S. consumers. . . . Returning the revenues in this fashion could make the median household, and those living at lower ends of the income distribution, better off than they would be without the program“
A good climate change bill will create billions of dollars of revenue by charging large polluters for the dangerous pollutants they’ve been emitting for decades. This money could then be returned to taxpayers, particularly low-income households, to protect them from any price increases that energy industries may try to pass through to consumers. Another portion of the money could also be used to pursue aggressive energy efficiency programs, so that citizens can save even more money by using less electricity. Every dollar spent on energy efficiency will then also help reinvigorate local economy by putting people back to work doing energy audits and retrofitting inefficient homes.
Congressman Charlie Gonzalez needs to hear that what consumers really need is energy efficiency, renewable energy, lower electric bills and less pollution — not more industry giveaways. So far, it looks like he’s only heard from the lobbyists for the big polluters. We’ve heard that Congressman Gonzalez will cast a deciding vote on whether Texans will be given the tools to forge a new, green economy, or left unprotected from the worst effects of extreme weather and high energy prices.
Congressman Charlie Gonzalez is the swing vote on this issue. Please pick up the phone and call him. The phone number for his DC office is (202) 225-3236 and his office in San Antonio is (210) 472-6195. You can also email his office from his website
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged bloomberg, Carbon Dioxide, charlie gonzalez, climate change, consumer protection, Energy Efficiency, free allowances, Gene Green, house energy and commerce committee, Markey, Public Citizen, rick boucher, San Antonio, swing vote, Texas, Waxman |
Representative Mark Strama has crafted a genius amendment to HB 3405. The bill, co-authored by
Representative Swinford and Representative Anchia, calls for an incentive program for solar power generation through surcharges on utility bills, and Mark Strama is looking at how Texas Schools specifically could benefit from the construction of solar panels on their rooftops.
Strama pointed out that schools are already architecturally perfect for laying out photovoltaic panels. School’s roofs are almost completely flat and in direct sunlight — So why not blanket them with solar panels?
And talk about two birds with one stone—Strama’s plan would also help out with that ever-present issue of funding for Texas education. Not only would schools save on utility bills, but they could actually generate revenue. Energy usage is cut back during the summer months when school is out of session, and that extra energy could be sold right back into the grid at a profit.
Some schools already have some solar panels in place, but these systems are paltry in comparison to Strama’s vision. With over 8,000 schools in Texas, can you imagine how that would affect Texas’ distributed solar production?
Of course, the price tag is the only factor that could hold this plan back. Still, with so much energy savings in the future, this one looks like it will be tough to shove under the table.
Watch KXAN’s news coverage here.
Posted in Efficiency, Energy, Global Warming | Tagged Energy, HB 3405, incentive program, Representative Strama, savings, solar energy, solar panels, Texas, Texas schools, utility bills |
This Tuesday citizens submitted a filing to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission opposing NRG’s proposed South Texas Project (STP) nuclear reactors. Petitioners included the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition, Public Citizen and the South Texas Association for Responsible Energy.
This may sound familiar. “Didn’t citizens just file opposition to the nuke a couple weeks ago?” Well, yes they did, but that wasn’t “the” nuke, it was just one of them. Texas actually has six proposed nuclear reactors; two each at Comanche Peak (near Fort Worth), STP (by Bay City), and Victoria.
That’s right, folks, six proposed nuclear plants and 12 proposed coal plants, despite the fact that just yesterday the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said that no new nuclear or coal plants may be needed in the United States, ever.
Said Karen Hadden, Executive Director of the SEED Coalition,
Our contentions laid out the many defects in the South Texas Project license application, including inadequate fire protection, the lack of viable radioactive waste disposal plan, an inability to secure against airplane attacks, vast water consumption, water contamination risks, the failure to analyze clean, safe alternatives and an array of other financial, health and safety risks.
Furthermore, STP has failed to provide cost estimates for their proposed reactors, leaving citizens with no idea of the expense they’ll be buying in to — despite the fact that one of the major partners, CPS Energy in San Antonio, is a municipal utility.
I know that when I walk in to a store and everything looks really nice but there are no price tags — I probably don’t even want to ask. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rates nuclear power as the most expensive form of electric generation. An analysis by Dr. Arjun Makhijani has estimated costs for the two reactors at between $12.5 – $17 billion.
Check out the press release for more information.
Posted in Nuclear | Tagged Arjun Makhijani, bay city, citizen filings, comanche peak, federal energy regulatory commission, fort worth, Karen Hadden, NRG, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Public Citizen, SEED Coalition, south texas association for reponsible energy, South Texas Project, Texas, Victoria |
I’m going to cross-post the following article from the Texas Observer’s Floor Pass blog whole hog, because it is just that good. Look for Smitty’s quote in bold, and hold on to your hat 🙂
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The Chosen Onesposted by Susan Peterson at 03:12 PM
There’s a lot to celebrate this Earth Day when it comes to the Texas Legislature. Republicans in both chambers are carrying environmental legislation – if for no other reason than to stick it to the feds before the feds, under President Obama and a Democratic Congress, begin regulating the environment themselves. And Speaker Joe Straus has been a boon to environmental bills, as well, since he’s actually letting the legislators run the show in the House, unlike his predecessor.
The upshot? More good environmental bills and fewer bad ones.
Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas, says there are just two main bad bills this session. Both would both speed up the permitting process for power plants. Rep. Dan Flynn’s HB 2721, which is being heard today in Environmental Regulation, would speed it up for nuclear plants. The other bad bill, Rep. Randy Weber’s HB 4012, would fast-track permitting for coal power plants.
And I know it’s unlike us to report good news, but Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of Public Citizen in Texas, says he is “suffering from a crisis of abundance” when it comes to all the worthwhile environmental bills this session.
“There are more good bills in the lege session than I can keep up with,” Smitty says. “It is reminiscent of the 1991 legislative session when Ann Richards was elected and there was a wave of reform. This is the best session I’ve had in 18 years.”
Hot damn!
But which of these good bills actually have a chance? Read about them after the jump.
Posted in Coal, Efficiency, Energy, Nuclear, Renewables | Tagged CFL, chosen ones, Coal Plants, earth day, Energy Efficiency, Energy Star, environment texas, environmental regulation, fast tracking, hb 280, kip averitt, luke metzger, nuclear plants, president obama, public citizen texas, rafael anchia, republicans, sb 16, sb 545, sb 546, senate, speaker joe straus, strama, susan peterson, swinford, Texas, Texas Legislature, texas observer, Tom "Smitty" Smith, troy fraser |
">spousal
Citizen Vox Blog
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | 31 | ||||