energy

Sierra Club, American Lung Association, Environment Texas, Mothers for Clean Air and other health and environmental groups in the Clean Air Texas coalition rallied their members and allies to attend the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's hearing at the Houston Hobby Hilton on Tuesday, February 2nd. The Clean Air Texas coalition held a press conference in support of clean air, healthy Texans, and a vital new air quality standard limiting ozone pollution to 60 parts per billion.

We start by looking forward to the conventions, including a discussion of the platform they provide for activism. Then onto recent local activism: a protest about inadequate wage increases at the U of Illinois, and a rally on energy policy. We spend an extended period discussing energy policy and public transit. We close by talking about the reputed agreement between the Iraqi and US governments on a timetable for withdrawal.

This week we focus almost exclusively on US energy policy.

Bob recently blogged about the topic on Huffington Post, where he framed his piece as a critique of Paris Hilton's energy policy - or rather the idea propagated in her (rather funny) video, as well as in much of the media, that off-shore drilling could 'fill the gap' until structural changes ('re-tooling Detroit') proposed by Obama come on stream. Critically, Bob cites US Energy Information Administration analysis, which CEPR summarizes thusly: