(The TCEQ is fixing to be a major story in the coming months. Good to see that Sierra Club is already out in front on it. - promoted by Katherine Haenschen)
Recently, Texas got some big news. It's a story that Texans have known for years and have been shouting out loud, but no one seemed be listening. Until a couple weeks ago. President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruled that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is not following the federal Clean Air Act!
It takes a lot for the EPA to step in and say enough is enough. Here in Texas they've finally done just that. And it's about time. However, a ruling is not enough. Time is running out considering 11 new coal-fired power plants are proposed across the state. The EPA should halt the permitting or construction of any new coal plants in Texas until the TCEQ cleans up it's act. Because air regulation in Texas has been like law west o' the Pecos, it's not surprising there are more proposed here than any other state in the nation, nor surprising that many of the17 coal plants chuffing away in Texas rank amongst the absolute filthiest. The coal companies are getting away with too much.
Texans deserve better. How about some clean air to breathe!
So, this week we (Sierra Club) and Public Citizen launched a statewide tour with a huge inflatable coal fired power plant visiting communities that would be impacted by the proposed coal plants-collecting comments to send to the EPA, hearing community members speak out, letting other community members know what's going on and asking them to take action!
This could be a huge deal for Texas, as long as the EPA knows that Texans are in their corner and that we want the TCEQ to do it's job by protecting the health and well being of us-the people-instead of just taking money for permits.
Coal is the dirtiest, least efficient energy source available. If you consider doubled asthma rates a problem, then you will say its been disastrous to the health and well being of Texans. Texas is already infamously number ONE in the nation for mercury pollution. In fact, coal plants in Texas emit nearly twice as much mercury pollution as power plants in other states. We're number ONE in our nation for carbon dioxide the principal gas causing global warming.
Texans deserve better. Submit a comment. Get involved. So far, we've been to Abilene, Waco and Dallas, College Station, Corpus Christi, Bay City and Houston. Next stop, next week-Austin! See you out there.
This morning on NPR there was a story on fracking (hydraulic fracturing, in which water and chemicals are pumped into the ground at extremely high pressures to force natural gas to the surface), interviewing one Texan, Steve Harris, who believes the practice contaminated his drinking water. Fracking is completely exempted from federal regulation due to a loophole inserted in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Steve Harris believes that pressure also ruined his well. He lives on 14 acres south of Dallas. Shortly after a driller fracked a nearby well, he and his neighbors noticed a change in water pressure.
"When you'd flush the toilet - in the back where the bowl is - water would shoot out the top of the bowl," says Harris.
When he took a shower, there was a foul odor, and the water left rashes on his grandson's skin. His horses stopped drinking from their trough, and there was an oily film on top of the water.
A message to my fellow Common Security Club members:
I confess, besides catching up with work and such, I've been lost in space (cyberspace, that is), since our first meeting last weekend. It was just too much fun to be learning all the ins and outs of the twitterverse and following the "journos" (new word for me) at the teabagasm events around the nation. Oh, the tales I could tell, having heard all the quips and "personal" comments from behind the scenes! Lots of fun--almost like "being there".
Which brings me to the point I wanted to communicate today. About how we are all connected. It's a very simple thought, one that makes common sense when you think at a meta level about all life on earth being part of one large ecological system. But it has come more into focus these days in terms of the kind of social networking we do on the internet (Facebook, Linked-In, blogging websites, Twitter, texting, etc).
It seems to be important, though, to combine that e-socializing with the face-to-face in order to build the kind of personal connection needed for a relationship, whether that be a personal, a group, or a community kind of relationship. For example, while the recent political campaign of Barack Obama was successful in its use of the most advanced communication technology, use was also made of town halls and community organizing. In these venues, personal, face to face connections could be made--people could interact with each other and form a sense of kinship that encouraged them to trust each other and work together for their common good. The personal connection is a powerful component in what people can accomplish together because it goes back to the most primal instincts of human beings--that of forming close social groups. By living and working together in social groups, people were able to survive difficult primitive conditions.
The phrase, "Six Degrees of Separation" was coined by John Guare in a play he wrote in 1990. The play explored the existential premise that everyone in the world is connected to everyone else in the world by a chain of no more than six acquaintances, thus, "six degrees of separation."
In the play, one of the characters states:
"I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet. The President of the United States, a gondolier in Venice, just fill in the names. I find it A) extremely comforting that we're so close, and B) like Chinese water torture that we're so close because you have to find the right six people to make the right connection... I am bound to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people."[16] (From Wikipedia).
I must say, I had a most striking experience of this phenomenon, this kind of six degrees of separation just today at lunch. I met a beautiful young African American woman at Kuff's (Charles Kuffner) Democratic lunch bunch. She is the "communications coordinator" for Anise Parker's Houston mayoral candidacy. In talking with her about how her boss, Anise, would be a good mayor, I told her about our meeting to explore how a local community group might provide mutual aid and support to each other in times of economic uncertainty. I told her how we'd talked both about forming a local currency for exchange of goods and talents that may not currently be valued in the mainstream economy.
I told her about how we talked about the possibility that foreclosed houses or apartment buildings inside the loop in Houston could be purchased and remodeled to LEEDS standards with some of the federal stimulus money, and how this could help many people who were struggling to find affordable housing. Moreover I told her how this conversation came about in brainstorming about how there are a rising number of aging single women (and others, of course) who would prefer living in the city where they could form relationships with others who shared their values (and she added, in affirmation, "whether they were brown, black, or white, right?"--to which I added, of course! --She had just told me how she struggled to find affordable housing as a single female when she moved to Houston from Chicago several years ago.) And I added that, in fact, there are several women in our group that fit that characterization I described.
I also told her how we talked about our visions for renewing the city's transportation infrastructure, using federal stimulus money for building a light rail system that would cut down on the fossil fuels being used for suburban-city commuting purposes. Of course, I told her one of Mayor White's reasons for suggesting the idea of making inner city homes desirable, affordable, and energy smart was to cut down on the number of people having to commute into the city, not only because we are using a declining supply of foreign oil, but also because we are polluting our city skies.
After she gave me the answers she thought her boss would support and initiate if elected, we continued to talk more and I found she was enthusiastic about the idea of urban intentional community. She told me the area of town in which she lived might be an excellent starting place for exploring such community building. She expanded upon the thought of a group buying an apartment building to buying up a whole block where everyone knew each other and "had each other's backs".
Before we said our goodbyes, she smiled really big and said she had just been smiling inside the whole time since she'd first heard my name in introductions, (Thurman), because that had been the name of some of her father's people in Illinois. Chicago, I asked, since she'd said she moved here from there? No, she said, her father's people came from southern Illinois. Oh, really, I said, because my grandfather Thurman and grandmother were from that area, and had, in fact, met, swimming where the Missouri and Mississippi rivers converge at Cairo, Illinois. She, looking surprised and kind of amazed, said her father's people only lived about 40 miles from there. We both looked at each other with that kind of "knowing" look, and it was hard to break contact with each other's eyes, because we were likely telepathing (or tel-empathizing) that we were "connected" (who knows, but that we are blood relatives?).
Six degrees of separation?
Back to the line in the play where the character says, "I find it A) extremely comforting that we're so close, and B) like Chinese water torture that we're so close because you have to find the right six people to make the right connection... I am bound to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people."
I watched the great movie Wall-E last night. If you haven't seen it yet, fire up your Netflix or jot down a note to hit Blockbuster after work.
If you have seen it, you probably recognized the corporate behemoth of Buy-N-Large. We have a similar, sinister company down here on Earth called Wal-Mart.
In the movie, Buy-N-Large has gotten so gargantuan and out-of-control that it has taken on every aspect of society: It peddles every possible product at its Supercenters, it sells gas, it controls the banks -- and it has even taken on the role of a quasi-government.
Wal-Mart would love to be Buy-N-Large if it could. Indeed, the Bentonville behemoth has recently attempted to grow beyond its traditional Supercenter model. It has introduced gas stations and has even tried to create a bank!
State requirements for the handling of coal ash vary widely. Some states, like Alabama, do not regulate it at all, except by means of federally required water discharge permits. In Texas, the vast majority of coal ash is not considered a solid waste, according to a review of state regulations by environmental groups. There are no groundwater monitoring or engineering requirements for utilities that dump the ash on site, as most utilities do, the analysis says.
Texas ranks Number One for burning more coal and lignite than any other state in the nation. Next to Kentucky, Texas is Number Two in hazardous coal-combustion waste generated at 12,943,000 tons per year.
The only legislation that deals with coal in any way is HB 469 which was pre-filed by Representative Phil King (R-61). King has an appalling record on environmental issues with an average voting record rating of 20% from different Texas environmental organizations. In 2007 King received ratings from Environment Texas, Lone Star Sierra Club, and the Texas League of Conservation Voters of 17%, 18%, and 32%. This legislation would introduce tax incentives for "clean coal" in Texas:
Incentives by this state for the implementation of certain projects to capture and sequester in geological formations carbon dioxide that would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere.
The coal industry is spending millions advertising "clean" coal, but not a single "clean" coal power plant exists in the U.S. today. For more information on the myth of clean coal visit ThisIsReality.org.
The Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club has released a couple of videos on their legislative priorities, and how to contact your legislators.
Legislative Priorities:
(Cliff's Notes version:
1. Water Conservation
2. Parks and Wildlife Funding
3. Smart Transportation
4. Clean Energy
5. Clean Air)
How To Contact Your Legislator:
On Feb 17-18, the Sierra Club and the Alliance for a Clean Texas (ACT) are hosting a Citizen Lobby Training evening followed by a citizen lobbying day and a legislative conference. You can register now.
The following is the second installment of a Left of College Station series: The Issues We Face, an in depth look at the issues that progressive activist will face in the coming year and the coming 111th Congress and 81st Texas Legislature.
The environment is a critical issue that facing progressive activist; this issue includes global climate change to protecting our environment here in Texas. The most dangerous thing about climate change and the affect that we are having on our environment is that it is unprecedented and unpredictable; there are not models that can predict what may happen in the future and if we do not act we will find out what the worst possible outcomes may be.
According to the Department of Energy Texas produces and consumes more electricity than any other State; however, Texas also leads the Nation in wind-powered generation capacity. With the resources that Texas possesses it is in the unique position to be one of the leaders of alternative energy, and it could also be one of the leaders in addressing climate change.
As Katherine Haenschen of the Burnt Orange Report reported, lawmakers such as Phil King are standing in the way of progress and are disseminating false information about pollution and climate change.
While the "clean coal" lobby spends millions on advertising, without actually having one "clean coal" power plant, and oil companies continue to spend minuscule amounts on alternative energy research, we must continue to pressure our legislatures to mandate the production of alternative energy and the reduction of green house gas emissions.
This morning, national League of Conservation Voters released its 2008 National Environmental Scorecard. The scorecard discusses important environmental legislation in Washington and reports the votes of all members of the second session of the 110th Congress.
The Texas delegation, with rare exceptions, and to no one's surprise, ranked low on the scorecard, with our U.S. Senators earning scores of 18 (out of 100) apiece, and the House delegation averaging 33.
The bright spots: Three U.S. Reps. from Texas earned scores of 92 (the highest score of any Texan): Reps. Doggett, Gonzalez and E. B. Johnson.
The worst of the worst: Fifteen U.S. Reps. from the Lone Star State earned goose eggs - score of 0 for never voting for the environment at all: Reps. Barton, Brady, Burgess, Carter, Conaway, Culbertson, Granger, Hall, Marchant, Neugebauer, Paul, Poe, Sessions, Smith, and Thornberry.
For generations, Texas has been our nation's energy leader. But in 2008, the Texas delegation led our state and nation the wrong way. Instead of providing leadership for Texas' future energy economy, our state's leaders - with rare exceptions - sided time and again with outmoded and polluting energy industries. Frankly, I'm tired of seeing my state ranked at or near the bottom of these lists, and I think most Texans are, too.
When are our leaders going to stop listening to the big polluters that have made Texas' air quality among the worst in the nation, and start advancing common sense, renewable and clean solutions?
Read the scorecard to see how other leaders (from Texas and beyond) voted in this session of Congress.
www.lcv.org/scorecard
Keep up with the latest environmental news from the Texas League of Conservation Voters:
I became an environmental activist in the early 1970s just as I was completing my doctorate in ecology at the University of British Columbia. It was the height of the Cold War and the height of the Viet Nam War and we were compelled to take a very public stand against activities we thought to be catastrophic both for people and for the planet.
I joined a small committee that was meeting in the basement of the Unitarian Church. We organized a protest voyage against U.S. hydrogen bomb testing in Alaska and had tens of thousands marching in the streets. When that H-bomb was set off at Amchitka Island in November 1971, it was the last hydrogen bomb the U.S. ever detonated.
It was the birth of Greenpeace, the organization I co-founded, spending 15 years in its top committee, helping to lead environmental campaigns around the world.
But it's ironic in the extreme that, as we mark the 100th anniversary of drinking water chlorination, my old organization and other activist groups aligned with it continue to oppose this most important public health achievement.
