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Texas Currents | Winter 2011
is it dry enough for you?
Epic Drought: A Wake-Up Call for Conservation Planning
For more than two years now, Clean Water Action has been sounding the alarm about the looming water crisis. Continued population growth in Texas, a warming climate and fre-quent drought all prove the urgency of the need. Communities must ramp up water conservation programs now.
Austin and other Central Texas cities need to shift their spending on expensive new water treatment and distribu-tion infrastructure to smarter investments in using available water supplies more efficiently. Clean Water Action has made this case repeatedly in meetings with decision makers across the region.
Fracking the Air
- Find out more about EPA's proposal.
- EPA page on Oil and Natural Gas Air Pollution Guidelines
- For the Wonks: The proposed rule
- Testimony from Myron Arnowitt, PA State Director
- Recap: The Pittsburgh hearing
- Recap: The Denver hearing
- Recap: The Arlington Hearing
- Testimony from David Foster, Texas State Director
Oil and gas operations in the U.S. produce significant air pollution – everything from drilling to the production and processing of natural gas affects our air. In fact, the oil and gas industry releases millions of pounds of pollutants like methane, benzene, and sulfur dioxide into our air each year.
Gas Drilling Operations
These toxins pose a threat to our air quality and contribute to serious health problems like asthma, cancer, and neurological issues. Currently more than half of Pennsylvanians live in an area that doesn’t meet federal air quality standards for smog and nearly 800,000 suffer from asthma.
Federal air pollution standards for drilling are woefully outdated. In July the EPA proposed new safeguards to reduce air pollution from the oil and natural gas industry to get us back on track.
Solar in Austin
austin, once a leader on solar power, has fallen behind other cities like san antonio.
Clean Water Action and our allies at Solar Austin support the Austin’s current goal of producing 200 MW of power from solar farms by 2020. But we also want to see the City add an additional 300 MW of solar on rooftops in the city of Austin. Here's why:
- rooftop solar does not require millions of gallons of water to produce energy like coal, natural gas and nuclear do -- a vital consideration in this time of record drought
- rooftop solar creates local jobs for solar installers
- rooftop solar builds wealth in the community by putting money back into the pockets of people who have panels installed on their homes and businesses
- rooftop solar saves the city money, since some of the up-front capital comes from the building owners themselves
- energy produced locally makes our city less vulnerable to brownouts and blackouts that can occur on hot summer afternoons, when solar panels are most productive
- energy produced locally avoids line losses that occur when moving energy over long distances, and avoids the costs associated with erecting and maintaining hundreds of miles of transmission lines
It's time for Austin to get serious about solar energy again!
ALL our Water
EPA's Lisa Jackson on protecting ALL our waters!
The Senate is pulling out the dictionaries for a debate over our water. The question they have to answer is whether "ALL" means "everything" or whether it means "only things that aren't inconvenient". Seriously, we're not kidding. Polluting interests continue to oppose the Administration’s efforts to clarify that ALL bodies of water are protected by the Clean Water Act. Now they’re forcing a vote in the U.S. Senate.
Find out what the amendment to H.R. 2354 means. Tell your Senators: Don't let December become a polluter free-for-all. Keep anti-environmental amendments and riders off of year-end bills.
Nuclear Power
With the threat of global warming and fossil fuel prices rising, nuclear power is being hailed once again as a solution to future energy needs. In September 2007, NRG Energy filed for a construction and operation license for two new nuclear reactors at the South Texas Project near Bay City, and since then four additional nuclear plants have been proposed.
Texas' Energy Future
When people think of Texas, they typically conjure up images of cattle ranches and oil rigs. They might also think of pollution from coal plants, since Texas leads the nation in greenhouse gas emissions from these sources. But Texas also leads the nation in energy from wind turbines, and is among the leaders in potential energy from solar power. In Texas as elsewhere, a major debate is under way on future energy policy. With your help, Clean Water Action can persuade our leaders to wean us off of our addiction to fossil fuels and take aggressive action to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy programs instead.
Making Texas Mercury Free
The Texas Department of Health has issued fish consumption advisories for over 329,000 acres of lakes and rivers in Texas, including the entire Gulf of Mexico. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that causes learning and developmental disabilities in children. Ten percent of all mercury released into the air in the U.S. comes from coal-burning power plants in Texas. The Texas Legislature failed to take meaningful action on mercury last session, and Clean Water Action and our allies are gearing up to make this a major issue in the upcoming legislative session.
Water Conservation
We are working in local communities and at the state level on behalf of sustainable water policies that protect drinking water at its source, preserve wetlands and aquifer recharge Azones, and conserve water for the future. We are working to persuade policy makers to prioritize conservation above expensive new reservoirs and treatment plants—a policy that would also save the energy needed to treat and distribute this water.