The University of Texas at San Antonio and St. Philip’s College will both soon be getting solar arrays, thanks to the State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) and federal stimulus programs.
UTSA will get a 52 kilowatts of generating capacity with its $1.3 million grant, and St. Phillip’s will receive a $2 million grant in order to install 400kW of solar capacity. These two projects will triple San Antonio’s solar capacity, save the schools millions in energy costs, and will serve as a laboratory for green jobs training and workforce development.
Says St. Phillips College President Dr. Williams Loston,
This grant represents a tremendous opportunity for St. Philip’s College. It will produce energy for the college, and it will enhance our standing as an area leader in workforce education. Most importantly, we will engage our community in a component of our education.
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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 solar | Tagged San Antonio, solar, St. Philip?s College, st. phillips college, state energy conservation office, stimulus funds, Texas, university of texas san antonio, utsa, Williams Loston |
Next Friday, March 26, Good Company Associates and the Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities are hosting a free Green Jobs Initiative Conference from 8:30 to 12:30 in Austin, Texas.
There will be panels led by industry experts in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and smart grid focusing on workforce development issues. The agenda has been posted on the registration page. The event is free, but you still have to go register.
The Green Jobs Initiative Conference will be held in the Capitol Extension Auditorium which can be seen on this map and parking information can be viewed on this map.
This looks like a great opportunity for all interested parties. Check back with us after the conference and tell us how it was and what you learned!
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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 green jobs | Tagged capitol extension, conference, Energy Efficiency, good company associates, green jobs, green jobs initiative conference, renewable energy, smart grid, Texas, Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities |
In last week’s Oak Hill Gazette, State Senator Jeff Wentworth wrote a guest article profiling the Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program. Next month, from April 16-25, Texas residents can get a rebate to buy up to two energy efficient appliances including refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, hot water heaters, clothes washers, and both room and central air conditioners. Check out the article for more information, and stay posted to Texas Vox for continued updates on the program.
Conserve energy and save money
Jeff Wentworth, State Senator, District 25
Texans who believe in saving money and conserving energy will have the opportunity to do both when they purchase an appliance through the Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, April 16-25.
Appliances that qualify for the rebate include refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, hot water heaters, clothes washers, air source heat pumps and both room and central air conditioners. In addition to money received through a rebate, Energy Star appliances use less energy and less water than most older appliances, saving consumers money each month on their utility bills.
Participants must be Texas residents. They must replace an old appliance with a new, energy-efficient model that they purchase in-store from a Texas retailer between April 16 and April 25 to receive a mail-in rebate. State rebates, including an additional $75 for recycling the old appliance, may be combined with other rebates and incentives offered by manufacturers and retailers and with federal tax credits. Each household is eligible for up to two appliance rebates, as long as they are for two different types of appliances. Continue Reading »
Posted in Efficiency, Energy | Tagged appliances, conservation, doe, Efficiency, energy efficient appliance rebate program, Energy Star, jeff wentworth, oak hill gazette, seco, state energy conservation office, state rebates, state senator, Texas, united states department of energy |
The Texas Progressive Alliance heads into March Madness with its own bracket of news and links for the week.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders how Republicans can be so violently against having services they desperately need?
Off the Kuff analyzed county returns in the primaries for Governor, Lite Guv, and the Commissioners.
When are you “too gay” for your job? The Texas Cloverleaf finds out. Continue Reading »
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged bay area houston, brains and eggs, cheney, China, City Council, eye on williamson, flower mound, Karl Rove, lewisville, off the kuff, rove, south texas chisme, Texas, texas cloverleaf, texas progressive alliance, Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Round, whosplayin |
“Tomorrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today?” — Vladimir, Waiting for Godot
The Public Citizen Texas Week in Review Continue Reading »
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged Andrew Sauls, Andrews County waste dump, austin generation plan, clean energy for austin, coal plant, david power, energy advocacy, Energy Efficiency, environment texas, environmental defense fund, EPA hearing, ICLEI, Melissa Sanchez, mona avalos, ozone attainment standards, P.A.C.E., PACE, patrick reck, property assessed clean energy, reenergize texas, ryan rittenhouse, sarah mcdonald, Sierra Club, smitty, Tar Sands, Texas, think green, think green fund, Tom "Smitty" Smith, trevor lovell, univision dallas, week in review |
Great joint op-ed by our friend McCall Johnson over at Environment Texas and State Rep. Rafael Anchia, winner of Public Citizen’s Legislator of the Year award. Following on the heels of TXU’s announcement last week that it will offer customers an affordable solar leasing program, the gist of it is that we can’t let the momentum for solar wane whenever the program’s money runs out. Sounds like Rep. Anchia may have some ideas for a legislative fix, check it out… Continue Reading »
Posted in Energy, solar | Tagged 82nd legislature, carrollton, dallas, democrats, distributed energy, energy future holdings, environment texas, farmers branch, females, green jobs, hispanics, incentives, irving, jobs, legislator of the year, males, manufacturing, market development, mccall johnson, oncor, Public Citizen, public utility commission, PUC, rafael anchia, republicans, retail electric providers, silicon, solar, solar power, solarcity, Texas, TXU |
The United States Department of Energy has sunk $154 million into a carbon capture and sequestration project in Texas proposed by NRG Energy near Houston. The “demonstration” project will be built on their existing Parish Generating Station in Thompsons, TX (one of the biggest and dirtiest coal plants in Texas and the United States). The project will only be capturing 60 megawatts worth of CO2 from the plant – or 400,000 metric tons of CO2 annually. In comparison the Parish plant currently generates 2,697 megawatts of power and releases over 21 million tons of CO2 every year. Also keep in mind that the CO2 from this “capture” process will be used in what’s called “Enhanced Oil Recovery” meaning that the CO2 being sequestered will be partially offset by the CO2 released when the resulting oil is burned. And even industry analysts have said that between 35-50% of the CO2 solution used in EOR comes back up during the oil recovery process, with this carbon being released back into the atmosphere. Continue Reading »
Posted in Coal, Global Warming | Tagged carbon capture, carbon capture and sequestration, CCS, clean coal, climate change, Coal, coal plant, Department of Energy, doe, Energy, NRG, Texas |
Governor Perry sent a letter to Congressional leadership and the Texas delegation asking them to strip the EPA of the authority to regulate greenhouse gases, which they were told to do by the Supreme Court in 2007’s Massachusetts v. EPA.
Governor Perry needs to check his facts a little more carefully.
He stated in the letter “Texas is aggressively seeking its future in in alternative energy through incentives and innovation, not mandates and overreaching regulation.” Gov Perry is correct, in one sense– we have cut our CO2 emissions as a state, but the primary driver of those cuts was the expansion of wind energy that created thousands of new jobs. And how did we accomplish that? Through a Renewable Portfolio Standard, or, a fancy term meaning a government mandate.
What Perry should be doing is begging the Federal government to impose a nationwide RPS, which would mean renewable resource poor states would come to Texas to buy our renewable energy the same way they’ve counted on us for our oil and gas in the past.
Further, Perry tries to induce fear by saying EPA regulation would affect “every small business, farm, rancher and family” when the EPA earlier this week said they would only begin regulating tailpipe emissions this year, moving on to power plants which emit more than 100,000 tons of CO2 within the next 2-3 years, then on to other facilities which emit more than 75,000 tons (large facilities like cement kilns or refineries). This would never affect any small business or church or school…. unless, of course, you go to Carbon Burnin’ High, home of the Flaming Smokestacks!
Governor Perry needs to focus more on bringing these clean energy jobs to Texas and a little less to railing against “the Man” in DC.
Posted in Coal, Energy, Global Warming | Tagged EPA, governor perry, governor rick perry, Massachusetts v EPA, Texas |
The National Wildlife Federation and the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club have created a splash with their latest report: Drop by Drop: 7 Ways Texas Cities Can Conserve Water.
Austin should be proud. Out of 19 cities studied in this report, our capital city was highly ranked on outdoor water ordinances and has an aggressive toilet replacement program. San Antonio has also set the bar high for effective and diverse water efficiency programs across the country. The cities surveyed were measured on: water pricing structure, water saving goals, toilet replacement, conservation funding, and outdoor watering. Though many cities and towns across the nation have made great strides to reduce water use, the report’s conclusion is that most cities are not doing as much as they could to efficiently use existing water supplies. Continue Reading »
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged Austin, climate change, Drop by Drop, ken kramer, mona avalos, National Wildlife Federation, outdoor water ordinances, population increase, San Antonio, Sierra Club, Texas, Texas Water Development Board, water, water conservation, water efficiency, water supplies |
Please join us in supporting ILoveMountains.org in their ongoing campaign to bring a halt to Mountaintop Removal (MTR) Coal Mining. There is a bill in front of the House of Representatives that would do a great deal to help stop this incredibly destructive operation.
As you probably know, MTR is one of the most ecologically destructive practices on the planet (and that’s saying a lot). It completely destroys huge sections of the Appalachian forests and mountains which are the second-most biological diverse region on the surface of planet Earth (second only to the tropical rain forests). Continue Reading »
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged Bill, call, clean water protection act, climate change, Coal, coal mining, Congress, Global Warming, h.r. 1310, house of representatives, i love mountains, Mining, mountain top, mountaintop, mtr, protest, removal, representative, Texas |
NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE
March Meeting: Gas Drilling 101
General Meeting Information:
When: Thursday, March 11, 2010
6:30 pm – Doors Open – Coffee & Networking
7:00 – 8:45 pm: NCTCA Meeting
Where: Hotel Trinity – Inn Suites I-30 @ Beach Street
(east of downtown Ft. Worth)
You asked for it, we listened! We’ll have a panel of knowledgeable, experienced, community leaders who have been involved in promoting measures to protect our health, safety, and property rights!
Whether you’re a real novice at this subject of gas drilling or have had your fair share of public meetings about it, get ready to learn the most current information & the truth without the industry “slant!”
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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 Energy | Tagged fort worth, gas drilling, health, Hotel Trinity - Inn Suites, march meeting, nctca, north texas communities alliance, North Texas Communities Alliance March Meeting NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS COMMUNITIES, property rights, safety, Texas |
This month Earthworks officially launched the Texas Oil and Gas Accountability Project (OGAP),
a new citizens’ group that will work to ensure that Texas’ burgeoning Barnett shale gas industry operates while respecting the environment and the rights of its neighbors.
There have been, to say the (very) least, a myriad of concerns popping up in recent years related to gas drilling in the Barnett Shale, particularly with a process called hydraulic fracturing (fracking). In a nutshell, fracking is when a fluid under very high pressrue is pushed down into a fracture in the rock to make the fracture bigger and release natural gas from the shale below. Problem is, what is in that fluid can be extremely toxic (read: cancer causing and then some) and its full contents are largely kept under wraps (take action!). Area residents are also very concerned about the health and environmental impacts of emissions from the wells.
According to the press release,
The shale gas industry is exploding in the central Texas. In Fort Worth alone, more than 1,100 wells have been drilled within the city limits, and 100 new wells are being permitted every month. Over 9,000 wells have been drilled in surrounding counties — with 5,000 more already approved. Pipelines and wells are being located and drilled just a few feet from residences, sparking concerns by local residents for their health. Open spaces, such as the Tandy Hills, Greenbelt and other endangered, native prairie lands are turning into industrialized landscapes and drilling is encroaching upon Lake Worth, a critical drinking water supply for the city.
In addition to launching the organization, TXOGAP also released a report entitled, DRILL-RIGHT TEXAS: Best Oil & Gas Development Practices for Texas.
“DRILL-RIGHT TEXAS shows the drilling industry how to do it right: respect private property rights, clean water and clean air, wildlife, and public health,” said Sharon Wilson, the new Texas OGAP organizer. She continued, “I’m a 4th generation Texan who hoped to get rich selling gas leases. After witnessing first-hand the devastation wrought by current drilling practices, I know that unless DRILL RIGHT recommendations are followed, Texans and future Texans will be a whole lot poorer.”
For more information and updates from the ground, visit Bluedaze: Drilling Reform for Texas.
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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 | Tagged Barnett shale, bluedaze, drilling reform, earthworks, hydraulic fracturing, sharon wilson, Texas, Texas Oil and Gas Accountability Project (OGAP) |
Last weekend professors and scientists from four major Texas universities joined forces to write an editorial in the Houston Chronicle defending the science of global warming from skeptics and deniers. Check it out!
On global warming, the science is solid
In recent months, e-mails stolen from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit in the United Kingdom and errors in one of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s reports have caused a flurry of questions about the validity of climate change science.
These issues have led several states, including Texas, to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s finding that heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide (also known as greenhouse gases) are a threat to human health.
However, Texas’ challenge to the EPA’s endangerment finding on carbon dioxide contains very little science. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott admitted that the state did not consult any climate scientists, including the many here in the state, before putting together the challenge to the EPA. Instead, the footnotes in the document reveal that the state relied mainly on British newspaper articles to make its case.
Contrary to what one might read in newspapers, the science of climate change is strong. Our own work and the immense body of independent research conducted around the world leaves no doubt regarding the following key points: Continue Reading »
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged Agriculture, Carbon Dioxide, climate change, climate research, Coal, Environmental Protection Agency, Global Warming, greg abbott, heat-trapping gases, intergovernmental panel on climate change, ipcc, melting ice sheets, methane, nasa, National Academy of Sciences, national oceanic and atomspheric administration, natural gas, nitrous oxide, noaa, oil, professors, rising sea levels, science, scientists, Texas, university of east anglia, waste disposal |
Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is the fossil fuel industry’s much-touted cure-all for our global warming woes. This theoretical solution to global warming is to pump all our industrial releases of CO2 underground, cross our fingers, and hope really, really hard that it will stay there – literally sweeping the problem under the proverbial rug.
It’s a nice dream, but how realistic is it? A new report has examined the feasibility of CCS, and found it “overwhelming in both physical needs and costs” and the entire strategy for geological sequestration “profoundly non-feasible.” Titled Sequestering Carbon Dioxide in a Closed Underground Volume, the report was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering and written by M.J. Economides of the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Houston and C.A. Ehlig-Economides of the Department of Petroleum Engineering, Texas A&M University.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: It has been pointed out to us that many of these claims made by Dr. Economides may be overinflated or just plain spurious- a retort posted by NRDC here. Because we don’t believe in just throwing blog posts down the memory hole, we want to give this big caveat, and watch for a further discussion on CCS feasibility)
Continue Reading »
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged carbon capture, CCS, climate change, Coal, deep saline aquifer, Economides, enhanced oil recovery, Global Warming, industry, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, Michael Economides, pipe dream, Power, report, sequestration, Texas, Texas A & M University, University of Houston |
Support the EPA’s proposal for a stricter ozone pollution standard
Join us for an important public hearing at Arlington City Hall, 101 W. Abram St, Arlington, TX. For more info check out http://www.cleanairtexas.org
Texas has the potential to be at the forefront of the green economy and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed new ozone pollution standard would clean up our air, protect our health and improve our quality of life. A stricter ozone standard would put Texas on the path to a cleaner, greener future.
The final decision by the EPA will affect the quality of the air we breathe for decades to come and it is a decision that depends on your input and your support. Your voice can influence the outcome. Continue Reading »
Posted in Coal, Energy, Toxics | Tagged al armendariz, arlington, clean air act, dallas, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, governor perry, mayor cluck, north texas, ozone, patrick cox, TCEQ, Texas, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality |
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