At a hearing of the Texas Senate Committee on Higher Education today SB 2182, known as the green fee bill,” was reported favorably to the Calendars Committee by unanimous vote, clearing another hurdle on its way to becoming law.

Only two weeks ago the bill was looking badly wounded after staff working for Higher Education Committee Chairwoman Zaffirini (D-Laredo) noted “philosphical concerns” with the bill’s statewide approach to approving environmental service fees, prompting bill author Sen. Eliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso) to pull the bill from a scheduled hearing.  In response and virtually overnight, ReEnergize Texas mobilized an Earth Week campaign, generating constituent phone calls from El Paso, Austin, San Antonio, College Station, and elsewhere throughout the state.

Walking into the Senate Higher Education Committee office on Earth Day, ReEnergize Texas Director Trevor Lovell was greeted by staff holding ironic smiles and saying “Our phones have been ringing off the hook… you wouldn’t have anything to do with that, would you?”

Aggie Adrienne Jones (seen here talking to US Rep. Lloyd Doggett) sent a letter supporting SB 2182

By the following Monday SB 2182 had been set for a Wednesday hearing.  Students from UT Pan America, South Texas College, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and UT Austin wrote letters to the members of the committee, asking them to support the bill.  

A couple key excerpts:

“As students, we’re ready to see these changes on campus. This March the Aggies voted 76% in favor of Texas A&M investing more in environmentally sustainable services. That is more student support for one issue than in the history of the University..”

-Amanda Grosgebauer, Texas A&M

“Now that ASARCO is closed and the citizens are looking for change, they should be able to look at UTEP for guidance, and having the bill passed will allow them to see UTEP’s example and inspire the citizens to do the same.”

-Rafael Rivera, University of Texas El Paso

“I believe that the shift for a more sustainable home and economy begins with the students that our past generation has placed the burden on. So, if we want a chance for our younger generation to survive, shouldn’t they receive the tools that will guide them through this shift to improve this planet we call home?” 

-Rob Diaz, Texas Tech University

Apparently it worked because the committee members approved the bill unanimously.  This will send a strong signal of bipartisan support for the concept, helping the bill move smoothly through the rest of the process.

For more on ReEnergize Texas and our legislative agenda, visiting our Greening State Government page.

Congratulations to all of you who have been a part of this so far very successful campaign!

“This feels like one of the good old campaigns,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, Executive Director of Public Citizen’s Texas office, Saturday afternoon.  Activists had swarmed Congressman Charlie Gonzalez’s carriage in the King William Parade earlier that morning in San Antonio.

Smitty may have been showing his age a bit (he’s directed Public Citizen’s Texas office for the last 25 years, and become a local legend in the process), but the sentiments were positive among organizers young and old alike.

 Congressman Charlie Gonzalez is the key swing vote on a subcommittee considering the Waxman-Markey bill. A conservative Democrat, Gonzalez has joined a misguided throng calling for CO2 credits to be given away, a solution deemed unacceptable by environmentalists and economists who point out that such a system would create unfair profits for polluters and cripple any attempt at real CO2 reductions.

Learning late Thursday that Congressman Gonzalez would be in the King William Parade, a Fiesta celebration for the well-to-do and well-connected King William neighborhood of San Antonio, activists at Public Citizen, SEED Coalition, and my group, the ReEnergize Texas student coalition, got together and planned a full scale outreach and publicity action to let the Congressman know that giveaways are unacceptable.

We showed up in San Antonio as the parade floats were mustering outside of King William and quickly found the Sierra Club group that was marching in the parade. Having no permits to be there ourselves, we asked if we could join up, and they enthusiastically accepted. We saw Charlie’s carriage a few stations back, but event organizers prevented us from approaching. So we went along with the parade, waving our banners and talking to folks in the crowd, all the while looking for an opportunity to peel off to the side and face him with our banners and signs. It came quickly enough, and when his carriage came by we chanted “CHAAAR-LEEE…CHAAAR-LEEE” to draw his attention to the signs. After the carriage passed, the bag around my shoulder spilled its contents on the ground, so Karen Hadden from SEED Coalition and Patrick Meaney from ReEnergize Texas ran ahead to catch the carriage.

While I was picking my things up, Karen and Patrick approached the carriage, still holding their signs and asking the Congressman for a good bill. Sitting next to the Congressman was Bear County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson who knew Karen and greeted her kindly. The conversation was just getting going when event organizers rollerbladed up to Karen and Patrick and told them they could march with the Sierra Club or leave the parade.

What the rollerblading authorities didn’t know was that I had been separated and was running desperately to catch up. : )

I got ahead of the carriage and found a Sierra Club activist holding one of our signs which read “Justicia Para El Clima!” and asked if she would help me hold the banner and another sign reading “No Polluter Bail Outs!” and “Want My Vote? Support Waxman-Markey!” respectively. As the carriage passed we called out to him “give us a good climate bill” and he called back “I will.”

Not convinced that he’d gotten the message, I walked behind the carriage, catching up on a small side street with virtually no crowd. I came next to the carriage and said “Howdy Congressman.” We talked for a couple minutes, me explaining that giving the credits away was terrible policy and possibly worse politics (“if you make concessions, the opponents of this bill are going to take credit for making you do it”). He answered that he thought the bill would give away “a percentage” of the credits and auction off the rest.

I left with courteous “Enjoy the Fiesta,” seeing more of our signs waiting for the Congressman up ahead. Before all was said and done he would see our signs and banners no less than 7 times and had 4 reasonably personal conversations with our members. His position had improved from “give them away” to “give away some” before the morning was over. <UPDATE - San Antonio Current reports that Congressman Gonzalez never supported full giveaways, despite Bloomberg article claims>

It was a good day, and all put together in under 48 hours. It probably was a little like Smitty’s good old days, and I look forward to telling young activists 25 years from now about our good old days when Charile Gonzalez just couldn’t get away.

May is fast upon us, meaning that summer isn’t far behind.  Most of my summer memories involve swimming, watching TV, hamburgers, and ice cream.  However, this summer is going to be a little different (however, I don’t think I will abandon the swimming or ice cream).

This summer, some of us at ReEnergize, as well as a few others, are participating in Summer of Solutions.  Summer of Solutions was piloted in the Northwest and in Minnesota last summer and was launched as a program intended to get student activists active during the summer months, as well as engage a community in their city.  This summer, Summer of Solutions will take place in 12 cities nationwide.

If you attended the ReEnergize Texas Summit, you may have heard Anna and myself talk about what we envision for Summer of Solutions: Austin edition. The project will take place from July 1^st through August 31^st, and honestly, right now that is about all we know.  What makes this project so different is that it will always maintain a level of flexibility never before seen in other projects.  When you are attempting to engage a community, you cannot assume you know what they need, thus the need for us to be flexible in our mission.

We plan on have a large community education/involvement component, where we get to know the people that live in a certain area and learn what they need.  There is a tendency for activists to assume they know the best way to do things, when doing them another way is more effective in a certain community.   We are in preliminary talks with American Youthworks, PODER, Sustainable Food Center, and Austin Energy.  All of these groups work within East Austin communities and are a wealth of knowledge about what certain communities need.

Right now, we want to work on energy efficient upgrades for houses, but we might get a month down the road and realize that that particular community really needs something else, such as healthcare for high asthma rates. 

This is what makes this Summer of Solutions so unique is that we can plan a little bit, but most of the project is undefined until it happens.  So, if you are the type of person who normally looks back on his or her summer and is like, “What the heck did I do for 3 months?” you should join Summer of Solutions so you can say, “Summer of Solutions!”

To get more information or to apply, you can go here.

DEADLINES FOR APPLYING:
Priority deadline: May 1st
Last chance to apply for paid positions: May 10th
We will make a decision on paid positions by May 17th
Final time to apply to participate overall is May 30th

Jeni Wilde
4/22/2009 

Students from Texas two biggest rival colleges joined in a single chorus at the state capitol Wednesday, calling on law makers to grant student bodies the right to create a fee for environmental services with a majority vote of the student body.

Aggie senior Amanda Grosgebauer and Longhorn senior Jacob Bintliff were among witnesses who testified before the House Committee on Higher Education’s hearing for HB 3353.  The bill would allow the governing body of a campus (i.e. the Board of Regents) to implement an environmental services fee without asking permission from the legislature. 

“It’s really a matter of simplifying the process,” said Representative Elliott Naishtat (D-Austin) who authored the bill.  “Right now if a student starts a campaign to get a green fee on their campus, they’ll be graduated and on to other things before the process is done.”

A companion bill to Naishtat’s House Bill has been introduced by Senator Eliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso).  The bill, numbered SB 2182, is expected to have its own hearing soon.

“We’re really fortunate to have support from Representative Naishtat and Senator Shapleigh,” said Bintliff before the hearing began.  “But both were contacted by their constituents – Naishtat by UT Austin students, and Shapleigh by UT El Paso students.  It shows they do respond to constituents.”

The hearing began in the early afternoon but went well into the evening as the committee heard testimony on bills seeking to slow or stop rising tuition costs.  Ms. Grosgebauer brought with her 4 members of Texas A&M’s Environmental Issues Committee who also registered their support for the bill, but by the end of the hearing they were more than ready to get back home.

“This is really taking longer than we thought,” commented one of the young women as they sat on a bench waiting for HB 3353 to come up. 

But after the testimony from Grosgebauer and Bintliff was given, all congregated outside the hearing room, excitedly congratulating one another for their success.  In fact, Committee Chairman Dan Branch (R-Dallas) closed discussion on the bill commenting “…y’all were very well prepared and eloquent.  You defended your representative’s bill well.”

The bill was left pending by the committee, and a vote is expected in the next several days.  If the bill is voted through the next hurdle will be getting it read on the floor of the House so that it can begin the vetting process.

Now we need you to help push this legislation through!  Visit our Legislative Page for new actions you can take every week to make the youth voice heard and make clean energy and a green economy a reality.

Where the press fails, the blogs prevail! We’ve got the straight scoop on where your potential US Senators stand on climate and energy, way ahead of the primaries.

Here in this post is the first part of our in depth interview with Mayor of Houston and US Senate Democratic hopeful Bill White. We asked him about his positions on climate and energy policy, and tried to get some real insights into what kind of Senator he would make.

Part 2 of this interview is available on our Media Page, so check it out.

Next week we’ll be releasing our interview with Mayor White’s chief Republican rival, Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams. Stay tuned!

What if I told you Texas has a program that helps “at risk” youth stay out of jail, finish their high school education, get job skills that put them on a pathway out of poverty, all while working in industries that are reducing greenhouse gas emissions and moving us into a new green economy?

 Well it’s not true, but it could be very soon.

 This past Monday, the House committee on Technology, Economic Development and Workforce had a public hearing about several bills, one being HB 2492.  HB 2492 is would create a statewide YouthBuild program that helps at risk youth by giving them paid job training in green job markets, as well as life skills counseling and the opportunity to finish their high school education.

Jeff and I went to the hearing to represent ReEnergize Texas and testify in favor of HB 2492.  I was the first one up, and was extremely nervous, but it went pretty well.  I spoke about how the lack of jobs in the Current economy makes it more likely for at-risk youth to turn to other, more illegal, ways of making money, and how a YouthBuild program can start to fix that problem. 

 There were many people that testified that were from youthbuild programs from across the state of Texas, including American Youthworks here in Austin.  Their speeches were great because they have worked directly with these kids and seen the very tangible and positive results from how well these programs work.  The young people that these programs affect aren’t bad and they are extremely capable, they just need opportunities.

One of the coolest things about testifying is that you are talking directly to senators or representatives.  When you do lobby visits, most of the time you only speak to a staffer, so testifying is a really effective way to let elected officials hear what their constituents have to say.

It’s also pretty cool when you testify as a young person because it isn’t too often that young people testify, and I think it throws the committee members for a loop. At the end of my speech, Rep. Strama asked me, “How did you come to be involved with this bill?” I told him about ReEnergize Texas, and he was just like “Alright, cool.” Okay, maybe those weren’t his exact words, but he seemed pretty surprised that some young girl just came out of nowhere.

So why don’t you come out of nowhere, too?  Give your State Representative a call (you can get their number at this website: http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/) and ask them to support HB 2492.  We’ve all had friends who could have benefited from something like this, and it will be a boon to our state if instead of throwing our young people away in the criminal justice system, we make sure they have a chance to participate in the brighter future we all know is coming.

You can watch live (or archived) hearings here. 

Jeni Wilde
4/11/2009 

Students from Austin College

 The ReEnergize Texas Lobby Day was a huge success.  Students from across Texas, including from Huston-Tillotson University, St. Edwards, UTSA, UT Pan American, UT Austin, UT El Paso, University of Houston Downtown, A&M College Station, A&M Corpus Christi, and others.    Students who attended the summit, including 25 colleges and highschools,  are now back home and equipped with tools to take action, train leaders, and grow the movement to demand clean, efficient, smart energy for Texas. 

 Texas students are taking back their air, and demanding our elected representatives respect our health, our economy, and our future by ensuring a cleaner, smarter economy powered by ethical energy choices – not locking us into a dirty coal infrastructure for generations to come.

Students from UT Arlington

          We lobbied 75 legislative offices, and some students were even able to meet their representatives.  For students who couldn’t make the Lobby Day, we made photo & video petitions and delivered them to their Representatives.

 Students from A&M Consolidated  High school expressed their vision for Texas.

     ReEnergize Texas is back to the Capitol!  On Wednesday, I attended the House Environmental Regulation Committee hearing, while other members of ReEnergize Texas— From UT Austin and St. Edwards University – lobbied all nine of the offices of the Environmental Regulation Committee. 

I personally submitted a testimony against Representative Weber’s HB 4012 which would fast track the coal permitting process at the TCEQ by completely removing the democratic right of Texans to attend and give testimony at “contested case hearings”.  Essentially, Texans would be unable to comment on coal plants being built in their communities.  Fortunately for Texas, we found out on Wednesday when lobbying Environmental Regulation committee member offices that this bill will not pass because nobody seems to like it.

            We submitted legislative briefings to the offices, which included our positions on the following:

AGAINST             HB 4012:              Weber                        Environmental Regulation Cmte

This bill would fast track coal plants by removing “contested case hearings”, which are Texas citizens’ only opportunity to publicly testify on the environmental, health, economic, or legal impacts.   According to Tom “Smitty” Smith of Public Citizen, contested case hearings have significantly improved permit quality and lowered emissions due to demand for better standards.

FOR                       HB 4206:              Farabee                     Environmental Regulation Cmte

This bill is to ensure adequate water supplies are available for electric generating facilities.  It requires a water study be submitted to the TCEQ and regional water group showing sufficient water resources for any electric [coal plant] utility.

FOR                       HB 2588:              Burnam                     Environmental Regulation Cmte

TCEQ shall, in accordance with federal law, control air contaminants as necessary to protect against adverse effects related to climatic changes (global warming), Cumulative effects of multiple air contaminants on human health, acid deposition, and stratospheric changes (ozone depletion).

Next up? Check ‘”Texas Legislature 2009” under the Campaigns tab to get involved in next week’s action.

Patrick Meaney