ReEnergize Texas » Uncategorized

New web intern

Intern — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:47:46 +0000

Hi, everyone! I’m an Urban Studies and Geography student at UT Austin. I’m going to manage many of ReEnergize Texas’ online endeavors for the rest of this semester. I’m excited to learn about and raise awareness for environmental issues with this organization. Keep visiting our site for updates, and remember to check out our (new) Twitter!

- Goli Zarchi

Why don’t we trust the TCEQ?

Intern — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:20:33 +0000

ReEnergize Texas is excited about a new campaign called “Why don’t we trust the TCEQ?” which questions the effectiveness of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

To give some background…for over a decade the TCEQ has been allowing big industries in Texas to pollute the air and water at levels above what the federal government allows. For example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set regulations on polluting facilities to monitor their air emissions and to make sure they are at levels that will not harm the public or surrounding community, but the TCEQ has not complied. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA requires caps on all sources of pollution, even individual units in a facility; however, TCEQ only sets caps on the overall facility. This “flex permitting” may not seem like much of a difference, but in studying this issue EPA has found that the TCEQ program is difficult to enforce and creates loopholes which result in significantly higher pollution.

The TCEQ is now under Sunset review which analyzes the need for an agency and can even abolish the agency altogether. In addition to the review, the EPA has threatened to take over some air permits if TCEQ doesn’t change their requirements for permitting.

In the midst of all of this, ReEnergize Texas is interviewing people with different perspectives and outlooks on why they don’t trust the TCEQ. Most recently, interns Mary Vo and Kim Doan interviewed 4 citizens from Montgomery County who started a grassroots movement fighting TexCom. This company is asking for permits from the TCEQ to allow the construction of injection wells that could pollute nearby drinking water. You can learn more about the people and their fight at StopTheToxicWells.com.

ReEnergize Texas, along with other organizations who got together to form the Alliance for a Clean Texas, believe that TCEQ’s main priority should be to protect public health. With EPA taking over air permits, Texas industries claim this will harm jobs but environmentalists believe it’ll promote a green economy in Texas and create jobs. For more information, come to ACT’s event on July 27^th! Stay tuned for more on that soon!

- Posted by Meghana Menon

Congratulations to the 2010 Summer of Solutions team for completing their first training!

Intern — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:00:47 +0000

This past Tuesday (June 22^nd), eight members of Austin Green Art gathered for a four-hour afternoon training in which leadership development was assessed, and helpful ways to create a campaign matrix for success were outlined. The first hour of training covered delegation and commitment in an organizing group, which helped participants and trainers become acclimated with one another through collaborative brainstorming and positive discussion.

Austin Green Art founder and director, Randy Jewart, encouraged his group to participate and take key components of the training into consideration when thinking about projects that they have completed or are currently working on as an organization.

“We wouldn’t know what to work on throughout the day if Randy didn’t delegate our duties properly,” said one of the Resolution Gardens workers who actively participated during the training. “Aside from doing what we usually do, delegation is important so that the organization stays productive,” he went on to say.

After debriefing a lengthy group activity that was meant to test organizational campaign skills, the participants were fed eight key components of a matrix that pretty much guarantee success, in different shapes and forms.

Want to learn more about these eight key components and how they might change the direction of your organizing group? If the answer is yes or maybe, feel free to contact us at sos.atx@gmail.com for more information.

You can have as great of a training as Austin Green Art did, or even better!

Green Fund at A&M Approved!

Trevor — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:51:53 +0000

Originally posted at http://thinkgreenfund.org/

Congratulations to Texas A&M University! The Board of Regents approved the Aggie Green Fund last week. This means it is officially instated at the University and work can commence to get the fund going for implementation in the fall.

Or, you could say the work can continue since a group of students have been working non-stop along with A&M sustainability officer, Kelly Wellman, to detail the ideas planned for the fund.

“The goal is to be ready for the fall when students return with ideas,” stated Wellman, determined and excited for the Fund to finally unravel on campus.

Before it was sent to the Board of Regents, the group finalized the papers in her office and they worked with the administration’s finance group to send the plan to the President. There was also a lot of input and support from the student body representatives, the student body president being present to speak in favor of the green fund.

The Green Fund was approved by the board without opposition. The group will be spending the summer working on the policy framework and preparing an application for people to become members of the board that oversees green fund activities. The green fund advisory board will create a draft for project proposals and will be applying for money for the fund.

“During the campaign we had a clear image of how we envisioned the green fund,” says Faby Molina, a student who ran the referendum campaign during the spring, “now we have the opportunity to start building our vision”.

Rice Passes $9 Green Fee (w/o our help)

Trevor — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 03:09:33 +0000

Originally posted at http://thinkgreenfund.org/

“As students, do we want to lead, or simply to follow?”

That’s the question Rice University students asked themselves during the Student Association General Election last week. When polls closed on Wednesday evening, the answer to that question was a resounding vote for leadership. With 71% of students voting to pay an extra $9 per year to create the Rice Endowment for Sustainable Energy Technology (RESET) it’s clear that students recognize the many personal opportunities and community benefits of campus sustainability.

While we’re excited about the many environmental improvements we expect from RESET, it wasn’t the environment, but rather the economy, that sparked the three-year effort culminating in last week’s victory. Inspired by the example of the many other universities with similar funds (at least 70 in the US and Canada), we began to look at Rice’s budget and were amazed at what we found. Over the past eight years, energy costs for Rice have quadrupled! Furthermore, over the last three years, on-campus housing fees have risen 20 percent, with a portion of these fees representing higher energy costs being passed along to students. When we also learned about the various efforts the university administration has taken in recent years to reduce energy use we knew it was time for students to stand up and do their part to keep costs low at our university!

Beyond the economic and environmental benefits, the successful RESET vote is also a victory for Rice students in fields ranging from engineering to biology to public policy. By allowing students and faculty to propose projects to a RESET committee, the endowment promotes student innovation by providing a unique opportunity to collaborate with professors, peers, and professionals to design and implement large-scale projects with a tangible impact in their community.

While RESET will be a much-needed tool for financing campus sustainability in this time of budget cuts and economic uncertainty, RESET alone won’t be enough. Luckily, administrators and staff from all over campus have demonstrated strong interest in providing matching funds for RESET projects. They hope it will provide students with as much as two dollars of benefit for every dollar contributed, marking an exciting new chapter in student-administration collaboration where student-proposed projects will receive financial and operational support from their university at a sustained (pardon the pun) and unprecedented level.

While Rice is hardly the first university to create such a “green fund”, it is the first school in Texas to create one since Texas State students established the Environmental Service Fee in 2004. With so many economic, environmental, and personal benefits to students and their communities, we certainly don’t expect it to be the last!

Posted by:
- Patrick McAnaney, Rice senior & Student Association president
- Carl Nelson, Rice junior & SA Environmental Committee Chair

Green Fund Success #247 – Human Powered Gym

Trevor — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:48:15 +0000

Posted by Jacob Bintliff

“The world’s largest human power plant” may evoke creepy images of The Matrix, but think again!

Last December, student leaders at Texas State University used funds from their Environmental Service Fee to turn 30 elliptical machines in the Student Rec Center into individual-sized power plants. Now students can go green while getting in shape!

A 30-minute workout generates enough electricity to power a light bulb for over 2 hours and a computer for 30 minutes! Think about how many students work out every day on your campus…now do the math. The answer? A BUNCH of renewable energy, and that much less energy your campus will have to get from dirty old fossil fuel sources.

On top of that, the new program has provided a great leadership experience to at least one Texas State student. Blair Hartley, a recreation management grad student has been put in charge of the program. Yet another example of Green Funds providing students with hands-on, cutting-edge experience for the growing green-collar economy!

The energy and C02 savings and the leadership opportunity aren’t the only benefits, though. “It’s more about changing the mind-set of the 30,000-plus students on campus,” Hartley points out. That’s right, Green Fund projects can build environmental awareness in ways that your typical administrative project (e.g. revamping the heating & cooling system) just can’t.

Does this sound like something you want on your campus? Never fear, the Texas Green Fund campaign is here! If you’re a student on any of the campuses where Green Fund campaigns are currently underway you can make this a dream come true for you and your fellow students.

To see a full(er) list of successful Green Fund projects from across the US & Canada, check out this amazing list.

This is what a coalition looks like

Trevor — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:53:45 +0000

Originally posted at ThinkGreenFund.org/blog

“I think that keeping it informal was pretty key.”

That was Jacob Bintliff, campaign coordinator for the Think Green Fund campaign which will help put student-backed green funds at up to 7 Texas colleges this spring. He had just spent his Saturday training student leaders from Houston, Denton, College Station, Austin, and San Antonio on key issues and tactics for creating green fees on their own campuses.

He and I were sitting down for a beer, both to counteract the huge intake of caffeine we’d suffered throughout the day, and to have a chance to reflect on where the campaign stood.

“Everyone seemed pretty engaged. They were taking notes, nodding along. At the end it seemed hectic, but people were getting stuff done – I saw one group put together a campaign video in like 10 minutes.”

He was right. These campaigns are on track.

The students at UNT decided they wanted to have a special election for the fee. We sat down together and went through campus election by-laws and policies and figured out that they’d need support from 2/3 of the Student Senate or a petition of about 1,800 students (5% of 36,000) to get it on the ballot. They’re going to do both.

The Aggie students may be the best organized we’ve seen so far, but they also have the toughest campaign rules to contend with. They have not begun campaigning because campus rules restrict campaign activities to one week before the election. Despite polls showing widespread support for sustainability funding among Aggie students, the green fund faces opposition from, ironically, the local chapter of Texas Young Conservatives (formerly Young Conservatives of Texas). It’s ironic because Rep. Fred Brown (R-College Station) was a co-sponsor to the bill that gives students the right to vote on green funds, and the bill was signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry – twice. Knowing that the measure is likely to pass due to popular support, the TYC have resorted to secretly attending environmental group meetings in the hopes of finding a rule violation in hopes of throwing the initiative out. It’s not likely to happen, though. The green fund supporters have been working with campus administrators for almost a year. They know the rules inside and out, and have been assured by the election commissioner that results would only be thrown out over substantive violations, not technicalities.

In addition to the students who made it to Austin for the weekend, groups from UT El Paso and UT Pan America met for planning sessions and called in to discuss progress and their ideas with us. All of this demonstrates why we’ve spent the last two years building a coalition of student organizers. We didn’t need a formal summit or to advertise our training. We called up student leaders from all over Texas, asked them what they needed, and developed a weekend-long program around those needs. Now we’re set to accomplish our most ambitious goal to date. That’s the power of working together.

Georgetown Students Get Some Ink

Trevor — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:47:09 +0000

A couple quick updates this time. Paige Menking is a VP at Southwestern’s Students for Environmental Activism and Knowledge, the group that is working to get Georgetown’s obstinate City Council to just listen to a couple brief presentations regarding their long range energy plan. She submitted a letter to the editor to both the Williamson County Sun Times and the Austin American Statesman. Her letter was printed (old-style ink on paper kind of printed) in the Statesman yesterday:

Georgetown’s energy plan

A group of respectful, well-prepared and informed Southwestern students recently were turned away from speaking at the Georgetown City Council meeting about the city’s 2030 energy plan, its support of San Antonio’s proposed nuclear project and information about practical alternatives.

Had we been allowed to speak, we would have explained that Georgetown is locking us into the most expensive form of energy available and that CPS Energy’s plant will place huge stress on the Colorado River, diverting up to half its flow.

And we would have expressed our desire for more public input in Georgetown’s energy policies, which now seems even more necessary.

So we will be back at the next meeting, pushing for a cleaner energy future for Central Texas. We will not be discouraged, and we will make our voices heard. Because we will be inheriting the high costs of nuclear — both environmental and financial.

Paige Menking
menkingp@southwestern.edu
Georgetown

Congratulations Paige! Just another clear example of why people in power should try just an itsy bit harder to be open and democratic instead of using questionable procedural tactics to quash debate.

Which brings me to update numero dos. SEAK’s President, Connor Hanrahan, went back to the City Secretary’s office last week to sign up students and experts to testify to City Council once again. The staff there expressed sincere apologies about what had happened the week before and said that they were pretty confused themselves about exactly what had happened. It was clear what the intent of the students was and it was clear what the intent of the City Secretary’s office was. So exactly who decided we shouldn’t be allowed to speak?

ReEnergize Houston Summit is a Huge Success

Trevor — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:27:17 +0000

In the fall of 2009 we had our first regional summit – the ReEnergize Houston Campus Sustainability Summit. It was fantastic! We pulled together students, professors, staff, and administrators from campuses throughout the city so they could talk about what they were doing, develop networks, and figure out how to put sustainability at the forefront of each campus’s agenda.

At the end of the event, the Assoc. VP for University Services at UH and the Director of Sustainability at Rice University decided to co-host a meeting for campus sustainability staff and coordinators next month. They will be joined by the Executive Director for Government Relations and Sustainability at Houston Community College, as well as representatives from other area campuses.

Here’s a quick taste of what the conference was like:

ReEnergize Houston Summit from Public Citizen on Vimeo.

SUMMIT SPEAKERS:

Dr. Barry Lefer, Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Science, Atmospheric Chemistry at UH
Dr. Peter Bishop, Associate Professor for Future Studies at UH
Al Lewandowski, Manager over Demand-Side Energy Management & Conservation at UT Austin
Joe Meppelink, Director of Research at Hines College of Architecture
Architect Andrew Vrana, Visiting Professor at Hines College of Architecture
Dr. Bob Randall, Former Director of Urban Harvest, Inc.
Praween Dayananda, Campus Field Coordinator for National Wildlife Federation
Trevor Lovell, State Director of ReEnergize Texas

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Video: How Polite Can You Be?

Trevor — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:53:35 +0000

Meet Connor Hanrahan, President of Students for Environmental Activism and Knowledge at Southwestern University. As we said in our last post, Connor and other members of SEAK joined with experts from Public Citizen, Clean Water Action, and ReEnergize Texas went to the Georgetown City Council to talk about the city’s energy plan. He did everything the way he was supposed to, but apparently they didn’t want to hear about it.

We’ll try to get you more video from the city itself, but for now this is what we captured. See how nice we were?

SEAK Students Denied Opportunity to Speak at Georgetown City Council from Public Citizen on Vimeo.