Revenge of the Electric Car

It’s your lucky week! There will be two screenings of “Revenge of the Electric Car,” both followed by a Q&A session. Local EV enthusiasts will have their vehicles on hand. If you went to the Austin National Plug In Day event, you’ll see familiar faces. You can see the trailer for the film on YouTube here.

The first screening is next Monday, January 9, 2001 at 7:00 PM at the Alamo Drafthouse on 1120 S Lamar Blvd Austin, TX 78704.

Already have plans for Monday? Catch the second screening on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 7:00pm at the Alamo Drafthouse Village 2700 on West Anderson Lane Austin, TX 78757.

Admission to each screening is $10.

By Stefanie Herweck         

Lewis Carroll’s character arose from the phrase “mad as a hatter,” which was commonly heard in 1865, when Alice in Wonderland was first published.  At that time mercury was used to cure felt for hats, and mercury exposure caused hatmakers to exhibit confused speech, distorted vision, twitching limbs, muscle tremors, extreme excitability, and hallucinations.

Despite this obvious impact on human health, it wasn’t until the latter half of the 20^th century that the United States and other countries enacted regulations to limit mercury exposure, both in workplaces like the hatters’ and the population at large.

Since then studies have shown that even low levels of mercury can harm the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs, and immune system.  It can also harm the developing nervous system of unborn and young children and cause learning disabilities.   

Ingesting just over one-tenth of an ounce of mercury can kill a 150 pound adult.

Now that we recognize that mercury is a powerful neurotoxin with devastating effects on human health, it should be a no-brainer—we should do everything we can to keep mercury out of the environment, so that we can keep it out of human bodies.

But that has not been happening.  In the United States coal-fired power plants are by far the largest source of mercury pollution, and they have been allowed to continue to spew huge amounts of poisonous mercury: each year they emit 48 tons.  The mercury that pours from their smokestacks falls to the earth when it rains, where it enters our rivers and lakes.  There it is converted to methylmercury, which is an organic form of mercury that accumulates in the bodies of fish, as well as the bodies of humans who eat the fish or drink the contaminated water.

The alarming results of this are found in study after study.  One in twelve pregnant women has high enough mercury levels in her body to harm her fetus.  As many as 300,000 babies per year are at increased risk of learning disabilities as a result of prenatal mercury exposure.  The risk of autism in children goes up in relation to their home’s proximity to a coal plant.

Texans are particularly vulnerable to the damaging effects of the poison since Texas emits more mercury than any other state.

Coal-fired power companies like Luminant Energy, the largest coal mining company in the state and owner of the dirtiest power plants, have given generously to Governor Perry’s campaigns over the years, and he has done everything in his power to return the favor. 

Rather than working to protect Texans’ health and our environment, Perry’s appointees at the Texas Council on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) have helped power plants get around environmental regulations and fast-track new construction.  Last year TCEQ was found to have violated the law to help the Las Brisas coal plant look as though it would be in compliance with the Clean Air Act when it applied for a permit. 

As a result of Perry and the TCEQ working on behalf of polluters instead of the people, coal-fired plants in Texas spewed out, coal-fired plants in Texas spewed out 16,350 pounds of toxic mercury pollution in 2009 alone.

But this month the Obama administration could finally bring Texans the clean air and clean water they deserve.  Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have revised air-quality standards to comply with the Clean Air Act and limit the amount of toxins such as mercury that power plants can emit.  The proposed standards would require coal-fired power plants to reduce emissions of mercury by 91 percent, hydrochloric acid by 91 percent and particulate matter by 55 percent.  It is up to President Obama to confirm these new standards and keep these deadly poisons out of our air, our water, and our bodies.

The power industry fought to block these safeguards for decades, and worked closely with the Bush administration to set standards illegally low.  This past September Republicans in the US House of Representatives passed a bill aimed at delaying restrictions on power plants’ mercury emissions.  Ignoring the health benefits, they said the regulations would cost too much.  Thankfully, the Senate has not taken up this assault on public health.

It is up to President Obama to ignore the pressure, and the money, of industry lobbyists and finally put the health of our children ahead of coal companies’ profits.  The question is not the cost of electricity; it is who pays the cost.  Dirty coal may produce a kilowatt of electricity more cheaply than clean energy technologies, but the difference in price is paid at the doctor’s office, and in the suffering of children who live with neurological damage and learning disabilities brought on by mercury poisoning. 

For too long the United States, and especially the state of Texas, has sacrificed the health of our children for cheap energy and coal industry profits.  It is time for President Obama to bring an end to this madness, stand up for our children, and enact strong mercury regulations.

You can sign Sierra Club’s online petition to limit Mercury emissions here.

Stefanie Herweck is chair of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Sierra Group.  She lives in McAllen. This article was previously published in the Rio Grande Guardian.

New York, Boston, Washington D.C.?

It’s the Houston Red Line. On November 29th, Houston received recognition for this achievement. Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff signed two agreements providing $900 million to extend Houston’s light rail system by an additional 12 miles. The new North and Southeast lines (map here) will add 13,000 riders , increasing the rail system to 58,000 daily riders.

Construction and light rail operations will employ 2,200 people over the next three years, a substantial boost to the economy. It’s nice when getting people to work puts people to work!

After tense debates and many rewrites, a new transportation bill has been enacted to fund the US Department of Transportation until September 30, 2012. Virtually the only area to receive increased funding is the Federal Transit Program, getting  $331 million more for a total of $10.6 billion. This program supports transit programs from major regional systems to local, rural providers.

The TIGER program (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) was also renewed, at $527 million, a reduction of $27 million from last year. Competition for future projects will now be even tighter, and TxDOT has submitted for $93.8 million (more details in this previous post). Texas has been a beneficiary of this program in the past, receiving funding for  Tower 55–one of the biggest rail bottlenecks in the country–and the preliminary engineering and environmental work for the Dallas to Houston high speed passenger rail line.

Texans from north to south can give thanks for the $5.6 million dollars awarded from USDOT to TxDOT for planning and environmental work on the Oklahoma City to South Texas High Speed Passenger Rail line. However, the new federal transportation bill for 2012 includes no funding for High Speed Passenger Rail. Previous funding for the program under the stimulus package and 2010 allocations totaled $10.5 billion. Work will proceed for projects that have already received funding. Next year’s funding decisions come after the election, so it’s anyone’s guess what comes in 2013 and afterwards.

Kari Banta, Transportation Associate

When the LCRA was considering this water contract over the summer, folks from all over the Colorado River basin rose in opposition to this irresponsible use of water.  If approved, this contract would have allowed White Stallion to take approximately 22 million gallons of water from our river and lakes every single day!  With an extreme drought and no end in sight, community members of all backgrounds wanted to make sure that LCRA did not commit our limited and invaluable resource to a dirty coal plant for the next 40-55 years.

Sierra Club applauds LCRA’s decision to reject the proposed contract and we thank those of you who sent the LCRA board members thousands of emails, made phone calls, showed up at the July meeting to ask the board members not to sell our water to a coal plant.  This is your victory!

Read more about this here.

In honor of National Recycling Day on November 15th, a diverse coaltion of community residents, union members, and environmental advocates gathered at the steps of City Hall in Houston to highlight discussions about the city’s efforts to extend a recycling contract with Waste Management Inc.

Part of the Brighter Future Houston campaign, members of SEIU Local 1, HOPE, the Houston city employees union ,Texas Campaign for the Environment, the Sierra Club, Good Jobs Great Houston, the Texas Organizing Project and the Texas BlueGreen Apollo Alliance are continuing to make recycling and jobs a priority for Houston.

According to the report, if Americans were to recycle 75 percent of their waste, recycling efforts could create 1.5 million jobs across the country by 2030. About 45,000 of these jobs would be in collecting and processing the waste materials in Texas. The remanufacturing of recycled materials can create thousands of additional jobs.

“Houston is the fourth largest city in the US, a leader in economic and developmental growth, the energy capitol of the world, there is no reason for Houston to be a laggard when it comes to recycling,” said Tyson Sowell, Program Director – Houston, Texas Campaign for the Environment (TCE). “Houston can be a leader in good, green job growth. We challenge the city, working with stakeholders, to create a comprehensive waste management plan with a goal of at least 90% waste diversion from landfills by 2030. Houstonians have a right to recycle and we need to create good jobs.”

Currently, the majority of Houstonians do not have access to single-stream recycling and the city has not created a plan to expand recycling. Additionally, neighborhoods with recycling are a patchwork with one neighborhood having recycling while just a block or two away, another neighborhood does not.

“Half of my neighborhood has access to recycling services while the other half doesn’t, even after we requested it,” said Veronica Ortega, a Southeast Houston resident. “We all have the same rights to have access to this service since we all pay taxes.”

Right now, the city is negotiating a recycling contract. Based on the Request for Proposal that the city released, there is no requirement for the potential contractor to expand recycling or create jobs.

“If you care about jobs, if you care about the environment, and you care about Houston, then you should be for having the city do a lot more recycling, and hiring Houston workers to do it,” said Tommie Toran, Acres Homes resident. “We need recycling in our neighborhoods, we are throwing away valuable jobs by putting recycling in our landfills.”

“The city can benefit by expanding the recycling program citywide,” said Isaiah Monroe, Jr, a resident of Meyerland and a leader of HOPE, the city employees union. “We can create more jobs.”

A 90% reyccling rate will not only create jobs but will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as CO2 from the extraction of virgin materials and methane from landfills. This is equivalent to removing 50 million cars from our roads.

“Recycling conserves natural resources, cuts global warming pollution, and saves water and energy,” said Frank Blake, Executive Committee Member, Houston Group of the Sierra Club. “This new report shows that not only is recycling good for the environment, it’s good for the economy. By expanding recycling, we can create jobs and help protect the environment at the same time.”

Link to the report:
http://www.bluegreenalliance.org/admin/publications/files/MoreJobsLessPollutionFinal-1.pdf

Dave Cortez
Coordinator
Texas BlueGreen Apollo Alliance
512-736-7600 (cell)
512-477-6195 (office)
cortez@apolloalliance.org
Check out our 21st century jobs plan: The Texas BlueGreen Apollo Program

For those keeping score at home, here’s the timeline for fuel efficiency standards. The fleet average must achieve:

• 35.5 miles per hour by 2016
• 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

This proposal saves Americans $1.7 trillion, reduces oil consumption by 2.2 million barrels per day by 2025, and slashes greenhouse gas emissions by 6 billion metric tons from 2011-2025.

But what about fuel economy if you can’t afford to buy a new, more fuel efficient vehicle?

Here are some gas saving tips from the Sierra Club.

The Department of Energy has a website dedicated to gas mileage tips.

There’s even an app to help!

For those who don’t feel like following the links, the best advice is to drive responsibly.

Maintain your car with regular tune ups and filter changes. Check your tire pressure. Don’t accelerate rapidly or drive (too much) over the speed limit. If you’ve ever taken a defensive driving class, this should sound familiar.

To avoid traffic jams, plan alternate routes, try to vary your commute times, and keep your cool in the car. How much idle time can you save by not switching lanes and sneaking along the shoulder? Try 30%. A detailed explanation (with a cool video showing how too many cars cause a traffic jam) is on the Scientific American blog.

Or, frankly, take transit! You knew I’d have to say that eventually.

Kari Banta, Transportation Associate

Mercury has many effects on our health, even in trace amounts.  According to the EPA’s website¹, some of the many effects mercury has can include:

• “For fetuses, infants, and children, the primary health effect of methylmercury is impaired neurological development.”
• “Mercuric chloride has caused increases in several types of tumors in rats and mice, and methylmercury has caused kidney tumors in male mice.”

Worst part is: mercury is not currently regulated.

In December of this year, the EPA plans to protect the public from polluters that poison our air and water with a new air quality safeguard.  Specifically, this new protection will guard us from life-threatening pollution from power plants, such as mercury and arsenic.  It is called the “Mercury, Arsenic, and Dioxin Reduction Rule,” is also known as the “Power Plant MACT (Maximum Achievable Control Technology) Standard.”

The EPA is set to finalize this proposed mercury protection next month and we want to make sure they make it across the finish line!  So what can you do to ensure polluters are held accountable for the poisonous mercury they emit?

You can host a teach-in.

A teach-in is an education-to-action tactic which utilizes the power of social networks in energizing supporters and getting more people engaged.  Teach-ins are a powerful and fun way to build community.  It focuses on bringing people together to learn as a group, and take action as a collective. Participants get to know other people and have conversations about their own stories and values and our shared values as a community.

December 5^th is the first day of Mercury Awareness Week and the Sierra Club wants to help YOU host a teach-in.  It’s social, it’s fun, it’s educational, and it’ll help ensure we are protected from mercury pollution!

If you are interested in hosting a teach-in, please contact Lydia Avila, Sierra Club Organizer, at lydia.avila@sierraclub.org or 512-477-1729.

- Kat Herrera, Houston Beyond Coal intern.

_{1. http://www.epa.gov/hg/effects.htm}

“We congratulate Mayor Leffingwell on the renewal of his commitment to move Austin beyond coal. Today’s announcement is consistent with a plan first crafted over a year ago and approved unanimously by City Council in February,” said Cyrus Reed, Conservation Director with the Sierra Club in Austin, and a former member of the Resource Generation Task Force. “Mayor Leffingwell called for a dialogue with the community, with Austin Energy, and with the LCRA. We welcome this dialogue, and as a first step, Sierra Club has developed a plan to phase out of the Fayette Coal Plant by 2016.”

The Sierra Club is hosting a Town Hall meeting on Sunday, December 4, 2011 to discuss Austin’s generation plan and the Club’s analysis which demonstrates that the Fayette Coal Plant is a liability, not a reliable source of electricity. The meeting will be at TSEU Office at 1700 South 1^st Street, Austin, Texas from 3:00-5:00pm. Panelists will include experts on solar energy, energy efficiency and the high cost of coal.

“As the Mayor pointed out today, there are competitive alternatives for providing reliable electricity, like wind power,” said Jen Powis, with the Sierra Club.  “Clean energy is good for the environment, good for the bottom line, and good for the people.”

The aging Fayette Coal Plant, jointly-owned by the Lower Colorado River Authority, will see operational costs likely rise significantly over the next few decades. The plant is a major contributor to mercury and other toxic emissions and will need additional upgrades to comply with upcoming mercury pollution safeguards.  The Fayette Plant produces approximately 307 pounds of mercury each year.  Only one gram of mercury is needed to contaminate an entire 20 acre lake. Mercury pollution is a major health concern as the emissions from coal stacks move into the food chain contaminating local rivers and lakes.  At least one dozen Texas lakes and fishing areas are known to possess fish with unsafe levels of mercury contamination.

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