Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘PODER’

Austin Energy Town Hall Meeting on the City’s generation and climate protection plan

Posted in Coal, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 1, 2009 |

Big event tonight for Austinites concerned about coal! Tonight, Sept. 1, will be an Austin Energy Town Hall Meeting on the City’s generation and climate protection plan. The event will be located at 721 Barton Springs Rd., Rm 130 from 6 – 8:30pm. Please attend this meeting so that Austin Energy can hear your voice and see that Austinites want the city to Quit Coal with all haste!

Public Citizen, PODER, Sierra Club, and several other environmental groups held a press conference this morning to announce the formation of a coalition to help move the City away from burning coal for electricity.  Public Citizen has long been an opponent of coal-fired electricity and the construction of new coal plants, and this new campaign will attempt to get the City of Austin to divest itself from the Fayette Coal Plant, part of which it owns along with the Lower Colorado River Authority.

Watch the video from this morning’s event, and watch for Matthew Johnson, our energy policy analyst.  Sadly, he is not in character as #unfrozencavemanlawyer 🙁

[vimeo 6388102]

Read more from the press release after the jump: (more…)

Read Full Post »

Too Much Fun this Week

Posted in Coal, Global Warming, Toxics, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 15, 2009 |

social-calendarThere is too much fun going on in the next few days… I can’t handle it.  I wish I could be multiple places at once… and influence climate change legislation by sheer will power.. and attach documents to e-mails telepathically.  Ah well, if wishes were horses, I’d have gotten that pony when I was six.

Here’s a quick breakdown of all the good stuff going on over the next couple days:

Old Settler’s Music Festival, Thursday March 16 – Sunday March 20

Old Settler’s Music Festival is a nationally known music festival featuring the best in roots and Americana music. The festival is held in the gorgeous Texas hill country, at the height of the Bluebonnet and wildflower season. Old Settler’s Music Festival offers great music and activities for the whole family.

The Festival is held at Salt Lick Pavilion and Camp Ben McCulloch, just minutes from Austin, located 11 miles south of Highway 290 West on Farm Road 1826.

Public Citizen is an official sponsor of the event, so keep your eyes out for our table, banners, and slide-shows in between sets.  We hope to live blog the festivities, so be on the lookout for artist interviews and sneak peaks of shows.  And don’t forget your sunscreen, that hill country sun can be brutal!

Fighting Goliath screening, Thursday April 16

When: Thursday, April 16 at 7:00pm

Where: St. Andrew’s Presbyterian, 14311 Wellsport Drive (one block west of the Wells Branch exit off of I-40).

Narrated by Robert Redford and produced by The Redford Center at the Sundance Preserve and Alpheus Media, FIGHTING GOLIATH: TEXAS COAL WARS follows the story of Texans fighting a high-stakes battle for clean air. The film introduces the unlikely partners-mayors, ranchers, CEOs, community groups, legislators, lawyers, and citizens-that have come together to oppose the construction of 19 conventional coal-fired power plants that were slated to be built in Eastern and Central Texas and that were being fast-tracked by the Governor. (34 minutes)

Public Citizen’s Ryan Rittenhosue will do a short presentation on Texas’ current coal threat and have a Q&A session afterward.

Environmental Justice & the Multicultural City: The Transformative Role of Urban Planning City Forum, Friday, April 17

People of color and low-income communities have disproportionately suffered from the environmental burdens generated by consumption and production choices made by others. Responding to these injustices, neighborhood activists have been fighting for over 30 years for the right to live, work, and play in healthy environments. In this City Forum, the panelists will share their insights from research and activist work, and discuss the potential role of planning educators, students and practitioners in addressing environmental justice concerns. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Candidate Forums Galore

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 14, 2009 |

voteThe City of Austin’s municipal elections are coming up May 9th, which means that throughout the following weeks there will be lots of candidate forums and opportunities to question our potential leaders.  From our friends at PODER, here are two upcoming events:

East Austin Candidate Forums

What do this year’s Mayoral and City Council candidates have to offer East Austin?  Ask them yourself! By attending these upcoming forums, you’ll find out what the candidates plan to do about quality of life disparities in East Austin.  Hear how they respond to tough questions from the community about unemployment, housing, stimulus funding for neighborhoods, and minority representation.

TUESDAY, APRIL 14 AT 6 PM

Southwest Key‘s Mayoral and Place 1 Candidate Forum

6002 Jain Lane, Austin

512.462.2181

*Childcare and refreshments provided by AARP

*Habla Español

THURSDAY, APRIL 23 AT 6 PM

PODER’s Mayoral and City Council Candidate Forum

Space 12 located at 3221 East 12th Street

512.472.9921

*Sponsored by PODER, Space 12, Rosewood & other East Austin Neighborhood Associations & Muntu: Reflections in East Austin

Read Full Post »

Voter Registration Deadline and Environmental Candidate Forum this Thursday

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 8, 2009 |

austincityhallWant to vote in the upcoming City of Austin Municipal Elections?  The deadline to vote in the May 9th elections is this Thursday, March 9th.

Says the Statesman:

To be eligible to vote for mayor or city council members or ballot initiatives in Travis County communities, you must mail a registration application to the Travis County Registrar. Those already registered to vote in Travis County do not have to re-apply.

Residents of Austin and other Travis County cities can find a registration application at the Travis County Tax Assessor/Collector’s website or by calling 238-8683. Some parts of North Austin are actually in Williamson County; those voters can obtain applications at www.wilco.org or by calling 943-1630.

To vote in Texas, you must be a U.S. citizen, live in the county you register, be at least 18 years old on Election Day, not have been convicted of a felony, and not have been declared mentally incapacitated by a court of law, according to a release from the City of Austin.

Want to see where the candidates stand on environmental issues?  Come to a candidate forum focused on sustainability issues this Thursday, March 9 at 5:30 pm at City Hall. (more…)

Read Full Post »