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Posts Tagged ‘texas senate’

Renewable Energy Bill Passes Senate

Posted in Energy, Renewables, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 13, 2009 |

Yesterday afternoon the Texas Senate passed through SB 541, a bill authored by Senator Kirk Watson (D-Austin) to create a non-wind renewable portfolio standard.  If passed through the House, SB 541 would put Texas on course to have 1500 MW of renewable energy from non-wind sources such as solar, geothermal, and biomass.

If you follow us on Twitter, of course this is old news to you.  Public Citizen Texas has been using our Twitter feed to keep folks updated on breaking legislative news and votes, as well as to share interesting news articles and blog posts. Check it out:sb541twitter

If this sounds appealing to you, why not give us a follow?  We promise not to tweet your ear off.

Thanks to Senator Watson’s SB 541, Texas could become a national leader in solar energy just as are in the wind industry. Along with Senator Fraser’s 545, which will provide $500 million in solar incentives over the next 5 years, SB 541 will ensure that incentives are provided for both the large, utility scale solar and small-scale distributed solar that Texas needs.

While we would have preferred a larger renewable portfolio standard, Public Citizen is delighted that this bill has passed the Texas Senate.  This is a major step forward for Texans that will create tens of thousands of new clean green jobs within the state and lead to lower electric bills by hedging against the price of natural gas.

Hopefully the Texas House will see the light on solar power and pass an even stronger set of renewable energy goals that will make the grass grow greener, our air cleaner, and the green economy stronger.

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Go Solar: Make Utilities Give Consumers a Fair Price for Surplus Electricity

Posted in Energy, Renewables, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 11, 2009 |

Sun MoneyThanks to Luke Metzger at the Environment Texas blog for this take on pending net metering legislation (read: making sure folks with solar panels get paid back for the excess energy they produce):

On Monday, the Texas House will decide whether to promote solar energy by requiring utilities to pay consumers fair prices for surplus solar power or to codify anti-consumer practices in order to benefit big utilities like TXU. Here’s the story.

Sick of riding the rollercoaster of high electric rates and concerned over pollution and dependence on foreign oil, many Texans are turning to solar power to get more choices than their electric company provides. More than 40 states help consumers do this by requiring electric companies to pay a fair price for the surplus electricity solar panels put back on the grid (known as net metering). In return, the electric grid benefits from a supply of pollution-free electricity during peak-demand time periods, such as hot summer afternoons, avoiding congestion costs and dampening real-time on-peak wholesale energy prices. The more renewable generation that is located at customer’s houses and businesses, the less will need to be charged in the future to all customers’ electric bills for wires, fuel and pollution costs. Incentivizing solar will also help create jobs and attract manufacturers to the state.

In addition to consumer rebates and tax credits, net metering is a key financial driver making solar power a cost-effective investment for consumers. Texas had such a policy in place in the 1980s, but with the restructuring of the electric market, old definitions of electric utilities no longer applied and net metering was inadvertently ended. (more…)

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Voter ID Passes Senate Committee Hearing

Posted in Good Government, Privacy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 11, 2009 |

After a grueling 23-hour hearing, the Senate passed SB 362, requiring that voters present a photo identification.  No big surprise there.

The AP reports,

No one was surprised that a special Senate panel, which includes all 31 senators and Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, approved the legislation along straight party lines in a 20-12 vote just before 10 a.m. It was, as one Democratic senator observed, a “foregone conclusion.”

Wednesday’s vote all but assures it will pass and be sent to the House as early as Monday.

Andy didn’t make it back to testify, he had to head off to Dallas before his turn came up.  Lots of people didn’t make it to testify… though as many as 150 folks signed up, only around 25 made it through the night to actually speak.

I’m not sure on the official numbers of how many people dropped cards for or against the bill, but I heard through the grapevine that more people commented against it than for.  Thanks to everyone who made it out — get ready to do it all over again in the House!

Reports Vince Leibowitz at Capitol Annex,

The bill is all but assured a similar party-line vote when it comes up before the full Senate as early as Monday for final passage. The bill will then go to the Texas House, where it will likely be assigned to the House Elections Committee.

Sorry my fellow Good Government watchdogs… our work is never done.  And even then, who will watch the watchmen?

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After midnight in the Senate: Voter ID at hour 16 and counting…

Posted in Good Government, Privacy, tagged , , , , on March 11, 2009 |

It is 2am.  I have been listening to the Senate debate voter ID suppression for the past 16 hours. I hope all of you have been following us on Twitter, as some of those tweets were quite entertaining.

I have heard the arguments.  Here are my opinions:

Those opposed to voter ID have successfully proved that this is a solution to a problem that does not exist.  Period.  Years of investigations by the AG’s office costing millions of dollars and not a single indictment.

However, those who are in favor of requiring voters to present picture ID also have a compelling argument that they claim not one person has been kept from voting.  But, I hate to ruin a good story with the facts, but that just ain’t so.  According to the Houston Chronicle today yesterday, over 4200 voters were kept from voting in the 2008 election in Georgia alone, whose law the proposed bill is based on.

As I tweeted earlier, one of the expert witnesses claimed that based on demographics and the experience in Georgia and Indiana, 162,901 Texans would be disenfranchised.

Sounds like a big hurdle for voters to “solve” a problem that doesn’t exist.

I have to get up in 4 hours and go to Dallas.  I’m beat.  I’ll keep the Senate testimony on all night and let it permeate my dreams (scary, no?)  Maybe by the time I wake up they will have gotten to public testimony and I can swing back by the Capitol and testify before heading to Dallas.  Not bloody likely, but I can dream….

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