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Posts Tagged ‘quit coal’

Wednesday afternoon from 5-7 pm, let’s get together to discuss how to make Austin’s Dirty Secret a secret no more! Join us at Spider House for our group’s first ever happy hour meet-up (complete with dirty drink specials!). We’ll discuss our plans for convincing City Council to phase out Fayette by 2020 or earlier and get to know each other over beer/coffee/food. Look for us in the back near the moving screening area.  And RSVP on the facebook event page so we have a rough head count!

See you there!

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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.

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Texans Concerned about Clean Air and Building the new Green Jobs Economy ROLL BEYOND COAL across Texas this Halloween — Fun Events on Saturday, October 31

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGyzVLK8yz8]

WHO: Public Officials, Businesses, Sierra Club and their Environmental Partners such as Public Citizen, and Bicycling Communities across Texas

WHAT: Roll Beyond Coal Rallies, Bike Rides, & Hikes for Clean Power, Green Jobs, & Clean Air

WHEN: Saturday, October 31, 2009

WHERE:

ALPINE 10 am, Kokernot Lodge, 1104 Loop Road, http://texas.sierraclub.org/bigbend/index.html

AUSTIN 1:00 Music and Rally on the Plaza at City Hall, Lavaca & W. Cesar Chavez. 2:00 Clean Energy Bike Tour (5 and 9 mile options) and Hikes. 3:00 – 5:00 After Party at Gingerman Pub, 301 Lavaca Street. http://www.texas.sierraclub.org/austin

BEAUMONT 8:00 am in the Colonnade Shopping Center at Dowlen Road & Phelan Blvd. We will offer a 7.3 mile route or you can choose the extended 14.1 mile route. http://texas.sierraclub.org/triangle/index.html

CORPUS CHRISTI Noon – 1:00 PM Registration, 1:00 Festival, 1:30 Bike fun ride begins (observe all traffic signs and signals), 1:35 PM Rollers and Strollers roll, 2:30-4:00 Rally http://www.cleaneconomycoalition.org/rbc

DALLAS Registration: 8:30 am. Bike ride: 10:30 am. White Rock Lake at The Bath House Cultural Center on 521 E. Lawther Drive in Dallas. Prizes to be given for the best Halloween and Clean Air costumes! Free Basic Bike Check-ups on site. http://www.dallassierraclub.org/

WHY: Public officials, Sierra Club activists, their environmental partners, and bicycling communities across Texas are bringing to light the serious problem of the second wave of the Texas Coal Rush.

In Rallies to Roll Beyond Coal and Clean Energy Bike Rides, and Hikes, Texans concerned about clean air and building a new green, clean energy economy are asking the EPA to take bold action by intervening on that freaky, frightening Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

There will be costumed riders and plenty of information about the current Second Wave of the Texas coal rush which is cresting this winter with 11 new coal plants in various stages of the permitting process, permitted, under construction, or coming on line. Texans from diverse walks of life are rallying at Roll Beyond Coal events for Halloween fun with a seriously scary message! There is a glimmer of hope in this tale!

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Many thanks to everyone that made it to the Austin City Council meeting yesterday for an anti-coal demonstration! Twenty five to thirty concerned citizens stood up in City Council chambers, dressed in black to represent the yearly moralities from our Fayette Coal Plant, as Ryan Rittenhouse addressed the Council. Check out the video below for more, and join the facebook group Austin has a Dirty Secret to stay in the loop on future coal actions and demonstrations:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGyzeybQjSw]

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coal killsWith the Day of the Dead just around the corner, it’s the time of year to remember friends and family members who have died. That’s why we’ve decided to hold a demonstration at City Hall on Thursday at noon, wearing black, to recognize those who have died from complications related to living around the City of Austin’s coal plant.

Burning coal to create electricity has a high human cost. From childhood asthma to aggravated heart and respiratory problems, living downwind of a coal plant can take years off of your life. If you are a six year old or even a strapping adult with asthma and unlucky enough to live near a coal plant to boot, that is enough to send you to the emergency room on a regular basis. Individuals with heart conditions are in the same boat. And mercury emissions from the coal stacks that power our city find their way into waterways and are known to cause birth defects. A recently updated study by the Clean Air Task Force finds that our Fayette Coal Plant causes an average of fifty deaths each year.

City Council must take these considerations into account when planning our future energy mix. Why should others in the state of Texas die or live with crippling health problems when cleaner alternatives exist?

So come to City Hall at noon on Tuesday to show City Council your support for a clean energy plan that would phase out the coal plant as quickly as possible. Wear black in some way, and meet at 11:50 in the lobby so that we can coordinate. Parking at city hall is free on council meeting days. Please RSVP or contact Ryan Rittenhouse at 512-477-1155 with any questions.

Please also spread the word to similarly concerned friends and invite them to the “Austin has a dirty secret” facebook group so that they can be in the loop for future events or demonstrations.

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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…)

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