Welcome to the debut of the Public Citizen Texas Week in Review. Every day our advocacy staff works to organize citizens and politicians in order to realize our progressive vision of a healthy environment, a sustainable economy, and a government of, by, and for the people.
This advocacy requires patience and discipline, resilience and fortitude, as our energy initiatives develop and progress across the weeks and months. You, our online readers, see this work culminate in blog posts, newspaper articles, press releases, protests, law suits, and policy proposals. What you don’t see is the day-to-day operations as our advocates set priorities, develop concrete goals, implement strategies, form coalitions, read, compile, and compose reports, and collaborate with other progressive energy activists.
The Week in Review will give readers some insights into our daily work and reach out to further engage Texas citizens. We want our work to become your work, too. And we want your input to make our strategies more effective. Together we will make Texas the clean green energy capital of the world and realize a sustainable future that empowers everyone. Enjoy.
Texas Director Tom Smitty Smith has been developing plans for the next legislative session to reduce global warming, increase customer savings through efficiency and increase use of renewable energy. If members have good ideas or issues they want to see prioritized, please send them to us at smitty@citizen.org.
Smitty also gave interns Patrick Reck and Andrew Sauls a legislative, historical, and architectural tour of the Texas Capitol building. They learned about the spatial dimensions of “lobby”ing as well as the functions of the Calendar and Conference Committees.
Energy Efficiency advocate Matt Johnson attended a two-day charette at City Hall to launch the development of the Community Plan portion of the Austin Climate Protection Plan. The event was organized to determine how different segments of our community, besides City Hall and Austin Energy, will play a part in protecting the climate.
Coal Block bulwark Ryan Rittenhouse spent last weekend in Matagorda County to meet with representatives of the No Coal Coalition in Bay City. They discussed further action against the White Stallion Coal Plant. Ryan and Sierra Club activists continued to develop and plan a hearing in Dallas on March 16th regarding new EPA ozone standards.
Trevor Lovell and ReEnergize Texas launched the “Think Green? Think Green Fund” campaign in February. This week they we had their first two victories. The student bodies at UT Austin and Texas A&M both voted in favor of creating creating green funds which will raise a total of $4 million for sustainability projects on their campuses over the next five years. ReEnergize Texas anticipates student body votes on 3-5 more campuses this spring, and more in the fall.
Global Warming intern Mona Avalos wanted to share this podcast: The Water-Energy Nexus: Trading One Problem for Another? Speakers include: Bill Hoffman, principal of Hoffman and Associate; Carey King, a energy and resource analyst for the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at UT; and Tom Rooney, CEO of SPG Solar. “Governments and companies must think about the connection between water and energy as they develop new energy sources,” said Mona.
Thanks for reading. Join us next time for the Public Citizen Texas Week in Review.
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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.
