Make History on Earth Day

Less than a month away is everyone’s favorite holiday, Earth Day! And we at Sierra Club thought, what better way to celebrate than to get together with all of our friends, allies and supporters?! That’s why we are going to be launching a festival on Sunday, April 22nd from Noon til 6pm at the Mueller Park. Join us that day, along with the City of Austin and the Texas Green Network as we celebrate what brightens all of our days, The Earth!

Not only are we going to be having a blast, but we’ll be making history as well. The Austin Beyond Coal campaign will be shooting a gigantic group, aerial photo that day where our volunteers help us spell out the words “Beyond Coal”! This will mark the largest project nationwide for the Beyond Coal campaign and we need your help! If you want  to be a part of this monumental occasion, be at the park by 3:30 so we can get you into formation for the letters.

We will also have an A-list of excellent speakers throughout the day, including Mayor of Austin Lee Leffingwell, and Native Texan/activist/populist/columnist/cowboy-hat-enthusiast Jim Hightower. Hightower has been fighting for the Earth and the people who inhabit it for over 40 years.

The Festival will also include:

• A kids area with a petting zoo, face painting, green arts and crafts, and the “fittest family” obstacle course and snack making constest, YUM!
• Plenty of food from Verts, Mmmpanadas,Short Bus Subs, Gonzo Juice and Evil Wiener
• Live broadcasting from 93.3 KGSR

After the aerial photo, Za Boom Ba will be kicking the evening off with a huge interactive drum circle with room for 500 drummers!

This is certainly an event you won’t want to miss. And definitely make sure to bring all your friends and family at 3:30 to be apart of our history-making Beyond Coal photo! We’ll see you on Earth Day!

Sierra Club joins other community groups in opposing current Austin Energy proposal

Yesterday, Sierra Club, Lone Star Chapter, joined many other groups in opposing the current Austin Energy rate proposal as being fundamentally unfair to residential ratepayers and those trying to conserve energy.

See Austin American Statesman Article here

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/proposed-electric-rate-increases-target-poor-could-hamper-1934092.html

“The big problem is the high customer and delivery fee of $25 dollar per month for every residential customer no matter how much energy you use,” stated Lone Star Chapter Conservation Director Cyrus Reed. “It hurts apartment dwellers, those on fixed incomes and low energy users.”

“We want a proposal that is fair and encourages conservation and efficiency and is line with the Generation Resource Plan to move away from coal and toward conservation, efficiency, solar and wind.”

Austin Energy is expected to come back with a final version of its proposal in early December. Stay tuned for more about the rate case at the Austin Beyond Coal website (http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/austin/).

Still Wondering… What do we do When the Well Runs Dry?

Guest Blog post by Dean Speer, Abliene, TX local resident and student at University of California, Berkely College of Natural Resources.

***

In a state that is suffering through severe droughts and hosting numerous dry rivers and fading lakes, Water has become paramount. The fact is that 94% of Texas is in a current state of drought, with nearly 50% of the state experiencing what has been labeled “exceptional drought”. These droughts are expected to continue with the possibility of an increase in their severity. As if this wouldn’t be enough to get most Texans worrying, wildfires are raging across the countryside destroying homes and plaguing ranchers and farmers. This could make any person wonder what is going to be left of this great state for their children.

Don’t take my word for it, research it for yourself.

Personally I found an article devoted to Droughts within Texas and another about the the dwindling lake levels. With the ever increasing population of Texas I wasn’t surprised to find an article about the growing demand of water facing the shortage in supply of water. Sadly it gets worse, I also educated myself on how a lack of water threatens the growth of our state. The Hill country itself is in a harsh drought that is starting to affect more than humans..

In the heat of this disaster, while cities and individuals are coming together to try and secure what scarce water resources remain for the essentials of drinking, agriculture and local business, Tenaska has been behind the scenes trying to make thirty year contracts for thousands of acre feet of water per year to cool their coal plant facilities. Contracts that would even under the extreme conditions of drought provide water to the coal plant despite the possible needs of families. Tenaska is a business that operates for profits, not for the betterment and protection of the people it is taking its water resources from. Our children could go to bed thirsty while the Tenaska pipes surge with water.

After the coal plant failed to wrangle Abilene and Sweetwater out of their water, Tenaska has targeted Stamford. A recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) probe has shown that representatives of the City of Stamford and Tenaska have, without the public’s knowledge or input, been negotiating a water contract since 2009. This contract states that the city of Stamford would provide “firm supply and firm transportation of raw water from Lake Stamford for water demands” of the coal plant. The FOIA probe also showed that Tenaska is funding the lawyers who are advising the city of Stamford, over $65,000, on the contract. When people who are in charge of protecting the citizens are receiving advice paid for by the same company who is trying to take their water a person is left wondering whether or not their best interests are being protected.

The result is the rise of local citizens to protect their own best interests and futures. Grassroots organizations like Texans Against Tenaska and Abilenians Against Tenaska provide the information Tenaska does not to elected officials, their neighboring residents and the business and agricultural communities. Real people are coming together and building the momentum needed to save their right to water by stopping Tenaska.

The question Texans should be asking themselves is whether we need water or we need more energy? According to the “State of the market” report published by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas our supply of energy is outpacing our demand. The cherry on the top is that our energy reserves used to cushion major outages, required at 13% of total use, is at 21%. On one hand we have water (droughts, shortages, hazy futures) and on the other hand we have the Tenaska coal plant (water guzzling, dirty, surplus of energy). You decide, because if you remain silent Tenaska will decide for you.

For more information or to volunteer your talents,

see http://texansagainsttenaska.org/ or ‘friend’ Texans Against Tenaska on Facebook.

Send an email to the Stamford Mayor and city council members now before it’s too late.   You can send a message even if you don’t live in the city of Stamford.   Click here, and spread the word!

–Dean Speer

Hold that Horse—Houstonions demand an Environmental Impact Statement on White Stallion

As if the environmental impact on Matagorda county wasn’t bad enough, estimated tons of air emissions and chemical discharge from the White Stallion coal center of Bay City means that pollution contamination would reach miles beyond the plant’s physical location, affecting air quality in neighboring Houston, the most populous city in the southern US.  White Stallion’s emissions jeopardize public health and warrants the need for the EPA to conduct an overall Environmental Impact Statement, not just for the lives in for Bay City, but for Houston as well.

Image via Wikipedia

EPA Air Quality Index

The once embarrassing title, ‘smog capital of the nation,’ jolted Houston into lowering emissions to finally meet federal levels in 2009, but tighter standards imposed last year by the EPA has put Houston back in the struggle to make deeper cutbacks.  The Houston Chronicle reports, the White Stallion facility would push Houston past federal limits for smog and ozone, pumping more than 4,000 tons of nitrogen oxides into the air, the equivalent of 4.8 billion cars, and singlehandedly increasing Houston’s ozone level by 2 parts per billion.  At a time when the EPA has taken strict controls on air pollution to halt new emissions, the need for an EIS on White Stallion is especially dire.  Mayor Parker of Houston has already called upon the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to require an EIS for White Stallion, and for that we thank Mayor Parker.

– Tyra Ismail, Sierra Club Intern –

Unprecedented failures by TCEQ call for unprecedented action by EPA

For years the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has let down the people of Texas.  Finally – we have the Environmental Protection Agency holding TCEQ accountable by  looking out for the health of Texans and Americans across the country!   EPA needs comments from you on these two rules, so I’ll let you know a little bit about both of them.

1.  The first is the Good Neighbor Rule – this one regulates interstate transport of air pollution.  As you can imagine, our neighbors in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and even Kansas are not too thrilled with how much air pollution Texas Coal plants are sending to these states.  Texas has the worst air pollution in the country – and we can do so much better.  Looks like our neighbors are getting fed up, and Texas is finally going to have to do something about it.  I have an idea – don’t build a dozen new coal plants adding over 70 million tons of co2 into the atmosphere!!  Submit your comment here today.

2.  Speaking of CO2 – the leading cause of climate change – EPA has also proposed a rule to regulate global warming emissions.  If you ask me, this is a no brainer.  Apparently – TCEQ and Governor Perry think Texas should be exempt from this regulation.  Every other state in the nation at least attempts to abide by the Clean Air Act – why should Texas alone be exempt from this?  I love Texas, I want to raise a family here one day.  I also want them to have what all Americans should have – the right to clean water and clean air.

Until Texas agrees to regulate CO2 emissions like every other state is required to do, no new air permits should be granted in the state of Texas.

Posted by Eva Hernandez, Beyond Coal Campaign – Texas Sierra Club