By Cyrus Reed (and Alex Ortiz)
This week, the Sierra Club hit the Capitol running. From providing written and oral testimony to the Senate Committee on Finance on the state’s budget, to volunteers scouring the halls passing out factsheets on our legislative solutions, to conducting briefings with legislative staff, it was a dizzying week of activities. Oh, and we made our views in print known as well with an excellent op-ed (you can read it for free by creating a free account) from Water Resources Specialist Alex Ortiz.
Expert Testimony
This week, Conservation Director Cyrus Reed (me), Water Resources Specialist Alex Ortiz, and Conservation Chair Dr. Craig Nazor all had a thing or two to tell the Senate Committee on Finance about funding for parks, regulatory agencies like the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and Texas Railroad Commission, as well as the Public Utility Commission of Texas. To see our written testimony go here.
What y’all might not know is this is an exercise in perseverance. Speaking to the Senate means literally waiting around for hours just to be given two minutes in the spotlight, but give me two minutes, and I will give you the World! See here for an example. (I’m at the 3:48 mark. I was on fire… just saying… and none of you realize it)
Volunteer Power
This week, three staff members joined eight fantastic volunteers to go door to door and hand out our amazing factsheets on issues from fixing the grid, to getting plastic pollution out of oceans, to protecting communities from oil and gas companies. Need proof that passing out paper works, including listing bills we oppose works? The next day, I got a call from two offices in which we listed we opposed specific bills and they wanted to talk. And yes, there might be ways to fix the two bills in question with some more refined language.
Our volunteers said they had a really positive experience, exploring the Capitol building as they dropped materials off at dozens of Senate and House offices. We expect to do this again, so if you’re up for joining this solid crew, sign up here!
Senate Business & Commerce Gets Busy
For the second week in a row, the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce met… and met… and met… to discuss the electric market and proposed changes to it. Back at the helm was the Chair, Sen. Charles Schwertner, who unfortunately had missed the previous committee hearing due to an arrest for allegedly driving under the influence.
There were a variety of lobbyists and moneyed interests testifying, stating how they would fix the grid. There were four basic proposals.
First was the Performance Credit Mechanism (PCM) that has been endorsed by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and is heavily supported by traditional generators like Calpine, NRG, and VIstra. Second was the Texas Chemical Council, Texas Association of Manufacturers, and Texas Oil and Gas Association with a counter-proposal: add a long-term reliability service and finance dispatchable generation like dirty gas plants with low-interest financing from the state. Third, Berkshire Hathaway was back with a proposal to build dirty gas plants for back-up emergency service. Fourth, the conservative fossil fuel-funded Texas Public Policy Foundation said we should require renewable resources to firm up their power by building or contracting for - you guessed it - dispatchable power.
What does the Sierra Club think about these proposals? While we didn’t get invited to speak, that didn’t prevent us from sharing our thoughts. We don’t think too much of them (though we actually think a long-duration reliability service makes sense), but we did turn in written comments pointing out that focusing only on supply is a mistake when we could be helping consumers save energy! See our comments here.
Op-Ed Plastic Fever
Not to be outdone, Alex Ortiz penned an important op-ed in the Corpus Christi Caller Times on the dangers of plastic pollution and how to regulate it. Sierra Club members may remember last year, more than 500 Texans urged the TCEQ to establish standards to reduce primary plastic (aka, nurdles) pollution that harms our coastal waterways, only to see the “reluctant” agency claim they did not have the authority, when, in truth, they have exclusive authority to do something about it. Well, now the Texas Legislature has a chance to spell it out for them, and that’s what we’re asking them to do. Fortunately, there appears to be a glimmer of bipartisan support for such a move, but it’ll take work, as everything does, to move it through the process. Help us increase support for action on nurdle pollution here!
What’s Next?
We expect the House Committee on Appropriations to heat up next week, as initial meetings were held and the subcommittees have been named. Leading the subcommittee for the natural resource agencies will be a good friend of the Sierra Club - Rep. Armando Walle, a Democrat from Houston. In fact, the public hearing on the PUCT budget in the House will be held next week and some other key agencies are expected the week after. Making sure both the House and Senate versions of the state’s two year budget include our priorities for water, air quality, parks, and an Office of Public Engagement at the PUCT will be a large part of our work in the coming weeks.
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