Texas Currents|Online, Summer 2009

Thanks to public outcry that led to a change in top management and to the election of reform-minded board members, the scandal-plagued Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) has begun to chart a new course for its future. The PEC is the largest consumer-owned electric cooperative in the nation, with some 225,000 member households.

The PEC has begun to open itself up to scrutiny and input from its members, reform the way it elects the board, and bring salaries in line with industry standards. It also passed two resolutions last year that set ambitious goals for energy efficiency and for renewable energy like wind and solar. Almost all of the power PEC provides to its customers is purchased from the Lower Colorado River Authority, and the LCRA produces most of its power from polluting coal and natural gas fired plants.

The resolutions were passed after Clean Water Action members wrote over 4,500 letters and postcards to the PEC demanding that it set ambitious goals for energy efficiency and renewable energy production. The board responded last fall, committing to procuring 30% of its energy from renewables like wind and solar by 2020, and 20% of its future energy needs from efficiency programs by the same date. Patrick Cox and Kathryn Scanlan--two new board members elected last June with Clean Water Action support--have led this effort.

The next crucial step is to put action plans in place to implement these goals. Clean Water Action canvass teams are once again visiting households throughout the vast PEC service area to mobilize support for full implementation. Another important step will come in June, when another round of elections to the PEC is complete. These elections represent a chance for reform-minded individuals to capture a majority on the board. Four of the current seven board members have resisted reforms at PEC. Clean Water Action will once again be making recommendations to our membership on behalf of candidates committed to cleaning up the PEC. To learn more about how you can help, please contact Clean Water Action at txcwa@cleanwater.org, or visit our web page.

Clean Water Action field canvass teams are visiting households in selected Central Texas communities, urging them to follow the example of the PEC by ramping up investments in renewable energy and conservation. These communities include San Marcos, Georgetown, New Braunfels, and Seguin. Each of them owns its own municipal electric utility, and each of them-like PEC-- purchases all or most of its power wholesale from LCRA, and then retails it to business and residential customers. As municipally-owned utilities, these electric providers are answerable to the city councils and to the voters who elect them.

LCRA produces 87% of its power from natural gas and coal-burning plants, and has plans to invest in a new coal plant near Waco. Coal is the leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and numerous studies have demonstrated that increased investments in energy conservation and renewables would eliminate any need for new coal plants. If enough of its wholesale customers insist on clean power rather than dirty power, LCRA will have to drop plans for new coal plants.

Clean Water Action is calling on each of these communities to create customer incentives for installation of roof-top solar and heat pumps, energy efficient HVAC systems, and weatherization and insulation programs. We are also urging these communities to renegotiate their contract with the LCRA, as PEC has done, to give them more flexibility in shaping their own clean-energy future. If you live in one of the communities mentioned above, please contact your mayor and council members and urge them to set ambitious goals for renewable energy and energy efficiency programs.

In this issue of Texas Currents|Online:

Lee Leffingwell Endorsed for Austin Mayor
Austin voters will be electing 5 of 7 city council members, including its next mayor, on Saturday May 9. Stakes are higher that usual this year, with unemployment continuing to rise, sales and property tax revenues down, and the city facing a host of challenges related to energy and water consumption, air quality, solid waste, urban sprawl and traffic congestion. Clean Water Action believes that Lee Leffingwell is easily the most qualified mayoral candidate to meet these challenges.

Reforms At One Texas Co-op As Action Turns To Other Electric Utilities
Thanks to public outcry that led to a change in top management and to the election of reform-minded board members, the scandal-plagued Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) has begun to chart a new course for its future. The PEC is the largest consumer-owned electric cooperative in the nation, with some 225,000 member households.

Texas Legislature Poised For Progress in 2009?
As the 81st session of the Texas Legislature approaches its end, Clean Water Action and our allies are cautiously optimistic that significant progress can be achieved on a host of fronts-above all related to clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency-where we have failed to make progress in the recent past. More bills promoting renewables and efficiency have been filed than ever before, and some of the better ones have already survived key committee votes. We still have anxious days ahead to see if Texas can begin to realize its tremendous potential for renewable energy production.

For California Woman, Protecting A River Can Cost You A Job
Heather Wylie traded her job for a river. And, given the choice, she'd do it again.

During the summer of 2008, Wylie joined a handful of protestors for a canoe and kayak trip down the LA River, earning the wrath of her employers and the attention of a nation. Why? At the time, Wylie was a biologist with the US Army Corps of Engineers. The agency had just declared the LA River as not navigable--a designation that put the watershed at risk and would have set a.dangerous precedent. Wylie and her compatriots were making their voyage to prove the Army Corps wrong. If their fleet could make the journey, they reasoned, then the LA River must be in-fact navigable, a critical first step in retaining Clean Water Act safeguards for the LA River system.

Restoring the Clean Water Act Must Top Congress' Agenda
Restoring the ability of the Clean Water Act to protect water resources must top Congress' water agenda. Supreme Court and agency decisions put at risk Clean Water Act protections for headwater, intermittent and ephemeral streams that supply drinking water systems that serve more than 110 million Americans. In total, 59 percent of the nation's waterways and millions of acres of wetlands are currently at risk.

What You Won't See In Those 'Clean Coal' Ads: Dirty Air, A Wall of Sludge, Poisoned Rivers
Surely you've seen the ads. They are scattered around the internet and splashed across our newspapers and magazines. Their commercials interrupt our favorite television shows and invade our local radio station's airspace. Yes, the ads are everywhere. But that doesn't make them true.

No PR campaign, no matter how well executed, can make coal clean. It's simply not possible.

Advocates for "clean" coal argue that technology exists-almost-that will allow coal-fired power plants to capture their carbon emissions and store the climate-changing gas deep under ground. Technically, this is true. Realistically, this would be extremely expensive, and wouldn't even begin to address most of the impacts felt by water. From mines to power plants, the process of wresting energy from coal is dirty and unhealthy for our waters, our communities and ourselves.

How Safe is Your Bath Tub?
Children's bubble baths should be clean, safe and fun. But No More Toxic Tub, a report published in March 2009 by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics in partnership with Clean Water Action and other organizations, found contaminants and other hazardous ingredients in numerous popular shampoos, soaps and body care products marketed to babies and children.

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