Texas Currents|Online, Summer 2009

Austin voters will be electing 5 of 7 city council members, including its next mayor, on Saturday May 9. Stakes are higher that usual this year, with unemployment continuing to rise, sales and property tax revenues down, and the city facing a host of challenges related to energy and water consumption, air quality, solid waste, urban sprawl and traffic congestion. Clean Water Action believes that Lee Leffingwell is easily the most qualified mayoral candidate to meet these challenges.

A native Austinite, Leffingwell was elected to council with our support in 2005 after serving 5 years on the city's Environmental Board. As council member, he has taken the lead on several fronts, sponsoring an ordinance to ban coal-tar sealants that pollute Barton Springs and other waterways, initiating a water conservation initiative that has already achieved significant reductions in summer water consumption, and sponsoring a resolution aimed at cutting plastic bag consumption in half by June 2009. He is committed to advancing Austin's zero waste initiative; implementing Austin's ambitious energy conservation, renewable energy and climate protection goals; continuing progress on water conservation; bringing rail transit initiatives before the voters by 2010; and including proposals for purchases of additional water quality protection land in Austin's next bond election. Leffingwell has earned the support of every endorsing environmental, labor, and neighborhood group in Austin. Clean Water Action believes that Austin needs proven, reliable leadership during these difficult economic times, and we urge our Austin members to support Lee Leffingwell for mayor this May 9. Early voting begins April 27 and concludes May 5.

In other races, Clean Water Action has endorsed Mike Martinez for Place 2, Bill Spelman for Place 5 and Sheryl Cole for Place 6. In the race for Place 1 between Chris Riley and Perla Cavazos, we are not making an endorsement; we find both candidates outstanding and believe that either would make a fine council member.

Clean Water Action carefully screens candidates before issuing endorsements, and the members of our Texas Vote Environment steering committee, which guides our endorsement process in Texas, have several decades of experience in environmental and grassroots organizing among them. Candidates are examined for their leadership abilities and experience as well as their positions on key issues. Candidates are expected to complete a detailed questionnaire, with follow-up interviews as necessary. Former State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn and current council member Brewster McCracken, two other leading candidates for mayor, have refused to respond to questionnaires for this election.

In this issue of Texas Currents|Online:

Lee Leffingwell Endorsed for Austin Mayor
Austin voters will be electing 5 of 7 city council members, including its next mayor, on Saturday May 9. Stakes are higher that usual this year, with unemployment continuing to rise, sales and property tax revenues down, and the city facing a host of challenges related to energy and water consumption, air quality, solid waste, urban sprawl and traffic congestion. Clean Water Action believes that Lee Leffingwell is easily the most qualified mayoral candidate to meet these challenges.

Reforms At One Texas Co-op As Action Turns To Other Electric Utilities
Thanks to public outcry that led to a change in top management and to the election of reform-minded board members, the scandal-plagued Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) has begun to chart a new course for its future. The PEC is the largest consumer-owned electric cooperative in the nation, with some 225,000 member households.

Texas Legislature Poised For Progress in 2009?
As the 81st session of the Texas Legislature approaches its end, Clean Water Action and our allies are cautiously optimistic that significant progress can be achieved on a host of fronts-above all related to clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency-where we have failed to make progress in the recent past. More bills promoting renewables and efficiency have been filed than ever before, and some of the better ones have already survived key committee votes. We still have anxious days ahead to see if Texas can begin to realize its tremendous potential for renewable energy production.

For California Woman, Protecting A River Can Cost You A Job
Heather Wylie traded her job for a river. And, given the choice, she'd do it again.

During the summer of 2008, Wylie joined a handful of protestors for a canoe and kayak trip down the LA River, earning the wrath of her employers and the attention of a nation. Why? At the time, Wylie was a biologist with the US Army Corps of Engineers. The agency had just declared the LA River as not navigable--a designation that put the watershed at risk and would have set a.dangerous precedent. Wylie and her compatriots were making their voyage to prove the Army Corps wrong. If their fleet could make the journey, they reasoned, then the LA River must be in-fact navigable, a critical first step in retaining Clean Water Act safeguards for the LA River system.

Restoring the Clean Water Act Must Top Congress' Agenda
Restoring the ability of the Clean Water Act to protect water resources must top Congress' water agenda. Supreme Court and agency decisions put at risk Clean Water Act protections for headwater, intermittent and ephemeral streams that supply drinking water systems that serve more than 110 million Americans. In total, 59 percent of the nation's waterways and millions of acres of wetlands are currently at risk.

What You Won't See In Those 'Clean Coal' Ads: Dirty Air, A Wall of Sludge, Poisoned Rivers
Surely you've seen the ads. They are scattered around the internet and splashed across our newspapers and magazines. Their commercials interrupt our favorite television shows and invade our local radio station's airspace. Yes, the ads are everywhere. But that doesn't make them true.

No PR campaign, no matter how well executed, can make coal clean. It's simply not possible.

Advocates for "clean" coal argue that technology exists-almost-that will allow coal-fired power plants to capture their carbon emissions and store the climate-changing gas deep under ground. Technically, this is true. Realistically, this would be extremely expensive, and wouldn't even begin to address most of the impacts felt by water. From mines to power plants, the process of wresting energy from coal is dirty and unhealthy for our waters, our communities and ourselves.

How Safe is Your Bath Tub?
Children's bubble baths should be clean, safe and fun. But No More Toxic Tub, a report published in March 2009 by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics in partnership with Clean Water Action and other organizations, found contaminants and other hazardous ingredients in numerous popular shampoos, soaps and body care products marketed to babies and children.

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