What are all those chemicals in your shampoo? Your lipstick? your aftershave? And what do they have to do with asthma, breast cancer and learning disabilities?

Learn, share and help change this toxic mess: Watch The Story of Cosmetics, a 8-minute film exposing the ugly truth about personal care products - brought to you by Clean Water Action, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, Annie Leonard's Story of Stuff Project and Free Range Studios, and take action to help pass the Safe Cosmetics Act.

Ask the Mayor and the Austin City Council to ban petroleum-based plastic bags in Austin!

Photo by Romana Klee

The time has come for the Austin City Council to phase in a ban of petroleum-based plastic bags in Austin Texas!

Plastic bags are an environmental and visual scourge, as well as a threat to wildlife. Worldwatch Institute estimates that Americans use 100 billion plastic bags each year - requiring the consumption of 4,300,000 gallons of crude oil.

The manufacture of plastic bags creates greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. At most, only 1% to 2% of these bags get recycled. The rest take up space in landfills, litter city streets, or find their way into creeks, rivers and oceans. According to the Society for Marine Conservation, more than a million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die from eating or getting entangled in plastic each year.

The United Nations calculates that on average over 46,000 pieces of plastic litter are floating in every square mile of ocean. The City of San Francisco has estimated that it costs its taxpayers an average of 17 cents to dispose of each plastic bag.

Take action now: Ask the Austin City Council and Mayor Leffingwell to ban petroleum-based plastic bags.

Tell the Governor to keep health-threatening bacteria out of our water!

The Texas state environmental agency, the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ), acting at the request of polluting interests and feedlots, is proposing to allow higher levels of harmful bacteria in our rivers and streams. This will put thousands of Texas who swim, canoe or fish in these waters at greater risk of getting sick! Help us stop this plan.

WTP4 won't make new water, just the capacity to take more water from Lake Travis. Tell Mayor Leffingwell and the City Council to stop the Mistake on The Lake

WTP4 is a proposed drinking water treatment that will cost $500 million, not counting the interest necessary to finance it, and require an increase in our monthly water bills by as much as 15% in order to pay for it.

Last year's elections to the board of the Pedernales Electric Co-op resulted in a majority committed to ending the days of scandal that have plagued the PEC for so long. The PEC board is now considering bringing a Bill of Rights before the members for approval during this year's board elections.

City Public Services (the City of San Antonio's electric utility) and New Jersey based NRG are currently seeking investors for two new nuclear reactors they hope to build at the South Texas Project site in Bay City, Texas. They are also seeking commitments from communities like yours to purchase the power these reactors would generate.

Recent revelations leave no doubt that top officials at the City Public Services deliberately misled the public and the San Antonio City Council about the true cost of nuclear power. Clean Water Action and our allies have issued warnings for several months now that the $13 billion price tag for the nuclear reactors proposed for South Texas was too low.

CPS has now admitted that this figure is $4 billion too low! Top staff
at CPS and chair of its Board have now resigned in disgrace.

Austin Energy, our city's award-winning electricity provider, has prepared a new ten-year plan on where we will get our energy from. This plan will increase Austin's commitment to clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency, help keep electric bills in check, and cut back on pollution from the coal-burning Fayette Power Plant.

Earlier this year, many of you signed a postcard from Clean Water Action in support of clean energy and calling on leaders of New Braunfels to buy more renewable energy and develop energy efficiency programs that lower electric bills and reduce water use.

The good news is that New Braunfels Utilities has new energy efficiency programs, like a high efficiency air condition and heat pump rebate. The bad news is that it might sign a nuclear power contract with San Antonio.

Don't get duped.

$17 billion for unsafe, dirty energy? Tell your Mayor and City Council to pull the plug on nuclear energy!

Recent revelations leave no doubt that top officials at the City of San Antonio's electric utility, City Public Services, deliberately misled the public and the city council about the true cost of nuclear power.

Did you know the City of Georgetown has a plan to get 30% of its power from nuclear energy by 2030? It is currently negotiating with CPS Energy of San Antonio to buy power from two proposed nuclear reactors in South Texas.

Despite the claims from CPS Energy and the nuclear industry, nuclear power has inherent flaws that make it a dangerous and risky source of energy for Georgetown. Here are just a few.

• Cost: The cost of building new nuclear reactors is extremely expensive. San Antonio will have to spend at least $5.2 billion to build two new reactors with its partner, New Jersey-based NRG. The projected cost has already doubled since the project was first announced in 2007. To finance the project, CPS wants to sell half of its share to smaller utilities like Georgetown Utility System. That way, they would shed some of the huge financial risk that comes with such a massive project onto Georgetown ratepayers.

Fossil fuels are polluting the air, warming the planet and soaring in price.
Texas' dependence on fossil fuels and nuclear power is an economic burden on its citizens and a threat to public health. As our population increases, we must prioritize clean energy and energy efficiency to protect public health and the environment, keep electricity affordable and bring jobs to Texas.

Over ninety per cent of Texas' electricity comes from dirty sources of power that put public health at risk. Texas leads the nation in emissions of greenhouse gases and toxic mercury from coal plants, and much of Texas' smog problem is due to coal. Two-thirds of Texans live in cities that are in violation of federal, health-based clean air standards.

Texas is fortunate to have a rich aquatic heritage, with nine major aquifers, fifteen major rivers, over 200 reservoirs, 3700 streams, and more than 300 miles of coastal waters. But population growth, drought and climate change are depleting water supplies at alarming rates. Public officials at all levels of government need to act now to conserve water for the future.

Texas' population is projected to double by 2060, with most newcomers settling in our urban areas. Unless we conserve, this will require new sources of water and new treatment capacity at great expense.

The Texas Legislature voted in 2007 to restore funding cuts to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) after years of budget cuts and deterioration of our state parks. The restored funding has allowed TPWD to replace staff that had been let go and make badly needed repairs to our crumbling parks. However, the funding is NOT adequate to fund the acquisition of new parks.

Texas ranks 49th among all states in per capita spending on parks, and less than 3% of Texas' land is in public hands. Our population is projected to double by 2060, with most newcomers moving to the cities. We lose an average of 160 acres to urban sprawl each day. Texas has not had a major program for acquiring and developing new parks since 1967.

Gov. Rick Perry is calling for doubling the number of nuclear reactors in Texas. Luminant, formerly TXU Corp., in proposing two new reactors at its Comanche Peak nuclear plant southwest of Dallas. Exelon Corp. wants to add two reactors in Victoria County in Southeast Texas.

Both the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) say a surge toward nuclear to meet the country's energy needs and curb global warming is unwise. Clean Water Action agrees.

Nuclear power is not the answer to global warming:

Texas' dependence on fossil fuels and nuclear power is an economic burden on its citizens and a threat to public health. As our population increases, we must prioritize clean energy and energy efficiency to protect public health and the environment, keep electricity affordable and bring jobs to Texas.

Coal-burning power plants are the largest industrial source of mercury emissions in the United States, and ten percent of these emissions come from plants in Texas - more than any other state. Five of the nation's top ten emitters of mercury are in the Lone Star State.

When mercury is released into the air, it settles in rivers, lakes, and streams. Bacteria in the water convert it to methyl mercury, a very toxic form of mercury. The toxic mercury bioaccumulates in the bodies of animals. Eating contaminated fish is the main way people are exposed to unsafe levels of mercury. Unlike with some other toxins, there is no way to clean or cook mercury out of fish.