What’s the difference between the Pete Sessions / Allen Stanford scandal and Pretty Woman?
A: Julia Roberts won’t kiss you– for any amount of money
The bubbling scandal over the “mini Madoff”, R. Allen Stanford, and the Ponzi scheme he (allegedly) engineered in his bank, Stanford Financial, continues to percolate and slime everyone he had dealings with.
Let’s briefly reset the stage, shall we? Sir R. Allen Stanford was a relatively big financier, meaning he would take your money, invest it, then give you a healthy return. Of course, what he is accused of doing by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is “massive ongoing fraud” of investment funds worth over $8 billion. Allegations are that Stanford would take your money, use it to pay other clients who had previously invested with him, and then take money from others and give it to you—this is what is known as a “Ponzi scheme” and is the same thing Bernie Madoff was convicted of. But with Stanford it’s much less clear, as many of his bank accounts are hidden in notorious banking black holes in various Caribbean islands, so Stanford is not yet convicted of anything: we should continue to give him the presumption of innocence that our legal system affords him. Ditto on the allegations that he laundered money for the Mexican Gulf Cartel or cheated on his personal and property taxes to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
However, the following are facts which are NOT in dispute. Stanford threw money around Congress and various elections like it was water, with over $2.4 million given to various candidates from Stanford, Stanford Financial’s PAC, and its employees bundling their donations. These donations were often given to individuals who sat on committees who would mark up a bill which would regulate financial securities and clamp down on fraud– the same fraud he is now alleged to have been perpetrating. Convenient, no? Continue Reading »
Posted in Campaign Finance | Tagged Allen Stanford, campaign contributions, Campaign Finance, campaign finance reform, clean elections texas, Fair Elections, Fair Elections Now Act, lobbying, Madoff, NRCC, Pete Sessions, ponzi scheme, scandal, Stanford Financial, Stanford Financial Group, Texas |
Are you worried about the water usage of the proposed 2-unit expansion at the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant up near Glen Rose, Texas? Then you might be interested in the Brazos River Conservation Coalition meeting tonight at 7pm in Granbury, where they will discuss the impacts of increased water consumption if the project is completed. The meeting is open to the public and will be held in the Hood County Annex 1 meeting room at 1410 W. Pearl St.
Lake Granbury - Comanche Peak in the background
The Brazos River Conservation Coalition, “a citizens group that kind of monitors things that are going on along the river” in the words of their president, will host Comanche Peak’s nuclear environmental manager. The environmental manager will discuss water requirements and answer questions from the public.
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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.
Posted in Nuclear | Tagged brazos river conservation coalition, comanche peak, Glen Rose, granbury, hood county, Nuclear Power, Texas, water use |
Austin Energy is hosting the Austin Climate Protection Conference and Expo this Friday and Saturday, January 15th and 16th from 10am to 5pm at the Palmer Events Center. Admission is free to the public and participating professionals, but you’ve still gotta register.
The 2nd annual expo will feature:
- Expo floor will feature dozens of exhibits that will highlight the Austin carbon calculator, energy efficiency programs, Texas Gas Service programs, alternative transportation technologies, renewable energy, green building products, water conservation products, urban planning, mass transportation, and much more Update: This carbon calculator actually sounds really cool. It will allow individuals to more accurately monitor their carbon footprint “by allowing city of Austin utility customers to directly upload their data (enter a billing account number) for electricity, water, wastewater, and solid waste. It also uses regional, not national, emissions factors” and gives tips to lower your footprint. You can preview the calculator at www.coolaustin.org.
- Friday Full Day Conference for municipalities, business owners, professionals, and fleet managers
- Continuous Speakers Program on Saturday for the public
- Ride and Drive for hands-on experience with all transportation technologies
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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.
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged alternative transportation, austin climate protection conference and expo, austin climate protection plan, Austin Energy, climate change, Energy Efficiency, Global Warming, green building, mass transportation, palmer events center, renewable energy, Texas, urban planning, water conservation |
Representatives from San Antonio’s CPS Energy and NRG Energy, their partner in the proposed South Texas Nuclear Project expansion, met this morning to try and reach a settlement on their $32 Billion lawsuit. But CPS acting General Manager Jelynne LeBlanc-Burley apparently walked out of the meeting after learning that “neither Nuclear Innovation North America CEO Steve Winn nor NRG Energy CEO David Crane made the trip to San Antonio.”
Update: Monday’s settlement meeting ended with no resolution. Cooperation fail.
Meanwhile, a new non-profit called the Ratepayer Protection Coalition announced its inception and intention to intervene in the CPS-NRG’s lawsuit.
Whaaaa? They can do that? Yes, according to attorney Karen Seal:
In Texas, citizen groups have the right to intervene in lawsuits like this if there is evidence of illegal activity like fraud and misrepresentation and if the behavior is expected to continue. We believe this to be the case. We hope to protect our interest as ratepayers, taxpayers and voters from continuing fraud and misrepresentation by all parties.
But why intervene? Orlando Gutierrez, president of the coalition, had the following to say:
Ratepayers are not represented in the legal proceedings between these parties, although they will bear the brunt of a bad settlement deal with higher electric bills. There has been fraud and misrepresentation throughout this process. CPS withheld information and misled the public about the $4 billion cost increase throughout the series of eleven district meetings last year. Project partner NRG admits to misrepresenting costs for purposes of negotiation. Both partners deceived the City Council. Yet neither the Council, taxpayers, or voters have independent representation in the Court.
The Ratepayer Protection Coalition is seeking discovery information to “get to the truth” about the costs of the proposed reactors and available energy alternatives.
According to Greg Harman, reporter at the San Antonio Current:
CPS can’t represent the City of San Antonio, argues the Ratepayer Protection Coalition, a collection of familiar faces from the vindicated critics’ pool. Not only has CPS “conducted a campaign of misinformation, disinformation, and deception designed to convince the San Antonio community about the merits of pursuing nuclear power” but threatened the City Council “that a decision not to pursue the nuclear project would lead to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the project to date by CPS Energy.”
In short, CPS has “dirty hands” and can’t represent the City of San Antonio in court, according to RPC’s complaint filed this morning in the 37th District Court, joining the CPS-NRG lawsuit as an intervener.
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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.
Posted in Energy, Nuclear | Tagged citizen intervenors, City Council, city public services, CPS Energy, david crane, Greg Harman, karen seal, lawsuit, nrg energy, orlando gutierrez, ratepayer protection coalition, ratepayers, San Antonio, san antonio current, settlement, steve winn, Texas |
Great editorial in the Dallas Morning News this weekend. We couldn’t agree more 🙂
Editorial: Texas, a state of denial on pollution rules
To the surprise of no one, the Environmental Protection Agency announced tougher ozone limits this week. The move to tighten pollution standards had long been anticipated as evidence mounted to illustrate the serious health risks associated with smog exposure.
In Texas, a state with notoriously dirty air, the appropriate response from leaders would be to get to work. Significant changes must be made to comply with federal rules – not to mention, to protect the people who live here.
But instead of getting started, too many state leaders just got angry. They seemed shocked – shocked! – that the EPA would dare abide by the science showing significant consequences of allowing a less stringent standard.
Gov. Rick Perry stuck with his three-pronged approach to environmental regulations: deny, deflect, pout.
In his statement, the governor denied the need for tougher ozone limits, somehow conflating smog rules with carbon dioxide regulations and suggesting that flawed science spurred this week’s announcement.
In fact, scientists have found that ozone exposure damages our lungs and is linked to heart and respiratory illnesses. Smog can be deadly. By lumping ozone standards in with climate change legislation, Perry only confuses the issue.
The governor also deflected suggestions that the state has less than pristine air. He focused on Texas’ modest anti-pollution efforts, ignoring the fact that our skies are still dangerously dirty.
And Perry pouted, arguing that the EPA has made Texas workers and taxpayers a target. Some of Perry’s allies have echoed that idea, asserting that the new administration has been hostile to the state.
The EPA is not picking on Texas.
The same pollution standards will apply to every state. Inhaling smog-choked air is a dicey proposition, no matter where folks live.
Admittedly, complying with the new rules will be tougher for Texas than many other states. That’s because years of plugging our ears, closing our eyes and pretending that new pollution rules weren’t looming did not leave Texas in a state of preparedness.
Implementing the lower ozone limits will come at a cost. But, the EPA notes, the new rules should yield comparable savings by reducing illnesses, emergency room visits and lost work days resulting from ozone-related symptoms.
The state now must get started on a serious ozone reduction strategy. Deny, deflect, pout doesn’t seem to be working.
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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.
Posted in Toxics | Tagged air pollution, Air Quality, Carbon Dioxide, Dallas Morning News, editorial, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, governor rick perry, ozone, pollution, smog, Texas |
Op-ed originally published in Sunday’s Amarillo Globe:
Column – Andy Wilson: Perry spews hot air on warming
AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry’s recent essay (“EPA ‘science’ doesn’t add up in global warming equation,” Dec. 27, 2009) is full of hot air and not much else.
The governor’s outrage produces more heat than light, revealing his ignorance of science and penchant for quoting dubious and discredited economic studies funded by energy companies.
The real inconvenient truth is that Texas cannot afford to make meaningless political statements any longer, especially when there’s work to be done – carbon regulation is coming whether the governor throws a tantrum or not. We can shout at the wind or harness it into a clean energy future.
Planning for a low-carbon future now will pay dividends in the future as the world comes to Texas for the clean energy we can supply in abundance. But if we choose to pout rather than produce, we risk missing the clean energy train.
Already, Texas wind turbines are providing electricity, not to mention jobs and tax revenue, and we’re blessed with some of the best solar potential of any state. According to data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, West Texas families pay less for their electricity, thanks in large part to all those wind farms. Peer-reviewed economic studies, including one by the Union of Concerned Scientists, show Texas families stand to save $980 annually in energy costs by enacting clean-energy legislation.
The scare-tactics scenarios the governor laid out use phony statistics from studies underwritten by dirty energy lobbyists who are afraid of competition from these low-carbon upstarts. If you dig deeper into these studies, even under their highest cost projections, U.S. economic growth remains robust and millions of new jobs are created, hundreds of thousands of which would be in Texas.
Given our high-tech, manufacturing, and energy leadership experience, Texas should be attracting green energy technologies already. But instead, we’re losing major solar and battery manufacturing to states which are less sunny but more savvy, such as Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Maybe Perry should spend less time posturing and complaining about science he doesn’t understand and more time enacting strong policies to attract clean energy jobs and industry to Texas, the same way Amarillo has in their recent announcement to bring as many as 750 new wind turbine manufacturing jobs to the area.
The truth about the hacked e-mails Perry references that purport to discredit global warming is this: It’s a tempest in a teapot, and every scientist knows it. If we’re looking for a “smoking gun” that disproves the settled science of climate change, we would need glaciers and ice caps to stop melting at record levels worldwide. We would need temperatures and drought throughout Texas to recede, rather than having the last decade be the hottest and driest on record.
Since we only depend on the research of scientists at the University of East Anglia, a town and university so small, I challenge you to find it on a map, for a very small portion of the corpus of scientific knowledge on climate change, we would need much more than a few choice words from scientists behaving badly to contradict that. To discount all climate science based only on these emails would be the same as disqualifying University of Texas from playing in the Rose Bowl because of the criminal misbehavior by one of their bench wide receivers.
But the good news is that whether you believe in global warming or not, all of our tools to solve it are the same tools we need to solve our current crises and create a better future for Texans.
Worried about unemployment? Energy security? The loss of American manufacturing? Clean energy development cuts into all of these problems, and just happens to help save the planet while we’re at it.
Everybody wins.
So at the start of a new decade, let’s be winners, not whiners. Texas should be getting in front of federal legislation and putting in place the policies that ensure that the nation will turn to us for their future renewable energy needs for the 21st century, the same way they have for the past century with oil and gas.
Doing anything less, Gov. Perry, certainly seems … well, un-Texan.
Andy Wilson is the Global Warming Program director for Public Citizen’s Texas Office.
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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.
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged amarillo, andy wilson, carbon regulation, Clean Energy, climate change, electrical reliability council of texas, electricity, ercot, Global Warming, Gov. Rick Perry, governor rick perry, green energy, green jobs, hot air, Inconvenient Truth, public citizen texas, Renewables, rose bowl, Texas, union of concerned scientists, university of east anglia, University of Texas, wind power |
With blue lips and chattering teeth, the Texas Progressive Alliance brings you a hot steaming mug of blog highlights for the week.
This week on Left of College Station: the filling deadline has ended and the primaries in the Brazos Valley are crowded with candidates. Also, a look at who tweets among the primary candidates for Texas Congressional District 17 and which does not want Left of College Station to follow their tweets. Teddy also takes a look at the modern day slavery of human trafficking, and how Houston has become one of the biggest hubs for the modern day slave trade. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the Texas GOP’s inability to govern and the opportunities that provides for Democrats, GOP divisions can bring Democratic gains in Texas.
The Denton County candidates are ready to go at the Texas Cloverleaf.
How does Texas compare with other states? A statistical analysis with graphs reveals the truth at Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.
Off the Kuff has a modest suggestion for how to handle Harris County’s current budget shortfall.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme agrees it’s time to put our money in community banks.
Thinking and acting both locally and globally, Neil at Texas Liberal sent membership donations to both Greenpeace and the Democratic Women of Denton County.
After a noted anti-gay and Republican activist filed to run as a Democrat against an unchallenged incumbent GOP county commissioner, investigation determined that the man used the wrong address and was disqualified from the ballot. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has more on the story.
Bay Area Houston nominates Dave Wilson for the “Dripping with Hypocrisy” award with One Man. No Woman.
WhosPlayin has the story of a public servant who manages a $13 million facility, where he works for the taxpayer by day, and for the private club that rents the facility at night.
McBlogger sees some problems with Sen. Hutchison’s ad taking on 39% and some of the people making excuses for 39%.
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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.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bay area houston, brains and eggs, brazos valley, college station, democratic women of denton county, denton county, eye on williamson, gas drilling, greenpeace, harris county, human trafficking, south texas chisme, Texas, texas congressional district 7, texas progressive alliance, williamson county |
The full documentary Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars about the fight against the TXU coal rush in Texas is now online and Hulu. Watch it here. Or, if you’re not sold yet, check out this preview:
[vimeo 2397935]
Fighting Goliath was produced by the Sundance Preserve and narrated by Robert Redford. It features our very own Director Tom “Smitty” Smith and covers a years-long battle against coal that is still ongoing today. As Redford has said about the film,
The heart of this film is really about issues of health, future generations and the value of our own land and resources. The film was made to support the story of the Texas coalition and their struggle against a giant power company. It is our way of giving other states and communities a model for what can happen when people take personal responsibility and get results. We want to let people know that they don’t have to give up hope.
Though 8 of the 11 TXU plants were canceled, the remaining 3 have been built and have begun operations – and they are dirtier than the 8 canceled plants combined. What’s more, there are 12 more coal plants either in the permitting process or being built in Texas – more new plant proposals than any other state in the country. Visit CoalBlock.org and StopTheCoalPlant.org for more information.
The film will also be shown on PBS during the months of January and February throughout Texas. Not all locations and times are solidified yet, but so far we have:
January 8, in College Station, Dallas, El Paso, Harlingen
January 9, in Houston
January 10, in Killeen
January 11, in Lubbock
January 21 at 8:30pm in Austin, Amarillo, Corpus Christi
Thursday, January 21 at 9:30pm and repeats Sunday January 24th at 1:30 pm for Waco
*Sometime* in January or February Midland/Odessa:
February 18 at 9pm in San Antonio
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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.
Posted in Coal, Energy | Tagged coal block, coal plant, coal rush, fighting goliath, hulu, robert redford, smitty, sundance preserve, Texas, texas coal wars, Tom "Smitty" Smith, TXU |
EDITOR’S NOTE: At this rate, we may actually finish reviewing the year in blog 2009 by the end of January 2010– just how we wanted to start the year!! But… stuff keeps happening…. and we can’t blog! Or we have to blog about the important, breaking news stuff! So, sorry for dragging this out, but we hope you’re having fun reminiscing as much as we are blogging about it.
5. The Little Climate Bill That Couldn’t
We had high hopes coming into 2009. Congressmen Waxman and Markey were hard at work on draft legislation that they promised would meet scientific standards on climate change. They had even collected signatures from the majority of their caucus on principles that they would build off of. And those principles were pretty good. So was Obama’s proposed budget, which showed they had revenue plans starting in 2012 of a 100% auction of CO2 credits- a 100% auction being the method that most agree brings quicker pollution reductions and is also, according to the EPA, the least regressive method of implementation. Hey, anything that hurts poor people the least is what we want to do, right?
WRONG. Clearly, you think differently than the majority of the US Congress.
Then Waxman and Markey released their draft legislation – our reaction was not pretty. Texas Congressmen had been complicit in weakening the bill away from the standards of the original principles.
Good Points:
- AMAZING building code and appliance standards for energy efficiency
- Good long term (2050) and short term (2020) goal for carbon reduction (still needed to be improved to what science calls for- but a good start)
- Had a renewable energy mandate and an efficiency mandate: we’d get 20% of our power from renewables by 2020 and increase energy efficiency by an additional 10%.
Bad points
- Well… all of those goals could be bigger.
- No language on how the carbon credits would be auctioned or allocated. Nada. Left to be decided later. Like a “scene missing” slide in a Nine Inch Nails video that gets crazier and scarier as time goes on….
And then the hearings on the bill started. In typical fashion, climate denier troglodytes like Texas’ own Joe Barton tried to slow down the proceedings– by insisting that the entire bill and its amendments be read aloud before the committee. Because of this unprecedented demand, the House Energy and Commerce Committee simply hired a speedreader.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_SB7g_Yb-0]
If only that had been the extent of the funny business with the bill… but both behind closed doors and by amendment in the committee, the climate bill got gutted. First, special giveaways to the nuclear industry. Then to the coal industry. Then decreasing the renewables and efficiency goals by almost half. Then offsets language that guaranteed that polluters would be able to continue to pollute above the cap– meaning in a bill whose primary purpose is to make sure we curb pollution so we don’t fry the planet, our emissions might actually GO UP, not down. And the bill passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee, its largest hurdle, but by then it had been incredibly compromised. Our immediate reaction was: follow the money (ad this remains the single best explanation of what happened to the climate bill to date, imho– it also helps that I wrote it).
But they weren’t done with the gutting of the bill yet…
Then special giveaways to the agribusiness industry. And finally, the coup de grace, they stripped the EPA of their authority to regulate greenhouse gases through the Clean Air Act.
During all of this, we were trying our best to stand up for ordinary Texans against these corporate interests– you may have seen us at the King William Parade in San Antonio, telling San Antonio’s Congressman Gonzalez, “Sorry Charlie, Bailouts Aren’t Green.” I think aside from crashing the Energy Citizens Rally this was the most fun I had all year.
We were, to say the least, conflicted. We REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted a climate bill. But what we got was a climate disaster. The Waxman-Markey Bill, co-authored by your special interest friends, passed on June 28. Ugh. It’s like sending out a birth announcement of a really, really ugly baby. Or opening a beautifully wrapped present you thought was the perfect gift but finding instead the world’s ugliest Christmas sweater. Disappointment? That’s not strong enough. To use the parlance of our day: #EPIC FAIL.
The Senate side hasn’t fared much better. Despite a decent framework from Senators Kerry and Boxer (it really needs to be improved, but it could be worse) passing through the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (partisan knuckledraggers, led by Denier-in-Chief James Inhofe, actually boycotted the hearings and the vote), it has yet to be worked on by the Senate Finance Committee (who, you may have heard, was REALLY busy working on some bill having to do with health care. It didn’t get much media coverage, so you may have missed it. </sarcasm>)
Meanwhile, others felt that both the Boxer bill and the Waxman-Markey bill were DOA in the Senate, so a tri-partisan group of Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Kerry (D-MA- look! I got my name on TWO climate bills this Congress!), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) have said they would develop their own climate bill. No word yet on their framework (a draft could come any day now), but, unfortunately signs are pointing to “not good”. It seems the only thing the three of them can really agree on is more pork for nuclear.
However, the EPA in December issued an endangerment finding for greenhouse gases, the next step in actually regulating them, as they were ordered to do in 2007’s Massachusetts v EPA Supreme Court case. So a year that began on a hopeful note went bad, then worse…. but ended with a little ray of sunshine. Here’s to a New Year’s Resolution of ACTUALLY passing a climate and clean energy bill that can ACTUALLY fight climate change and create more clean energy. And just like that New Year’s Res to lose 10 pounds, this year we REALLY mean it!
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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.
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Renewables | Tagged agribusiness, appliance standards, building codes, climate bill, climate change, coal industry, Energy Efficiency, environment and public works committee, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, finance committee, giveaways, Global Warming, house energy and commerce committee, james inhofe, Joe Barton, joe lieberman, john kerry, lindsey graham, Markey, nine inch nails, nuclear industry, obama, offsets, Public Citizen, renewable energy, Texas, Waxman, year in review |
On Wednesday, Rep. Lloyd Doggett announced that the city of Austin will receive $4.8 Million in stimulus funds to train 1,000 workers in energy efficiency and clean energy jobs. Workers will be trained for jobs at solar plants in Austin, San Antonio and surrounding cities and states, and but the trainings will prepare participants for a variety of green jobs including solar installation.
As Doggett noted,
Green’s the word in Austin, and today greenbacks are on their way to further strengthen our commitment to clean energy. Green jobs have the ability to not only transform the way we do business, but re-power America; this training will provide workers with the nuts and bolts to construct a thriving clean energy economy right here in Central Texas.
This stimulus grant is part of a larger, $500 Million federal initiative to prepare and train workers for green jobs.
Sources: Austin American Statesman, Austin Business Journal
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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.
Posted in Energy, solar | Tagged austin texas, green jobs, Lloyd Doggett, Public Citizen, San Antonio, solar, stimulus funds, Texas |
In response to the EPA’s announcement today of a proposed rule for tougher ozone standards, Governor Perry and his appointee to the TCEQ, Bryan Shaw, have been blowing a lot of smoke and hot air about what the rule would mean for Texas. Specifically, Perry and Shaw have stated incorrectly that the rule did not take cost-benefit analysis into account, and that it will do nothing more to protect human health.
Current standards for ozone are not protective of human health – in fact, the current rule ignored the recommendations of the EPA’s own scientists, and that is why Obama’s EPA has reconsidered it. In their decision to propose the rule, EPA reviewed more than 1,700 scientific studies and public comments from the 2008 rulemaking process – studies and comments that were simply ignored by the Bush Administration. The new rule will save lives, reduce cases of aggravated asthma, and avoid unnecessary hospital and emergency room visits. All things considered, the proposal will yield health benefits between $13 Billion and $100 Billion, with an implemented cost of $19 – $90 Billion – information which can be clearly found in the EPA’s press announcement today. It sounds like Governor Perry and Bryan Shaw were taking notes today from oil and gas profiteers scared they’ll have to pay for the devastation they’ve wreaked on Texas’ air rather than sound science and the facts.
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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.
Posted in Energy, Toxics | Tagged bryan shaw, bush administration, EPA, governor perry, obama, oil and gas, ozone, proposed rule, science, TCEQ, Texas |
Just following up on our post yesterday that the EPA was going to announce a new air quality standard limiting ozone pollution: they did it!
The United States Environmental Protection Agency today proposed the strictest health standards to date for smog…The agency is proposing to set the “primary” standard, which protects public health, at a level between 0.060 and 0.070 parts per million (ppm) measured over eight hours.
For those of you who, like me, loathe decimals, that’s the same as 60-70 parts per billion(ppb). The previous standard was 75 ppb, a threshhold that failed to protect human health. Ground-level ozone, also known as smog, is linked to a number of health problems such as asthma, and is especially dangerous for those with heart, lung or circulatory problems. Children are especially at risk.
Yesterday I noted that “the proposed rule would strengthen the Bush administration’s ozone standard, which did not meet scientific scrutiny or standards to protect public health.” But that statement doesn’t tell the whole story (because I didn’t know the whole story at the time — you learn something new every day). The fault with the current standard doesn’t lie with scientists — EPA scientists actually recommended a stricter standard, those recommendations were ignored when the final rule was set. According to the Washington Post,
Under Bush, EPA officials had initially tried to set a lower seasonal limit on ozone to protect wildlife, parks and farmland, as required under the law, but Bush forced the agency to abandon that proposal just before it announced the new standards.
The proposed rule will now undergo a 60-day comment period, after which it will be published in the Federal Register. The EPA will also have three public meetings on the proposed rule, one of which will be in Houston Feb. 4th.
So what does the new rule mean for Texas? I touched on a bit of that briefly yesterday, but for now I’ll defer to my boss (as he spoke to KERA radio):
That means… we are going to have to find new ways to reduce pollution. It may mean shutting down cement kilns and some plants… It may mean changing some of the ways we drive and getting more efficient automobiles, plug-in-hybrids on the road more rapidly.
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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.
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged air pollution, Austin, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, ozone, smog, Texas |
Part 4. Sunny With a Chance of Economic Development: Solar Potential, the Solar Session that wasn’t, and City of Austin Solar Plant
Last spring, our minds were budding with thoughts of birds, bees, and… Texas’ solar potential (didn’t you know, a robust solar program would put Texans back to work and position the state as a world leader for solar production!) Ah, sweet romance.
First Public Citizen, Environment Texas and the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club hosted a statewide round of press conferences to roll out our solar report, Texas Solar Roadmap (though I’d really recommend the abridged version, Wildcatting the Sun). It seemed like every other legislator had some incarnation of a solar bill, and folks were wondering if this was going to be the solar session. We were (and remain) especially excited about the City of Austin’s potential to become the nation’s new clean energy hub, just like it was for the semiconductor industry — and almost like an answer to our prayers, within months the Austin City Council voted in favor of a 30MW solar plant in Webberville (though not without a little nerve-racking delay).
And of course, somewhere in that busy, busy time, we found time to make an awesome solar video for Environment Texas’ solar video contest:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dfv2yoCtjU&feature=player_embedded]
Too bad we just couldn’t compare to Mic SoL-O and his sweet, sweet rhymes:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvAt_mjKdik]
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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.
Posted in Renewables, solar | Tagged Austin, City Council, environment texas, mic sol-o, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, solar, solar plant, solar power, Texas, texas solar roadmap, Webberville, wildcatting the sun |
Today Texas environmentalists, legislators, and medical practitioners wait with bated breath for an announcement from the EPA about a new air quality standard for ozone pollution. The proposed rule would strengthen the Bush administration’s ozone standard, which did not meet scientific scrutiny or standards to protect public health. Now that scientists have demonstrated that ozone is harmful at lower quantities than previously thought, the EPA will announce a revision to their ozone rule so that the threshold of ozone concentration where cities enter “non-attainment,” or violating the rule, is lower.
Three major metropolitan areas in Texas are already in non-attainment of the less-protective standard: Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston/Galveston, and Beaumont/Port Arthur. As a result of the new rule and lower threshold, several other areas could now be in risk of non-attainment: Austin, Tyler/Longview, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Waco. Reaching non-attainment status has some serious consequences for cities, such as losing federal highway funds.
In August of this year the new rule will go into effect, after which time the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) will submit a State Implementation Plan (SIP) to the EPA. The SIP plan will more or less be a road-map to stay within the new standards and drastically reduce ozone pollution. The SIP is really where the good news comes into play, because to stay in line with higher standards Texas will need new pollution controls, clean energy alternatives and transportation choices.
Oh, Santa, you shouldn’t have! This is a much better gift than the coal we got in our stocking in the form of the Oak Grove Coal plant going on-line just days before the new year!
But there’s also a chance that this new ozone standard could ALSO give us a new opportunity to stop the coal rush. Pollution from coal plants is one of the largest single sources of ozone, so a really awesome super-smart SIP plan could potentially give us the chance to review existing clunkers and gum up the works for new plants. Oh I hope I hope I hope!
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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.
Posted in Coal, Energy, Toxics | Tagged Air Quality, Austin, beaumont, corpus christi, dallas, EPA, fort worth, galveston, houston, longview, non-attainment, ozone pollution, port arthur, San Antonio, state implementation plan, TCEQ, Texas, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, tyler, Waco |
*Update: Greg Harman at the San Antonio Current just published a fantastic and very thorough recap of the twisted nuclear saga. Check it out!
Here’s part 2 in this year’s first annual Year in Review: Top Texas Vox Stories of 2009 series. Part 1 is just a hop, skip and scroll down.
3. San Antonio Nuclear Debacle/Amores Nucleares Telenovela
This year has been a doozy for nuclear power, with the highlight of course being the San Antonio situation. Over the last 12 months San Antonio has ridden a wild wave of cost estimates, community meetings, protests, scandals, and misinformation. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Remember when…
Last January, CPS Energy committed to spend $60 million more on the proposed expansion of the South Texas Nuclear Project, a decision which at that point brings the city utility’s total expenditures on units 3 & 4 to $267 million. Not long after that, Austin City Council took a look at participating in the expansion project but said “No way, that’s much too risky of an investment for us.” San Antonio decided that something magical (but mysterious) was different for them, despite our prediction in late April that the proposed reactors could actually cost as much as $22 Billion. Mum was CPS’ word on a cost estimate at that time, but by June they announced that $13 Billion was a good, round number. We worried at this point that CPS was being overly optimistic, ignoring the history of the South Texas Project and other nukes around the nation and independent reports, but those concerns largely fell on deaf ears.
Then over the summer, CPS Energy launched a massive public outreach campaign, with meetings in every district — but kind of botched it. Despite activists’ protests that CPS’ cost numbers were innacurate, the utiltiy refused to release their information or back up numbers, and many San Antonio citizens left the community meetings feeling disenchanted with the process and suspicious of CPS.
As a rising tide of activists and concerned citizens grew, eventually they formed the coalition group Energía Mía and worked together to halt CPS’ spending for more nuclear reactors. The group launched a string of protests and press conferences highlighting the many flaws of nuclear power and the San Antonio deal in particular. Everyone was all geared up for a big showdown the last week in October, but then the cowpie really hit the rotating bladed device (let’s call it a windmill). For the next part, I’m going to pull from a previous post where I likened the whole situation to a geeky, policy version of a telenovela.
Previously, on Amores Nucleares:
With just days before San Antonio City Council was to vote to approve $400 million in bonds for new nuclear reactors, it was leaked that the project could actually cost $4 Billion more than CPS had been saying all summer (according to Toshiba, who would actually be building the plant). The vote was postponed, there was an impromptu press conference, and it came out that CPS staff had actually known about the cost increase for more than a week — Oops! Oh, and the “leak” wasn’t that CPS came out with the truth, an aide from the mayor’s office only found out after confronting CPS about a rumor he’d heard. But how did the mayor’s office find out? NRG, CPS’ partner in the project was the “Deepthroat”, because they were going to announce Toshiba’s $17 Billion cost estimate at a shareholder’s meeting soon after the city council vote and thought, geez, that could look really bad for CPS! Meanwhile, CPS reps flew to Japan in a hurry to figure things out. Steve Bartley, interim GM for CPS, resigned. Furious that CPS had hidden the ugly truth from City Council, the mayor demanded the resignation of two key CPS board members, and got City Council to vote unanimously that they get the boot. Chairwoman Aurora Geis agreed to go, but Steve Hennigan said “No Way, Jose.” THEN CPS completed an internal audit of the whole shebang to figure out what-the-hell-happened, which found that Steve Bartley was to blame, and everyone else was only guilty of failure in their “responsibility of prompt disclosure”. Then it came out the project could be even more way way expensive than anyone thought (except of course Energia Mia, Public Citizen, SEED Coalition, the Center for American Progress, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, and analysts Arjun Makhijani, Clarence Johnson, Craig Severance, and Mark Cooper to name a few). And then those crazy cats all started suing each other.
So in the end, they told folks all summer long that the plant would cost $13 Billion, even though insiders knew since late June that it could very well be $4 Billion more. Latest update is that the plant could really cost $18.2 Billion! On December 31st, Toshiba provided CPS with another new estimate, which the utility will use to come up with their own new cost estimate mid-January. City council is slated to vote sometime after that, once and for all, on $400 million in bonds to continue the project.
But clearly, enough is enough. So if you live in San Antonio, tell City Council to stop throwing good money after bad, and to cut their losses before its too late. Tell them to vote “no” to nuclear bonds and start the year off fresh and free from the “ghost of nuclear projects past.”
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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.
Posted in Nuclear | Tagged amores nucleares, Arjun Makhijani, austin city council, center for american progress, city public services, CPS, CPS Energy, craig severance, Energia Mia, japan, mark cooper, NRG, Nuclear, nuclear information and resource service, nuclear reactors, nukes, Public Citizen, San Antonio, SEED Coalition, solar, south texas nuclear project, steve hennigan, STP, Texas, texas vox |
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