Comments on: In-Kleined Toward Coal http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=959 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:31:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 By: Bodhisattva http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=959#comment-78676 Bodhisattva Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:18:22 +0000 http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=959#comment-78676 It's nice to see that, since she's not running for office and has carefully persused the demographics of LCRA's service area, Rebecca Klein has dopped the Armendariz. It's so inconvenient when you're talking with those cracker coal-plant operators. It’s nice to see that, since she’s not running for office and has carefully persused the demographics of LCRA’s service area, Rebecca Klein has dopped the Armendariz. It’s so inconvenient when you’re talking with those cracker coal-plant operators.

]]> By: greg harman http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=959#comment-78668 greg harman Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:03:37 +0000 http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=959#comment-78668 i don't know if we've turned a corner or entered a wormhole in san antonio. austinites may not blush at this, but our council just help an information session about several major pushes intended to shape up our sustainability profile: everything from transit to residential building codes to power production. said one council member: “I really believe we should never build another coal plant in the City of San Antonio.” thanks for exposing Klein on coal. i just want other power progressives out there to know there is a growing clean-energy base taking root down under. i don’t know if we’ve turned a corner or entered a wormhole in san antonio. austinites may not blush at this, but our council just help an information session about several major pushes intended to shape up our sustainability profile: everything from transit to residential building codes to power production.

said one council member: “I really believe we should never build another coal plant in the City of San Antonio.”

thanks for exposing Klein on coal. i just want other power progressives out there to know there is a growing clean-energy base taking root down under.

]]> By: John Robert BEHRMAN http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=959#comment-78535 John Robert BEHRMAN Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:03:28 +0000 http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=959#comment-78535 As a partisan Democrat as well as an economist interested in this from a boring but important perspective, this story is so very scary: Faux-green and astro-turf are very effective when there is little in the way of principled opposition or practical alternatives buried in the unctious rhetoric -- the "checklist liberalism" -- of our new-mint Democratic Platform. Where provisions of the Environment and Energy sections do not contradict each other, they are so vague as to provide little promise of (a) "change we can believe in" or even much basis for (b) countering what Perry, Klein, and the others cited above are up to. Let's be clear about that. The GOP is protecting a legacy of Strayhorn-through-Enron-through-Perry finance-driven energy schemes based on (a) low-cost fossile fuels, (b) high-priced public power, and private application of public credit. Sadly, Democratic office-squatters in Austin have long been utterly complicit in that, up to and including setting aside principles of common carriage that were once our party's distinctive contribution to popular and progressive government. And, now, as the GOP is staring at the likelyhood of losing at least control of the Texas House, not a few of them are promoting bizarre deals that could help them retire from public service very wealthy indeed. These involve "dumping" obsolete Japanese nuclear and German coal-fired boilers in Texas that cannot be built in their home countries, where more advanced technologies are being developed and deployed. Texas Democrats could regain what was once an envious national and international reputation for leadership in energy policy by standing firm in opposition to the GOP schemes, not by wringing their hands only to negotiate settlements and set-asides with the promoters. That sort of courage is the predicate for offering exciting and practical short-term, near-term, and long-term alternatives. Those alternatives are matters of sound public finance and bold engineering, not the crazy-ass public finance and pedestrian engineering Texas politicians of both stripes are now professionally notorious for worldwide. The political opportunity in transformational alternatives stems from the fact that the public is really skeptical of flim-flam and enthusiastic about technology. As a partisan Democrat as well as an economist interested in this from a boring but important perspective, this story is so very scary: Faux-green and astro-turf are very effective when there is little in the way of principled opposition or practical alternatives buried in the unctious rhetoric — the “checklist liberalism” — of our new-mint Democratic Platform.

Where provisions of the Environment and Energy sections do not contradict each other, they are so vague as to provide little promise of (a) “change we can believe in” or even much basis for (b) countering what Perry, Klein, and the others cited above are up to.

Let’s be clear about that.

The GOP is protecting a legacy of Strayhorn-through-Enron-through-Perry finance-driven energy schemes based on (a) low-cost fossile fuels, (b) high-priced public power, and private application of public credit.

Sadly, Democratic office-squatters in Austin have long been utterly complicit in that, up to and including setting aside principles of common carriage that were once our party’s distinctive contribution to popular and progressive government.

And, now, as the GOP is staring at the likelyhood of losing at least control of the Texas House, not a few of them are promoting bizarre deals that could help them retire from public service very wealthy indeed. These involve “dumping” obsolete Japanese nuclear and German coal-fired boilers in Texas that cannot be built in their home countries, where more advanced technologies are being developed and deployed.

Texas Democrats could regain what was once an envious national and international reputation for leadership in energy policy by standing firm in opposition to the GOP schemes, not by wringing their hands only to negotiate settlements and set-asides with the promoters. That sort of courage is the predicate for offering exciting and practical short-term, near-term, and long-term alternatives.

Those alternatives are matters of sound public finance and bold engineering, not the crazy-ass public finance and pedestrian engineering Texas politicians of both stripes are now professionally notorious for worldwide.

The political opportunity in transformational alternatives stems from the fact that the public is really skeptical of flim-flam and enthusiastic about technology.

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