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July 3, 2014

Environmental Headlines for the Houston Region: June 3, 2014

Featured

  1. City strikes deals with CenterPoint for LED lights, bike trails
    All 165,000 of Houston’s streetlights will be converted to more efficient LEDs over the next five years, halving electricity use and cutting air pollution in what Mayor Annise Parker said will be one of the nation’s largest such initiatives. Also on Friday, the city said it had struck a deal to open up land under power lines for the construction of hike and bike trails, the result of years of negotiations in Austin to enact necessary legislation and months of local discussions. Both the trails and streetlights announcements involved agreements with CenterPoint Energy.
    www.houstonchronicle.com
  2. Reliant hopes you’ll give up some control of the thermostat (Ryan Holeywell – Houston Chronicle, 5/27/2014)
    Reliant Energy is hoping to have more customers participate in their Degrees of Difference Program. In this program, Reliant can turn off customers’ air conditioning for around 30 minutes or less in an effort to reduce electricity consumption. Customers would then be compensated 80 cents for every kilowatt-hour of electricity they’ve avoided using, based on comparisons to their historic usage. This program is voluntary, and participants can override the adjustment at any time and turn the air back on. However, Reliant does not believe this will happen often, stating that most likely people won’t even notice when their air conditioner turns off for such a short period. The program is geared toward customers who use Nest, the Google-owned thermostat that can be controlled remotely over a wireless Internet connection.
    www.houstonchronicle.com
  3. Air Check (Houston Chronicle, 5/27/2014)
    The EPA has set limits on the amount of pollutant chemicals industrial plants can release when places are located in close proximity to residential areas.  The new limits will require a change in the industrial procedures that cause these harmul chemicals to be distributed into the air. Adrian Shelley of Air Alliance Houston was involved in the lawsuit that triggered these changes and has expressed that although he is enthusiastic about the proposed rules, he does not believe they go far enough.
    www.chron.com
  4. Four years after oil spill, $5 million BP gift to Texas unspent (Brian M. Rosenthal – Houston Chronicle, 5/29/2014)
    Nearly four years after receiving $5 million from BP to help clean the Texas coast after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Gov. Rick Perry’s office has not spent the money and only recently mentioned it to lawmakers in a budget plan. Perry’s office said it plans to soon distribute the first $1 million of the gift to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. More money has not been spent, according to officials, because Texas was affected by the spill in a minor way relative to other states and because agencies still are tallying cleanup costs. Only a few gallons of tar balls hit the Texas shore, and agencies that spent money on cleanup were reimbursed directly by BP outside of the $5 million, company spokesman Jason Ryan said. For Martinez Fischer, the episode raises questions about the proper way to handle corporate gifts in a state where financial decisions generally are handled by lawmakers.
    www.houstonchronicle.com

EcoNotes

  • 2 June
    • U.S. to seek 30 percent cut in power-plant carbon pollution (Valerie Volcovici and Jeff Mason – Planet Ark News)
      http://planetark.org
  • 30 May
    • Regulators Close Case on Flaming Texas Water, Researcher Says Not So Fast (Mose Buchele – StateImpact)
      http://stateimpact.npr.org
    • Aquifer storage and recovery initiative aims to increase expertise, research (Danielle Kalisek – Conservation Matters)
      http://twri.tamu.edu
  • 29 May
    • Four years after oil spill, $5 million BP gift to Texas unspent (Brian M. Rosenthal – Houston Chronicle)
      www.houstonchronicle.com
    • A Closer Look at How Ryan Sitton Became the GOP Nominee for Railroad Commission (Mose Buchele – StateImpact)
      http://stateimpact.npr.org
    • Exclusive: Deadly pig virus re-infects U.S. farm, fuels supply fears (Tom Polansek -Planet Ark News)
      http://planetark.org
    • U.S. industry gears up to fight Obama’s climate rules (Roberta Rampton – Planet Ark News)
      http://planetark.org
    • BP asks U.S. Supreme Court justice to block Gulf spill payments (Lawrence Hurley – Planet Ark News)
      http://planetark.org
  • 28 May
    • Months Behind Schedule, New Water Well Finally Arriving For Spicewood Beach (Shawna Reding – StateImpact)
      http://stateimpact.npr.org
    • Oil giant says its profits are assured, despite climate warnings (Paul Brown – Texas Climate News)
      http://texasclimatenews.org
  • 27 May
  • 26 May
    • Expert sees opportunity for Texas with climate rules (Matthew Tresaugue – Houston Chronicle)
      www.houstonchronicle.com
    • Wind giant Texas stands tall as emissions rule change looms (Jennifer A. Dlouhy – Houston Chronicle)
      www.houstonchronicle.com
    • Silencing Those Who Would Scrutinize Disposal of Drilling Wastewater (Dave Fehling – StateImpact)
      http://stateimpact.npr.org
    • Drought Possible Culprit in Massive Fish Kill on Gulf Coast (Mose Buchele – StateImpact)
      http://stateimpact.npr.org
    • Relocation: Toxic Pollution Closes Down Towns, Disrupts Lives (Vicki Wolf -CLEAN)
      www.cleanhouston.org
    • New EPA Rule Could Mean Big Reductions in Petroleum Refinery Emissions  (Vicki Wolf – CLEAN)
      www.cleanhouston.org
  • 25 May
  • 23 May
    • Giant seaweed threatens to choke out Galveston’s beaches for Memorial Day, but officials insist it’s a friend (Elizabeth Rhodes – Culture Map Houston)
      http://houston.culturemap.com
    • Houston companies join fracking fray in Colorado (Ryan Holeywell – Houston Chronicle)
      www.houstonchronicle.com
    • County, TxDOT still divided on U.S. 290 toll lanes (Dug Begley – Houston Chronicle)
      http://blog.chron.com
  • 22 May
    • Two proposals identified for Cypress Creek flood control (Shawn Arrajj – Community Impact Newspaper)
      http://impactnews.com
  • 21 May
  • 16 May
    • Texas renewable energy production up 12 percent (Ryan Holeywell – Fuel Fix)
      http://fuelfix.com
  • 15 May
    • West Texas A&M analysis: Panhandle became warmer, drier from 1895-2013 (Texas Climate News)
      http://texasclimatenews.org

    • Deal Sets Plan for Texas’ Largest Single Solar Facility (Jim Malewitz – The Texas Tribune)
      www.texastribune.org

  • 11 May
  • 8 May
    • “National Climate Change Viewer” Enables Focus on Future Climate-Driven Changes for U.S. Watersheds at Local Levels (DOI News)
      www.doi.gov