Just a reminder that the Austin City Council will have its final vote on the proposed 30 MW Webberville Solar Plant at a meeting this Thursday, March 5. The Council meeting is of course open to the public, so please come by City Hall starting at 10 a.m. to show your support for the plant! There are kiosks in the main hall where you may sign in and register to testify if you so choose. Even if you cannot stay to observe the proceedings, you can still sign in at the kiosk to document your support for the solar plant, which will be Item 16 on the agenda. Remember “Item 16” because you must know the agenda item number to register your support at the kiosk.
For background information on the plant per the council’s February 13th meeting, jump back to the post City Delays on Solar Plant Vote.
Also, Burnt Orange Report has just run a really excellent series on the plant. I cannot recommend it enough. Phillip Martin at BOR provides analysis and a full overview of the project, as well as two full interviews with council members (and mayoral candidates) Lee Leffingwell and Brewster McCracken — both of whom have come out in support of the project!
And of course, stay tuned this Thursday for a full report from the City Council meeting — you know I’ll be there!
Powershift 2009 
The Judge heard the rest of the people that were in the room, and any individuals who could not come back at a later time. Then a recess was called until the afternoon to reconvene at the Del Mar College Center for Ecological Development.
Researchers have drawn direct and immediate links between ambient levels of fine particulates and hospital admissions and deaths. By some estimates, tens of thousands of Americans die each year from exposure to airborne particulates.
Last Friday two administrative law judges refused to hear testimony on the impact of carbon dioxide emissions during the permitting process for the NRG Limestone coal-fired power plant. The contested case hearing for NRG’s air quality permit application will be going on all week long, but testimony on the proposed plant’s contribution to global warming will not be allowed. The judges decided that the TCEQ has adopted clear policies that they would not consider testimony on the issue, even though the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 (
In protest, local environmentalists gathered for an 8:30 a.m. protest Monday Feb 22 outside the State Office of Administrative Hearings. Groups supporting the protest included: Public Citizen, SEED Coalition, Environment Texas, Clean Water Action, Re- Energize Texas, and the Texas Climate Emergency Campaign.
If you missed the Alliance for a Clean Texas lobby day last week, you missed out on a great opportunity for some face time with your representatives and their staff members. But that doesn’t mean that your chance to catch your legislator’s attention has passed. Here’s some advice from our lobby day training session for next time:
To prevent Texas Vox from being flooded by pictures of all the cool stuff we’re up to, Public Citizen Texas has created 


We’ve said before
Bright and early yesterday morning, US Representative Lloyd Doggett, State Senator Rodney Ellis, State Representative Mark Strama, and environmental and civil rights advocate Van Jones stood together to tout the Alliance for a Clean Texas’ Texas Energy Future: Clean Jobs, Green Power Conference.
