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Posts Tagged ‘smart grid’

Next Friday: Green Jobs Initiative Conference

Posted in green jobs, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 17, 2010 |

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.

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Pecan Street Project Public Meeting June 23rd

Posted in Efficiency, Energy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 22, 2009 |

You are invited to learn about and provide input to the Austin Pecan Street Project tomorrow, June 23 from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Capital Area Workforce Board, 6505 Airport Blvd., Suite 101-E (please enter from the Highland Mall side of the building).

The Pecan Street Project is an initiative charged with exploring the challenges Austin faces in building a modern energy system, including a smart grid.  On September 25, 2008, the Austin City Council adopted a resolution directing the city to work with Environmental Defense Fund and other community stakeholders, to conduct an analysis of system improvements, technology advances, and business models that would enable Austin Energy to more fully develop its capacity for the distributed generation of clean energy.

Attendees will be provided information about the project, followed by an invitation to participate in breakout sessions encouraging discussion and soliciting feedback about the project’s technology, system design, financial and economic development aspects.

The project is a partnership among the City of Austin, Austin Energy, University of Texas, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and Environmental Defense Fund. The project has already garnered 11 corporate partnerships, including Dell Inc., IBM Corporation, Intel, Cisco Systems and others.

For a primer on just what a “smart grid” is, check out the following video.  Hope to see you at the meeting tomorrow!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrcqA_cqRD8]

For more information on the Pecan Street Project, check out their YouTube channel and watch a couple of their videos.

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San Antonio’s Mayor Hardberger and Council Members Urge Strong Climate Action

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 13, 2009 |

Kudos and many thanks to San Antonio’s outgoing Mayor Hardberger and council members Justin Rodriguez, Jennifer Ramos, Lourdes Galvan, and Phillip Cortez for signing on to a letter urging Congressman Charlie Gonzalez to get with the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act program.

The letter reads:

We have an unprecedented opportunity to put San Antonians to work in new green jobs — building wind turbines, installing solar panels, weatherizing homes, and laying a smarter electric grid that will power our new energy economy.  We also believe it is of the utmost important that we rescue our children, our grandchildren, and the world they’ll inherit from the ravages of global warming.

According to Greg Harman at the San Antonio Current’s QueQue blog,

The cadre adds the weight of local elected leadership to an ongoing campaign working to ensure San Antonio’s representative in Congress (serving on the influential House Committee on Energy & Commerce) pushes for binding commitments to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions quickly while transitioning the economy into a more sustainable direction.

Hopefully Charlie is feeling the pressure and will back away from the polluter giveaways he’s been flirting with as of late.  That’s because, everybody with me now, Giving Away Allowances is a Terrible Way to Write This Bill.  EPA’s most recent analysis says 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.

Just listen to that broken record spin. No shame here, I’ll say it as many times as it takes for it sink in.

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