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July 16, 2013

ECONOTES 2013-07-16: Environmental Headlines for the Houston Region

Featured

  1. Huffman: Nature’s canopy is vital to Houston region (Laura Huffman – Houston Chronicle, 7/13/2013)
    Laura Huffman, state director of The Nature Conservancy in Texas, shares information about the tree canopy in the Houston region. In the past several years, Houstonians have watched as millions of trees across the city, including more than 50 percent of the trees in Memorial Park, were devastated by record drought. Recently, trees removed during development projects at Woodland Park have raised important questions about the value of trees. Are they just nice to have, or do trees provide other quantifiable value?
    http://www.chron.com/
  2. Houston, a Green Leader (Mayor Annise Parker – The Friendswood Journal, 7/12/2013)
    The City of Houston continues to set the standard for other cities when it comes to being “green.” Houston is already known as the energy capital of the world, but we are committed to becoming the alternative energy capital of the world as well. We recently signed an agreement with Reliant Energy, an NRG Energy company, to purchase over 140 MW of renewable power for the next two years. During this time period, the City’s purchase of green power will account for half of its annual electricity demand. We will be using almost 623,000 mWh of green power per year. This purchase makes Houston the largest municipal purchaser of renewable power in the nation, and places us in the top 10 overall in the nation.
    http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/
  3. Galveston’s $140,000 Seaweed Project Could Protect Against Storm Damage (Miranda Wilcox – Hair Balls, 7/12/2013)
    Galveston beachgoers are familiar with the smelly, unsightly seaweed plaguing many of the coast’s shorelines and interrupting a pleasant day at the beach. Rather than get rid of this product of Mother Nature, Galveston Park Board officials plan to put the seaweed to work inside sand dunes along Galveston’s East Beach to protect against damage from storm surges and even hurricanes. According to Galveston Park Board Executive Director Kelly de Schaun, the dense, heavy material that is characteristic of seaweed would reinforce a dune and protect it from erosion.
    http://blogs.houstonpress.com/
  4. Young professionals sink and swim — in the Bayou no less — for a crazy floating competition (Joel Luks – CultureMap Houston, 6/25/13)
    The third annual “Anything That Floats” event, hosted by the Rice Design Alliance young professionals, the rdAGENTS, had to be rescheduled after bad weather rained on the buoyant parade that was originally slated for May to coincide with the Kentucky Derby. Seven teams competed at Sesquicentennial Park, many with members who donned kooky hats for the occasion. In three hours, their mission was to transform another-man’s-trash stuff into contraptions that would travel on water for the longest period of time. Audubon Engineering earned the Triple Crown Award for Best Overall Time.
    http://houston.culturemap.com/

EcoNotes