Posted in Energy, tagged deregulation, Electricity market, houston chronicle, rolling blackouts, Texas on February 12, 2011 |
Loren Steffy, the Houston Chronicle‘s business columnist writes this week about why the lights went out.
Loren Steffy, Houston Chronicle
We are left with an electricity market that has failed at both ends. Leaving our power supply dependent on the whims of that market means that last week probably won’t be the last time it leaves us in the dark.
Click here to read Loren’s blog.
Posted in Campaign Finance, Good Government, tagged Dick DeGuerin, houston chronicle, Republican National Committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, Texas, Tom Delay, Travis County Texas on November 20, 2010 |
Testimony in Tom DeLay‘s money-laundering trial ended on Thursday, without the former House majority leader testifying and neither DeLay’s chief political aide, Jim Ellis, nor John Colyandro, who ran Texans for a Republican Majority, testified because they are being tried later as co-conspirators. Closing arguments are set for Monday and with any luck we will have a verdict by the end of next week.
In the meantime, let’s recap this week.
Prosecutors in the political money-laundering case against former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay continued their efforts to build a circumstantial case, but as the sixth day of testimony ended Tuesday, they still had not directly linked DeLay to the alleged scheme. However, on Wednesday prosecutors presented the jury with statements DeLay made to investigators in 2005, indicating he knew of a $190,000 money swap before it occurred.
Posted in Global Warming, tagged Air permit, air pollution, ana hernandez, asthma, bay city, Coal, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, harris county, houston, houston chronicle, jessica farrar, kristi thibaut, matagorda county, ozone, Public Citizen, ryan rittenhouse, smog, south texas, state office of administrative hearings, Texas, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, white stallion on February 22, 2010 |
Anybody catch this article last week in the Houston Chronicle? An important issue to think about: how coal plants will not only affect the surrounding air quality, but that of communities down wind. If the White Stallion coal plant is allowed to be built: Houston, we will have an even worse smog problem. Look for Ryan’s quote to close it out!
City’s smog concerns may choke power plant
Pollution near Matagorda could drift to Houston
By MATTHEW TRESAUGUE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
A proposed coal-fired power plant in mostly rural Matagorda County, 90 miles from the traffic-choked freeways and smokestacks of Houston, has moved to the center of the debate over the big city’s air.
Some federal regulators, Houston lawmakers, and environmentalists say the proposed White Stallion Energy Center would only exacerbate the city’s stubborn smog problem as tougher nationwide limits for the widespread pollutant come into play.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for one, wants Texas regulators to prove that pollution from the coal plant would not make Houston’s smog worse before issuing permits. Critics also want the state to require the power company to consider new technology that might slash emissions of smog-forming pollution.
The push comes amid a review of the proposal by the State Office of Administrative Hearings, which will soon recommend whether the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality should grant the plant’s air permit.
The plant would be built less than 20 miles from the boundary of the eight-county Houston region that was long in violation of federal limits for smog or ozone. Rules on industrial pollution — in particular, new sources — are tighter inside such areas than outside, even though smog ignores county lines. (more…)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Barnett shale, bill white, binding arbitration, Capitalism, don mcleroy, farouk shami, gop, health care, Health Care Insurance Reform, houston chronicle, insurance, james o'keefe, jarvis johnson, mary landrieu, perry, pharma, sheila jackson lee, south texas chisme, staar, Texas, texas association of builders, texas enterprise fund, texas progressive alliance, Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Round, thomas ratliff on February 1, 2010 |
The Texas Progressive Alliance is ready for the Super Bowl this Sunday as it brings you this week’s blog highlights.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme thinks that the Houston Chronicle caught the essence of the GOP with this headline ‘Many attacks, but few suggestions‘.
WhosPlayin is tired of hearing obstructionist Republicans whining about not having a seat at the table for Health Care Insurance Reform, after they make it clear they’ll vote against any attempt to harm their Pharma and Insurance benefactors.
Off the Kuff notes that the Texas ParentPAC has endorsed Thomas Ratliff in his GOP primary fight against uber-SBOE wingnut Don McLeroy.
Bay Area Houston watched as the Texas Association of Builders got kicked in the nuts at a hearing in Austin over the abuse of mandatory binding arbitration.
It’s been such an amazing news week in the Barnett Shale that it’s hard to pick one topic for the round-up. One item that should be of interest to anyone in the DFW area who drinks water: Argyle Disposal Well in Denton Creek Flood Plain. No kidding! It’s for real on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.
The Texas Cloverleaf looks at the taxing TAKS becoming the pretty STAAR that school children will have to shoot past in order to graduate.
If you missed the GOP gov debate, check out McBlogger’s rather insightful analysis of the three players performances, along with a mercifully brief comment on the sexual desirability of Rep. Louie Gohmert.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the latest Texans for Public Justice “Watching Your Assets” report, this one about the Texas Enterprise Fund, Perry’s corporate welfare not paying off for Texas.
Over at TexasKaos, Libby Shaw puts a local spin on young James O’Keefe’s foiled attempt to tamper with Mary Landrieu’s phones. The roll call Texas Republican admirers is quite long. Of equal interest was the discussion that followed the outing of these Republicans. See it all at Texas Republican Lawmakers Honor James O’Keefe.
It’s a travesty that only Bill White and Farouk Shami are participating in the Texas Democratic gubernatorial debate on February 8 because the other five candidates don’t meet the “standards”. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs believes it’s impossible to reconcile that KERA, a public broadcasting station, together with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Univision and other corporate and media industry sponsors, would conspire to preclude candidates for the state’s highest public office.
Neil at Texas Liberal is glad that Houston City Councilmember Jarvis Johnson is talking about poverty in his 18th U.S. House District primary fight with incumbent Sheila Jackson Lee. However, it will take some solid ideas and not just talk to feel that Mr. Johnson is really serious about the issue.
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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, Renewables, tagged distributed solar, electric coops, environment texas, governor perry, green jobs, HB, hb 1243, houston chronicle, made in texas, Passes Texas Senate, pec scandal, public citizen texas, retail electric providers, sb 545, sb 921, solar, solar rebates, Texas, texas consumers, texas senate, transparency on May 28, 2009 |
Last night at 11:58 pm (wink, wink), just as we suspected would happen, the Texas Senate unanimously passed through the net metering bill, HB 1243, with solar SB 545 amended on as a bonus. This is great news for Texas consumers, the environment, and solar power.
As you may recall, HB 1243 will ensure that owners of solar installations, small wind turbines, or biogas generators get paid a fair price for the excess power they produce. SB 545 — which after the Voter ID slowdown, we thought was dead — increases incentives for distributed solar power generation by creating a pool of $500 million in solar rebates over the next 5 years. It also calls for a pilot program with a minimum funding of $4 million to put solar on schools (nudge: the State Energy Conservation Office could potentially spend considerably more of their pending stimulus funds to further these projects) and will create thousands of green, local jobs across the state of Texas.
Another amendment to the bill added on SB 2349. This provision would allow oil wells that create natural gas, but not enough to justify paying for collection, to build a generator to run the gas through, make electricity, and sell it back into the grid. The bill would limit production to 2 MW so that they can provide distributed generation. As of right now, they’re just flaring that gas off, so this is definitely a good thing.
According to our friends at Environment Texas (via the Houston Chronicle’s NewsWatch: Energy blog), the amended HB 1243 also
• Requires home builders to offer solar as a standard option in developments with 50 homes or more.
• Prevents homeowners associations from blocking solar panel installations
• Allows up to 70% of incentive funds to be used for utility-scale solar projects
• Allows the Public Utility Commission to extend the program for an additional five years and another $500 million if it determined that a “substantial” amount of manufacturing of solar generation products located in Texas after the initial five-year program
• Requires electric co-ops to allow consumers to interconnect solar to the grid
• Clarifies that consumers will not have to register as a utility and that third party ownership of solar is allowed
• For the next two years, requires retail electric providers to pay at least five cents per kilowatt hour for surplus solar and four cents for other renewable technologies and directs the PUC to determine a fair market price that will become a new “floor” following the two years
• Creates a “Made in Texas” program to certify and encourage Texans to buy locally manufactured solar panels and other energy products. As a result, locally produced products qualify for a 20% larger rebate than imports.
Now that HB 1243 has successfully passed through both chambers of the legislature, we’ve just got to wait and see what comes out of conference committee, where bill authors from both sides will smooth out the differences between their bills. Many thanks to all of you that wrote e-mails and made phone calls in support of these bills. This is a tremendous victory for Texas solar. Keep your fingers crossed that we can send this bill to Governor Perry’s desk!
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Nuclear, tagged andrews waste dump, cap and trade, carbon offsets, carbonfund, climate change, costs of inaction, greenhouse gasses, houston chronicle, mayland, net metering, New York Times, nuclear waste, nuclear waste dump, photovoltaics world, Texas, Washington Post, waxman-markey on May 8, 2009 |
Time for a Friday wrap-up, all the news that’s fit to link:
The Cost of Climate Inaction, Op-Ed in the Washington Post
An Affordable Salvation, New York Times Op-Ed about the benefits of cap and trade
Carbon Offsets in Waxman-Markey Bill, An Overview, Carbonfund.org Blog
Maryland Passes Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act, SustainableBusiness.com News
Cap and trade won’t push heavy industries overseas — study, The New York Times
Net metering: The civil rights movement for solar energy, Photovoltaics World
Who gets tough against companies polluting Texas? Hint: It’s not the state, Houston Chronicle
Utah takes nuclear waste from states with own dump, Houston Chronicle (A glimpse of what could happen in Texas if the Andrews Waste Dump goes through)
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 on May 6, 2009 |
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 Efficiency, Energy, Global Warming, Renewables, tagged Austin American-Statesman, Clean Energy, consumption, earth day, Energy Efficiency, environmental defense fund, green jobs, houston chronicle, Public Citizen, Renewables, Sierra Club, Texas, Tom "Smitty" Smith, Weatherization on April 22, 2009 |
For your Earth Day enjoyment, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, and Environmental Defense have written a joint Op-Ed that has been published in both the Austin American Statesman & the Houston Chronicle. So on this day of celebration, Let’s Begin a Better Future Now and Enact Energy Laws to Clear Air, Create Jobs!
Check it out:
Texas citizens get it.
More of us than ever are mindful of switching off lights, weatherizing our homes and doing all that we can to save energy. State legislators can get it too. This session, they have an opportunity and responsibility to save us even more money on our electricity bills, create thousands of green jobs and reduce pollution across the state. Our representatives now have less than six weeks to pass the best of nearly 100 bills that have been introduced on clean power and green jobs. These energy efficiency and renewable energy bills set the stage for rebuilding, repowering and renewing our state’s economy during tough times. They will build a sustainable future for Texas.
The energy efficiency bills contain plans for helping Texas families by creating jobs while reducing consumption of electricity in our homes and buildings. When our homes and buildings are well-insulated and our appliances more efficient, we don’t need to burn wasteful and damaging amounts of dirty fossil fuels for electricity.
An additional benefit to creating Texas’ new clean energy economy is that we can clean up our air and address climate change at the same time. As we provide new jobs installing clean energy technologies, we can decrease the public health risks and costs associated with the impacts of burning coal. (more…)
Posted in Efficiency, Energy, tagged Energy Efficiency, green jobs, houston chronicle, matthew johnson, president obama, Public Citizen, public utility commission, PUC, Texas, Texas Legislature, Tom "Smitty" Smith on March 4, 2009 |
The Houston Chronicle ran an Op-Ed Sunday entitled An energy winner: Big savings are possible by upgrading efficiency goals. Authors: Public Citizen’s Tom “Smitty” Smith and Matthew Johnson. Check it out:
In the world of energy, there’s one clear winner when it comes to cost, cleanliness and speed: energy efficiency.
Although regulated utilities in Texas, with few exceptions, met or surpassed all energy efficiency goals set by the Legislature in 2007, this is not the time for Texans to get complacent.
Rather, it’s time to increase our energy efficiency goals and give utilities more tools to achieve new, more aggressive targets. In this time of economic uncertainty and out-of-control utility bills, homes and businesses across Texas deserve more action.
Last year, the Public Utility Commission of Texas completed a study of the state’s energy efficiency potential. Conducted by the independent firm Itron, it concluded that there’s room for Texas to reduce its energy use by 18 percent. We could save even more during times of peak demand. The study also reported that if the Texas Legislature sets higher goals for energy savings, consumers could save $4 billion to $12 billion on utility bills over the next 10 years. (more…)
Posted in Coal, Global Warming, Toxics, tagged appeals court, diesel engines, EPA, federal appeals court, galveston-houston association for smog prevention, ghasp, houston chronicle, matthew tejada, New York Times, particulate matter, PM, power plants, soot, steven johnson, Texas on February 25, 2009 |
A federal appeals court yesterday ordered the EPA to reconsider its standards for pollutants, particularly particulate matter (PM). Fine particulates, such as soot, have been linked to premature death, asthma, lung cancer, and heart disease. Furthermore, black carbon soot is a major greenhouse player, as it absorbs and then radiates massive amounts of heat back to earth when it is in the air.
Reports the New York Times,
Researchers have drawn direct and immediate links between ambient levels of fine particulates and hospital admissions and deaths. By some estimates, tens of thousands of Americans die each year from exposure to airborne particulates.
Among other sources, fine particulates come from diesel engines, power plants, certain industrial processes and even fireplaces. Perhaps one-thirtieth the diameter of a human hair, they can make their way deep into the lungs and in some cases even into the bloodstream.
The EPA last approved PM standards in 2006, when scientists from within the agency itself argued that they were too weak. Scientists argued that acceptable levels should be lowered to 12 to 14 micrograms per cubic meter of air instead of 15, but (surprise, surprise) then-chief administrator Steven Johnson said that not enough evidence linked PM to detrimental health effects.
The article continues,
The case decided on Tuesday also involved coarse particulates, like dust, and particulate contributions to haze… and it said the E.P.A. must act to reduce the role of particulates in haze.
The court’s ruling may mean that cities notorious for smog– such as Houston – will have to start doing even more to clean up the air. If pollutant standards are fixed at lower levels that will actually protect public health, these cities may find themselves even closer to non-attainment.
Reports the Houston Chronicle,
For Houston, which is already struggling to meet the EPA’s standards for smog-forming ozone, the designation would mean another deadline, another costly pollution-fighting plan and another threat that federal highway dollars will be withheld if the air doesn’t get cleaner.
“This comes at a really good time because there is concern that the state and federal agencies will take their eye off the ball when it comes to fine particulates,” said Matthew Tejada, executive director of the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention. “It will force use to look at this important issue in a timely manner.”
Its pretty nice to have an EPA that is serious about Environmental Protection Again.
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