October 26, 2010 by Citizen Carol
Jury selection begins today in former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay‘s felony conspiracy trial. In 2005, A Travis County Grand Jury indicted the former U.S. Congressman on charges he helped funnel $190,000 in illegal corporate donations into statewide elections in 2002. State law prohibits corporations from contributing to political campaigns.
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
Posted in Campaign Finance, Global Warming, Good Government | Tagged Dick DeGuerin, election fraud, Grand jury, Jack Abramoff, jury selection, social justice, Texas, Tom Delay, Travis County Texas, United States House of Representatives |
Howdy folks. We’re doing a press conference at 2pm with the League of Women Voters in Houston at the Moody Park Community Center (3725 Fulton, Houston, TX), one of the early voting locations with the most complaints of voter intimidation. These activities must stop, and this highlights how Houston is ground zero for the creep of illegal, corporate money into our elections. Here’s an early taste of our press statement we are making. We hope to have some video available later this afternoon, possibly also video of other early voting activities.
I early voted on Friday at Buda City Hall, standing in a line that snaked around City Hall for 40 minutes. Have you voted yet? Get out! Do it now!
Here’s our press release:
October 25, 2010
Last week as early voting for the Nov. 2 General Election got under way, there were complaints of poll watchers interfering with or intimidating voters and other potential election violations in Harris and Bexar Counties. Our organizations–LWV-Texas, Public Citizen, and Common Cause–condemn any and all attempts to sway this election by controlling who gets to vote.
The right to vote is sacred. People have died for this right, both in our nation’s past and even in our recent history. Registered citizens should never be turned away from being able to vote. Our greatest patriots, such as Washington and Lincoln, waged war to insure that taxation without representation did not occur and to protect the notion of government for, of, and by the people. It was a Texan, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who pushed through Congress and then signed the Voting Rights Act which protects the rights of all citizens to register and to vote.
We want to encourage everyone, in Harris County, Bexar County, and across the state, to come out and vote, regardless of ideology, gender, race, income, whether your community is urban, suburban, or rural, and whether your preferred party is Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, or Tea. Do not let tales of intimidation frighten you away. Instead, let these concerns be a call to action and a reminder of the importance of every citizen’s right to participate.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Campaign Finance, Good Government, Privacy | Tagged Electoral fraud, Harris County Texas, houston, Jim Crow, League of Women Voters, Public Citizen, public citizen texas, Texas, Texas Attorney General, voter intimidation, voter suppression, Voting, Voting Rights Act |
October 23, 2010 by Citizen Carol
Dean Kamen is known for his many inventions, some of which have transformed the world, from the insulin pump and an all-terrain wheelchair to portable water purification systems and robotic prosthetic limbs. Of course, others, like his Segway self-balancing electric scooter (which visitors to the Texas capitol will see whizzing past with curious sightseers holding on for dear life), became more of a pop-culture phenomenon than a major boost to his pocketbook.
His love for science, technology, engineering and innovating has made him wealthy and in 1986, Kamen bought a tiny, 2-acre private island off the coast of Connecticut in Long Island Sound, where he began bumping heads with the local authorities from the town of Southold, N.Y., which has jurisdiction over the island, when he wanted to put up a wind turbine. Like our Governor Perry, he made noises about seceding, but eventually did receive his variance to build his personal wind turbine. That turbine, coupled with the use of solar panels, provides the island with all its power. He replaced all the island’s lighting with LEDs, which cut down his in-house energy consumption by 70 percent, thus creating the most carbon-neutral kingdom (his pseudo island nation kingdom) on the planet — “carbon-negative,” in fact.
Kamen’s methods may sometimes seem childish and self-serving, but he claims to use mirth to attract attention to what he considers his most important work: inspiring others to think outside the box in developing new ways to live better lives and he hopes to inspire young people to follow his lead in seeking out innovation so that they, too, can become island rulers — or at least the masters of their fates.
Let’s hope that he does inspire people in this country to innovate and they can lead us into a new energy future.
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
Posted in Efficiency, Energy, Renewables | Tagged LED lights, renewable energy, Renewables, solar, Texas, wind power |
October 23, 2010 by Citizen Carol
The Obama Administration released a notice of intent on Friday, October 15 to opened up a public comment session on fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, specifically setting a goal of an average of 60 mpg by the year 2025.
Comments on this first proposal should be sent by October 31, 2010. There will be another opportunity to comment after the issuance of the proposed rules due by September 30, 2011. Comments can be e-mailed to a-and-r-Docket@epa.gov with the docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-0799 in the subject line.
Below is an example of a possible comment:
Dear President Obama,
We can use American ingenuity to end our dependence on oil, keeping billions of dollars in our economy, cutting pollution and protecting our coasts from devastating oil spills. The best way for you to help put America on this path is by making our cars and trucks cleaner and more efficient.
I urge you to strengthen pollution and fuel economy standards for new cars and trucks, that ensure we reduce our dependence on oil by at least 45 billion gallons per year by 2030- beyond what is expected from current vehicle standards. Thats nearly three times as much oil as we currently import from Saudi Arabia. You can do this by:–Setting new standards requiring cars and light trucks to achieve at least 60 miles per gallon and emit no more than 143 grams of global warming pollution per mile by 2025, with accurate accounting for fuels including electricity for plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles; and–Setting standards that reduce fuel consumption from long-haul tractor-trailers at least 35 percent by 2017 and require all other medium- and heavy-duty trucks to increase fuel economy to the maximum technically feasible level.
We need your leadership to set strong pollution and fuel economy standards that will unleash American technology and ingenuity to help break our countrys dependence on oil.
Sincerely,
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
Posted in Global Warming, Transportation | Tagged CAFE Standards, fuel efficiency, mpg, Texas |
October 21, 2010 by Citizen Carol
According to an American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) study, Texas now ranks 32nd among U.S. states in energy efficiency, down from 23rd in 2009. The current 10 top-ranked states in energy efficiency are shown below:
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1. California
2. Massachusetts
3. Oregon
4. New York
5. Vermont
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6. Washington
7. Rhode Island
8. (tie) Connecticut
8. (tie) Minnesota
10. Maine
SOURCE: ACEEE
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Even Arizona and New Mexico have recently outstripped Texas, with Arizona adopting new energy-saving targets that moved them from 29th to 18th, and New Mexico climbing from 30th to 22nd with the passage of stringent new building codes, coupled with performance incentives for utilities to become more energy-efficient.
In 2007, another ACEEE report found that, with ambitious energy-efficiency efforts, Texas could eliminate about 75 percent of the projected growth in electricity demand over the next 15 years. Since then, the Public Utility Commission has raised the utilities’ target for energy efficiency – now at 20 percent – to 25 percent by 2012 and 30 percent by 2013.
Several major Texas cities, notably Austin, Dallas and San Antonio, have adopted forward-looking codes, but even they could step it up a notch. Backing from the Legislature would signal to other Texas cities that improving energy efficiency isn’t a local option but a statewide priority.
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
Posted in Efficiency, Energy | Tagged ACEEE, Energy Efficiency, Texas |
A recent poll shows that voters are more inclined to vote for a candidate that voted for the Federal climate change and renewable energy legislation than for those who didn’t. This is interesting in a time in which many conservative groups are advocating that climate change is a hoax and humans don’t need to intervene to save the planet. Or, that (even worse) voters just know.. they just KNOW that policies like cap and trade are just a hidden energy tax and they won’t tolerate it at the ballot box.
This poll should be eye-opening to many of the Texas local and federal candidates (and it is worth noting that both of the competitive US House races in Texas are ones where the incumbent voted NO on the American Clean Energy and Security Act). Even more surprising, very few candidates campaign on clean energy in a state where energy makes a great deal of the revenue. And despite how much the governor boasts about Texas leading in renewable energy, Texas is falling behind to a couple of other states, notably California.
Although it seems a scarce phenomenon, a few Texas candidates have climate change and clean energy as part of their campaign. We wanted to highlight the campaigns of a couple of these candidates. *
Last month, Bill White, gubernatorial candidate, announced his energy plan and he explicitly said that clean energy (solar in particular) will be the future of Texas.
Texas can remain the energy capital of the world if we lead in new energy development. That’s why we must educate Texans for high-demand, high-paying clean energy jobs, promote job growth in construction and manufacturing, and invest in science and technology research,” said Bill White in a speech in Lubbock last month.
Mark Strama, who is running for re-election for his seat in the Texas House of Representatives, has been airing a campaign ad where he says “For the past hundred years, Texas has prospered as the leader of energy, but promising new energy technologies are being developed in other states and other countries.” Strama, who chairs the Technology, Economic Development & Workforce Committee, introduced a couple of green bills in the last legislative session and it looks like he will continue this effort during the forthcoming session. Yesterday, he facebooked about “a promising development” of a Bastrop clean energy park.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9hldvAQ3Cs&feature=player_embedded]
On the Congressional level, Representative Charlie Gonzalez includes clean energy and climate change on his legislative agenda. According to his website, in order to “address threats faced to our country and our planet by climate change, America needs an energy policy that relies on resources that are both clean and efficient.” Gonzalez points out that the issue of climate change is tied to the nation’s energy policy.
Texas needs more politicians to come out for renewable energy and those who tell their constituents that it doesn’t create more jobs and revenue for the state, they are simply ignoring the facts facts. According to a recent report, a robust renewable energy market in Texas can create as many as 23,000 jobs and almost 3 billion in revenue every year for the next 10 years. Strama is right, Texas does have a future in renewables and it is time for Texas politicians to “put solutions above ideology and Texas above politics.”
* Public Citizen does not endorse any political candidate and/or party. Nothing in this opinion blog ought to be construed as an endorsement of any kind. The author’s words are his own.
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
Posted in Campaign Finance, Energy, Global Warming, Good Government, green jobs, Renewables, solar | Tagged bill white, charlie gonzalez, mark strama, Mid-term elections, Renewa, solar, Texas, texas energy, wind power |
By Ali Rawaf and Andy Wilson
This election cycle will be the most expensive midterm in US history. With money pouring in from big corporations and foreign entities, this election has become more about how much can a candidate raise than it is about debating the real issues at stake. It is estimated that more 80 million dollars have been spent this mid-term election with most of the money going into Republican pockets (6 times the Democrats) which is 80 percent more than what was spend in 2006 at this point. 5 billion dollars is the total estimate for the whole mid-term elections. I, and many others, attribute this mess to a recent Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case, which made legal for corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money without having to disclose any information about the entity which made the contributions.
And voters agree: Our elections are being bought and funded by corporate interests. And it’s not just progressive activists: folks from the Tea Party are saying almost the exact same things as liberal activists.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-zCXLhZ_qc]
The money is being channeled through individual groups like American Crossroads, run by Karl Rove, Bush’s former political strategist, and Ed Gillespie, former head of the RNC. Rove’s group has committed more than 5 and half million in tc ad buys, which is only ten percent of what the group promises to spend by November 2nd. And then there’s the nice-sounding but actually shadowy and sinister Americans for Job Security, which has committed 7.5 million dollars so far, 88% of which went to supporting Republicans. Another one of these organizations is American Future Fund which gave every dime of their 6.8 million dollars to Republican candidates.
The Chamber of Commerce is also playing a big role in this mid-term cycle. The chamber is waging a campaign of attack ads against the democrats– but in this case with the Chamber, thanks to some super-awesome gum-shoeing, we know where the money comes from. Foreign entities. That’s right, a report published by Think Progress shows the Chamber of Commerce has received money from Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Bahrain, India, France, and many more countries. To that you should say, “I want my country back.”
Considering the Chamber’s major targets, it’s a worthwhile endeavor to question their motives: they were opposed to health care reform, climate change and clean energy legislation, and financial reform. Of course, we can understand why the Chamber would protect the profits of Wall St and the Big Banks, and also why they’d oppose measures that threaten the profitability of the for-profit medical industry like, oh, getting rid of pre-existing conditions or placing a cap on the amoutn your insurance company can charge that goes directly to overhead and profit rather than medical care for their clients. But the stickiest wicket is climate change and clean energy. Sure the Chamber is protecting their friends in the oil and coal industries. And birds go “tweet.” But why would they be taking foreign money to do this? From China and OPEC countries? Couldn’t be that China would prefer to gain a huge competitive advantage over us in the fastest-growing sector of the worldwide economy: clean energy technology. Or that the Saudis and the state oil company of Bahrain would prefer that we continue to stay addicted to their sweet, light crude. Or that by opposing financial and health reform they can leave America broke and sick. Nah. I’m sure we should just take the Chamber’s word for it that they aren’t using any of their foreign money to fund these ads.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Campaign Finance, Good Government | Tagged American Crossroads, American Future Fund, Americans for Job Security, chamber of commerce, citizen united, democratic candidate, mi term elections, november 2, republican candidate, Texas |
The Texas Progressive Alliance is fired up and ready to vote as it brings you this week’s blog roundup.
Off the Kuff has interviews with Linda Chavez-Thompson and Barbara Radnofsky.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme thinks breathing benzene, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants is bad. Why doesn’t the TCEQ agree?
The Texas Cloverleaf posts on Blog Action Day about clean water in the Barnett shale.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson points our that there a still many unanswered questions regarding Gov. Perry and a special favor for a mega donor, The drip, drip, drip continues for Perry’s mega-donor problem.
The King Street Patriot extremists are breaking the law again in Harris County. A lot more voter suppression and intimidation is in store from these thugs. Brains and Eggs has the details, including the link to the video of TeaBaggin’ Jim Murphy (he’s going to lose to Kristi Thibaut again) doing the honors.
Neil at Texas Liberal can’t imagine that the people of Houston might wish to get rid of Red Light Cameras. Our roads in Houston are already filled with drunks and crazies. Why would we want to make things even worse by making it easier to run red lights and get away with it? Neil urges folks in Houston to vote Yes on Prop. 3 and help keep our streets somewhat less bloody than they might otherwise become.
Intrepid Intern Ali Rawaf and Campaign Finance Curmudgeon Andy Wilson team up at TexasVox to remind you that early voting starts today, Monday, Oct 18, by giving you the sobering truth of who exactly is financing our Congressional midterm campaigns and what special favors they will want if you let their chosen candidates get into office. This is the first in a series– keep an eye on TexasVox in the next 2 weeks for more in-depth looks at who’s financing the Texas Governor’s race, races for Ag Commissioner and Railroad Commissioner, and the Third Court of Appeals– and maybe others.
Posted in News Roundup | Tagged news roundup, Texas, tpa |
October 15, 2010 by Citizen Carol
This morning at a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) hearing, Las Brisas Energy Center attempted to try to move their permitting process along by asking the commissioners to intervene in the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) process, but the SOAH Admininistrative Law Judges (ALJs) informed the TCEQ that changes to their process would not be prudent.
Vimeo
[vimeo 15967410]
Both Commissioner Garcia and Chairman Shaw are shown here asking the administrative law judges who presided over the contested case hearing for the proposed Las Brisas coal (pet-coke) plant to speed the process along. The main reason for this is likely that the EPA’s new CO2 rules take effect on January 2nd of next year – and they don’t want to have to make the coal plant owners meet these new standards. Once again it is clear that the sole interest of these Governor-appointed commissioners is the financial interests of the applicants (coal plant owners, etc.) and not the health and well being of the people of Texas and their environment.
To watch the entire TCEQ video of the hearing (second item on the agenda), click here.
Posted in Air Quality, Coal, Global Warming | Tagged Coal, las brisas, TCEQ, Texas |
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QotpWw6AmFA]STOP is a coalition of landowners in Oklahoma and Texas who have united to voice their opposition to the proposed Keystone tar sands oil pipeline. These landowners oppose this pipeline for a variety of reasons but they share a concern of how this pipeline will affect their own and their children’s future.
John Tutor fears the impact of soiling a local preserve that boasts black bears and songbirds for scout groups and the Audubon Society; others, the addition of more especially dirty oil to the global energy market rather than clean technologies that don’t destroy tracts of land thousands of square miles in scope. Many of these citizens have received notices threatening the use of eminent domain.
In a previous post you can see the Thorntons’ talk about how Keystone has sent them multiple notices with an initial offer of about $2,200 per acre. This is about 20% of what they value the land they had hoped to develop. Keystone is using eminent domain to force landowners to sell their land at low prices. STOP is an organization for those people who would not like to see this dangerous and dirty pipeline cross through their land. David Daniel and Betty S Vaughn Scott don’t want the generations following them to lose claim to pristine Texas forest in exchange for a dirty pipeline and the inherent risk that comes with piping hundreds of thousands of toxic material at high pressure every day.
This pipeline is different from all the other pipelines. This pipeline will transport hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil that has a carbon footprint of over 3 times that of conventional oil. Tar sands oil extraction has already destroyed vast amounts of land in Alberta and it is set to become an area the size of Florida. We can’t let it endanger Texas’ forests either. If this pipeline has affected you or if you are just a concerned citizen in the area of the pipeline STOP can help you raise your voice in opposition to this pipeline.
Posted in Global Warming, Tarsands | Tagged Audubon Society, david daniel, Eminent Domain, oil pipeline, Texas |
October 14, 2010 by Citizen Carol
Tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will have a hearing at their headquarters off Interstate 35 and Parmer Lane in north Austin regarding a status-update on the air permit application for the controversial Las Brisas coke-fired coal plant proposed for Corpus Christi. Commissioners sent the application back for further review last summer.
This update on the planned Las Brisas Energy Center will be held in advance of Monday’s hearing by the State Office of Administrative Hearings. The commission sent the application back to SOAH on June 30 to determine if the plant would be in compliance with federal clean air laws.
Las Brisas has asked the TCEQ to take unprecedented and extraordinary steps to issue an air pollution permit before the end of the year, in order to avoid greenhouse gas regulations that become effective early next year and tomorrow’s status update and Monday’s SOAH hearing should be watched carefully
When commissioners remanded the application in June, they cited problems involving technical readings of federal clean air laws, including whether petroleum coke should be in the same category as coal for the purpose of evaluating its impact on air quality.
Both the ALJ and the TCEQ staff had agreed that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not specifically ruled on that question, but noted that the federal agency is expected to do so by next year.
The TCEQ’s decision to remand the application was based on more narrow concerns, including whether there would be an increase in particulate matter from offsite sources above levels expected under its most recent modeling.
The commission also instructed Las Brisas to be able to demonstrate that it could load the ashes from the burned petroleum coke into trucks for offsite disposal without contributing to additional emissions.
We’ll keep you updated on what is happening with this proposed plant as events unfold.
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, cleaner cars, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
Posted in Air Quality, Coal | Tagged Coal, corpus chrisit, las brisas, soah, TCEQ, Texas |
October 12, 2010 by Citizen Carol
Constellation Energy Group Inc. said last week it was pulling out of talks on a $7.5 billion loan guarantee to build a reactor at its Calvert Cliffs facility in Maryland. Constellation Energy Group’s Chief Operating Officer Michael Wallace told the Energy Department that they felt the estimated $880 million the company would have to pay the Treasury Department was “shockingly high”.
Still, that’s only 12% of the loan guarantee, and only 7% of the estimated (pre-financed) cost of building a nuclear plant. Compare that to low-risk lender qualifications for buying a home in this country and it doesn’t seem so shockingly high. Traditionally lenders required a down payment of at least 20% of the home’s purchase price for a home mortgage, and to qualify for owner-builder construction loans, the down payment can be up to 30 percent of the requested loan amount. Seems to me the industry is getting a better break than the American public right now.
A senior energy and environment analyst for a Milwaukee-based brokerage whined that the administration is offering terms no better than Constellation could get from private investors, yet we are not seeing private investors lining up to get a piece of this action-especially considering that these projects are projected to have a 50% loan default rate.
If the administration must support a nuclear renaissance, it is irresponsible of them to not consider limiting the risk that taxpayers will be stuck with should a nuclear utility default, and the Office of Management and Budget is doing just that by requiring these fees.
Constellation’s decision probably places NRG Energy Inc., a Princeton, New Jersey-based power producer, in the lead for the next loan-guarantee award. However, if the fees are this large, it might be a victory that NRG and its partners will also not necessarily want, dooming that project too.
NRG is seeking a guarantee to add two units at its South Texas power plant in Matagorda County. The company is also seeking to secure Japanese government financing, but that is also contingent upon the project securing the US loan guarantee. Perhaps this is a project that needs to be doomed. Clearly the building of nuclear plants are so high risk that the private sector appears unwilling to take on that risk, without the US government (read US taxpayer) bearing the brunt of the risk. If they put it up to a vote, I certainly wouldn’t vote to put my money into such a high risk project, would you?
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, cleaner cars, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Nuclear | Tagged Constellation Energy, loan guarantee, NRG, nrg energy, Nuclear, nuclear loan guarantees, Office of Management and Budget, STP, Texas, united states department of energy |
Just came across an announcement in the City of Georgetown newsletter that mentioned the new Georgetown350 organization (part of the larger 350.org that you may have heard of).
Check our their blog here. Good luck y’all!
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, cleaner cars, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Renewables | Tagged 350.org, Georgetown Texas, Georgetown350, Texas |
Hey folks, TexasVox got reinvited to the TPA Roundup, so we’re pleased to bring you the news from around the Texas blogosphere. We’re incredibly happy to be rubbing shoulders with some of the best bloggers in the state .. nah, country. Please to enjoy.
The Texas Progressive Alliance is imagining a world in which John Lennon lived to see his 70th birthday as it brings you this week’s roundup.
Off the Kuff published interviews with Democratic candidates Jeff Weems, Hector Uribe, and Hank Gilbert.
BossKitty at TruthHugger is disgusted again. This is a very serious election. America is the deer in the headlights and appears to be frozen. So, the last thing I want to hear is “its a TRUCK”! This election is all spin and conspiracy, not that previous elections haven’t been. But this one is critical because even hinting at rolling back what forward motion has been achieved. Israel is sliding, America is sliding and the radicals are ready. This is NOT the choice American’s should face.
Mathew Dowd, a Bushbot, longs for the glory days of the Bush presidency and envisions Rick Perry as president. That sound you hear is CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme retching uncontrollably.
Bay Area Houston says during Breast Cancer Awareness Month Americans are truly a sick bunch of people.
nytexan at BlueBloggin is beyond irritation at the continual hypocrisy of Congress and Republican policy of NO. Coburn and Brown Take Pay Raise and Say No To Federal Employees. It’s stunning that the US Congress can continue to give themselves pay raises every years and then claim that federal employees are overpaid. Tom Coburn believes “We need to expect more, and we need to pay less.”
The Texas governor is apparently going to finish the 2010 campaign much the way he started it: remaining cowardly, and trying to get re-elected based solely on his good looks.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts (again) on the failure of our states leadership, Public school finance continues to be a problem.
WhosPlayin writes about why it is so important for Texans to log on to www.donatelifetexas.com and check the status of their organ donor registration, and sign up if they are not already.
Neil at Texas Liberal attended the Governor’s race debate on the topic of education that was held in Houston. All the candidates were there except incumbent Rick Perry.
Posted in News Roundup | Tagged Hector Uribe, John Lennon, Rick Perry, Texas, texas progressive alliance |
October 9, 2010 by Adrian Shelley
CPS Energy in San Antonio continues to move forward with its renewable plans under Mayor Julian Castro. A major new solar announcement, just as its 14 MW solar system is getting finished, is good news indeed. San Antonio has been a leader in wind energy and now leads the state in solar, where is the leadership in the other cities and the state? They should take a long hard look in the mirror, and then go visit the new green leader, way to go San Antonio.
From the CPS web site.
CPS Energy Rising to Be National Leader in Green Power
10/07/2010
CPS Energy’s renewable energy portfolio will increase by 30 megawatts (MW) with this week’s signing of a new 25-year purchase power agreement (PPA) with SunEdison, a global leader in delivering solar electricity. With the SunEdison agreement, CPS Energy now has 44 MW of solar generation under contract, solidifying its position as the leader in renewable energy resources among municipally owned utilities in the nation. The contract moves CPS Energy closer to its vision of providing customers with 1,500 MW of renewable energy (wind and solar) by 2020.
“The market for solar energy continues to improve, and this agreement takes advantage of that,” said President and CEO Doyle Beneby. “In addition to more than 40 MW of solar generation, CPS Energy has rebates that incentivize the use of solar by homeowners and businesses, and a developing distributed-generation program. With 300 days of sunshine each year, it just makes sense that San Antonio becomes a hub for solar energy in the U.S.”
By fall of 2012, Maryland-based SunEdison is expected to complete installation of 120,000 single-axis tracking photovoltaic (PV) panels that will follow the sun throughout the day, generating a total of 30 MW at three locations across the CPS Energy service area. The three locations will be announced later this year, and construction is expected to begin in early 2012. The combined energy output of the three facilities is expected to be approximately 54,000 megawatt hours—enough to power about 3,700 homes.
“We are pleased to provide this long-term, renewable energy solution for our customers,” added CPS Energy Chief Sustainability Officer Cris Eugster. “In addition to helping us meet our goal to provide 100 MW of solar generation by 2020, we’re also looking to SunEdison to be a key partner in transforming San Antonio into a national hub for solar energy.”
“SunEdison is committed to the growing Texas solar energy market, and we look forward to expanding our utility scale presence in the state in 2011,” said Carlos Domenech, President of SunEdison. “Our development capabilities, financing power and execution track record enables municipal utilities, like CPS Energy, to benefit from economically viable solar solutions.”
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, cleaner cars, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Renewables, solar | Tagged CPS Energy, Energy, renewable, renewable energy, San Antonio, solar power, SunEdison, Texas |
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Jury selection begins today in former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay‘s felony conspiracy trial. In 2005, A Travis County Grand Jury indicted the former U.S. Congressman on charges he helped funnel $190,000 in illegal corporate donations into statewide elections in 2002. State law prohibits corporations from contributing to political campaigns.
