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Archive for December 10th, 2010

Join us at the 3rd Annual Austin Green Holiday Party next week

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on December 10, 2010 |

If you haven’t already pre-registered to celebrate the holidays at the 3rd Annual Austin Green Holiday Party, do so now.  It is coming up soon and this year it is hosted by 10 great organizations.

Fiesta Gardens  (2100 Jesse E. Segovia St., Austin, TX 78702)
Thursday, December 16th, 2010 from 5:30pm-9:30pm

Registration:  Pre-Registration ONLY for this Event (No Cash Accepted at Door)

Network and learn about the hosting organizations and come together for a unified 2011.  Celebrate the holidays with us and enjoy music, great food, beer, wine and other beverages, as well as holiday cheer…

Live Music by: Austin Eco-Musicians (Reed Sternberg, Bill Oliver, Frank Meyer and More!) with Tribal Nation, the Austin reggae band later in the evening.

Food:  Barr Mansion (Please help support our event sponsor and friend to the environmental community, the Barr Mansion.  They are catering this event, even as their own facility is being rebuilt after the fire.)

  • Blue Cheese and Winter Squash Sandwich
  • Chicken and Pepperoni Sandwich
  • Sundried Tomato White Bean Dip with Crostini
  • Basil Hummus and Cracker Shards
  • Local Organic Farm Salad Station with assorted dressings

Beverages: Beer, Wine, Sodas, Teas and water will be provided by the following sponsors:

The Co-Hosts: Texas Green Network •Public Citizen • SEED Coalition • Sierra Club • Design Build Live • Austin EcoNetwork • Solar Austin • NetImpact • Texas League of Conservation Voters • Austin Physicians for Social Responsibility

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Former Pedernales GM Bennie Fuelberg GUILTY on all counts

Posted in Co-op Reform, Energy, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 10, 2010 |

After only a day of deliberation, the jury has returned a guilty verdict on former Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) general manager Bennie Fuelberg on all counts of money laundering, theft, and misapplication of fiduciary property.

During the two weeks of trial, the prosecution showed how Bennie Fuelberg filtered money through Clark, Thomas & White, the co-op’s law firm, to his lobbyist brother, Curtis, and Bill Price, the son of a co-op board member.  Fuelberg also misdirected staff, removing oversight of the co-ops legal bills from other managers in an attempt to hide the money being passed through to his brother.

Prosecutor Harry White detailed this in his closing arguments Thursday: “The reason Bennie Fuelberg kept a secret was because he knew it was wrong. What he did was he took money that didn’t belong to him, that belonged to normal people, and gave it to his brother.”

As an aside, Clark, Thomas & White repaid over $4 million in fees to PEC in a separate lawsuit, showing just how much money Bennie siphoned away from the co-op over the years.

Several of us here at Public Citizen are current or former PEC members.  We were part of the original investigations and lawsuits that opened up the wretched hive of scum and villany that Fuelberg had turned the co-op into, and have worked for and are proud of the reforms that have taken place in the past few years.

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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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Flammable drinking water sparks explosions over Barnett Shale drilling

Posted in Air Quality, Energy, natural gas, Toxics, tagged , , , on December 10, 2010 |

Barnett Shale

The Texas Railroad Commission (RCC) will hold a special hearing January 10th to look into the complaints of methane in two Parker County drinking water wells that prompted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week to order a natural gas drilling company to take steps to remediate the problem.  The RRC has not yet  posted the starting time or place but we will let you know as we hear more.

Both the Railroad Commission and Range Resources, which drilled the Barnett Shale gas wells near the two homes affected by the methane-laden water, accused the EPA of acting in haste when they issued an order of remediation late Tuesday.  Both the RRC and Range Resources claimed there was insufficient evidence to blame drilling operations for the situation.  But critics of the drilling operations in North Texas suggested that the Railroad Commission was acting more as a booster than a regulator of the natural gas industry.

In its emergency order, the EPA said that its testing suggests that the gases found in the water and gases from Range’s wells “are likely to be from the same source.” The EPA also pointed out that there were no reports of methane in either of the two water wells that were drilled in 2002 and 2005 until after Range sunk its nearby gas wells in 2009.

In the Railroad Commission’s response to the EPA order, all three commissioners suggested the federal agency was needlessly overstepping its authority. And the commission included a detailed timeline showing the progress of its own investigation into the affected drinking water wells.

If you live in the Barnett Shale region and are concerned, we urge you to attend this hearing.  We will post details about the hearing as soon as they are available.

If you are concerned that the RailRoad Commission is not being protective of the health and well-being of Texans, consider attending the Sunset Advisory Commission‘s hearing on the RRC and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality next week, December 15th.  See our earlier blog for details.

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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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