Texas Environmental News 12-15-18 compiled by West Texas Wind on valentineradio,com

Ninety-six members of the House this week wrote President Trump asking him to get his act together when it comes to climate change and stop siding with fossil fuel companies.  The lawmakers wrote, “We write to convey our grave concern that time is running out for the United States to work to reverse and mitigate the worst effects of a warming climate.” Two Texans Representatives signed the document.

Storm surge barriers may be the Texas solution to monster hurricanes according to a report called “Eye of the Storm,” commissioned by Gov Greg Abbott’s Commission to Rebuild Texas. Under the appointed supervision of pro oil & gas Democrat, Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp, the report failed to make mention of global warming or climate change in its entire 175-page length.

An export terminal for fracked methane at the mouth of the Rio Grande is one step closer to reality. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality this week decided not to hold a special hearing for Houston-based NextDecade’s project. According to the Houston Chronicle, a coalition of environmentalists, fishermen, shrimpers, neighboring cities and concerned residents had asked the commission to hold a contested case hearing to discuss health, safety and property concerns. The decision not to honor the request took the TCEQ board less than four minutes. The fast-tracking did not sit well with environmentalists. Rebekah Hinojosa with Save RGV from LNG said. “This is yet another example of the TCEQ rubber-stamping air permits for the fossil fuel industry, but it’s not a done deal.” Law suits are pending challenging the export terminal’s environmental and social impacts in the area.

The State of New York’s lawsuit against Dallas-based Exxon-Mobil for a “long-standing fraudulent scheme” remains without a docket nearly two months after the suit was filed by Attorney General Barbara Underwood. The suit alleges that ExxonMobil deceived its investors by hiding its financial exposure to laws aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Exxon-Mobil said the case was tainted, and merit-less. Bill McKibben wrote last month in the New Yorker, “It’s by no means clear whether Exxon’s deception and obfuscation are illegal. The company has long maintained that it ‘has tracked the scientific consensus on climate change, and its research on the issue has been published in publicly available peer-reviewed journals.’ The First Amendment preserves one’s right to lie, although… lying to investors, is a crime.”

In a series of pro-fossil fuel amendments including methane leakage rollbacks, a re-defining of “clean” when it comes to air and water, and revising the Endangered Species Act, the Trump Administration is now rolling back greenhouse gas emission restrictions for new coal plants. Environmental Protection Agency Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler said an Obama-era requirement that requires new coal plants adopt carbon capture technology would be nullified, thereby allowing more sulfur dioxide and other toxins to be discharged into our atmosphere. According to the Houston Chronicle, many in Washington and the power sector remain skeptical that the changes by EPA will reduce costs enough for coal plants to compete with fracked gas plants and wind farms. Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy, the fourth largest coal producer in the USA, was a top campaign contributor to President Trump and donated six-figure funds to the Rick Perry presidential candidacy in the 2012 elections.

Socialists are active in Mexico Beach, Florida. A number of socialist groups are helping the homeless after October’s Hurricane Michael, the strongest hurricane to hit land since Andrew, ripped through the town leaving it nearly leveled. “The American people are helping us,” City Manager Mario Gisbert of nearby Panama City Beach, said of the socialists. “FEMA will eventually come into the game and get the accolades in six months.” The Socialist Rifle Association, the Tallahassee Democratic Socialists and the autonomous direct-action group Mutual Aid Disaster Relief are raising money, patching roofs, distributing food, water and other necessities. Cosby Hayes of TDS told Truthout, “There’s so much predatory capitalism that moves in after a disaster. We wanted to circumvent that and bring relief directly to the people.” The Tallahassee socialists have raised over $10,000 for the effort. In Texas, the Democratic Socialists of America has over 11 chapters throughout the state and at one time in the 1920’s the party had more Socialists than Republicans. Current DSA members include Rick Trevino, a school teacher in Marfa, who lost in a run-off election to Gina Ortiz Jones for District 23 Representative, and Franklin Bynum who won the judgeship of Criminal District Court No.8 in Houston last month.

Native News

Andrea Carmen, executive director of the International Indian Treaty Council attended the COP24 climate change gathering in Poland last week establishing a seat for native peoples on the United Nations sponsored gathering. (audio clip) At the meeting the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait rejected a key scientific report that would be instrumental in global climate negotiations with the major pollution producing countries. The report suggests that a 1.5C temperature gain over pre-industrial levels is the maximum threshold that can sustain sentient life as we know it on the planet. According to the BBC the report states the planet needs "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society." Moreover, greenhouse gas levels are now projected to exceed 3 degrees C by 2100 and that “the world is now completely off track.”

Karen Savage, a reporter embedded in the feminist indigenous led L’eau Est La Vie fossil fuel resistance camp in Louisiana reported this week in Truthout that cops moonlighting as security guards for corporations may have a conflict of interest. In the article, Sheriff’s Deputies Protect Corporate Interests in Bayou Bridge Case, she writes, “The practice has activists and some police experts questioning whether St. Martin Parish sheriff’s deputies on the payroll of a private security firm contracted by Energy Transfer Partners can adequately protect the constitutional rights of individuals who oppose the project.” Other anti-fossil fuel resistance camps including Standing Rock in North Dakota, Camp White Pine in Pennsylvania and the Two Rivers Camp in Texas report similar dereliction by law enforcement agencies.

Insect News

Three recent studies on insect viability have found populations of bees, beetles, and butterflies crashing worldwide. The most recent study, published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, conducted in America’s only Tropical Rain Forest, El Yunque, in Puerto Rico, showed a 60-fold loss of insects over 40 years. Biologist Bradford Lister told the Washington Post, “Everything is dropping. The most common invertebrates in the rain forest — the moths, the butterflies, the grasshoppers, the spiders and others — are all far less abundant.” A study last year in Germany showed a 76% decrease in flying insects over the last three decades. In 2014 an international team of biologists estimated that over the last 35 years beetle and bee population worldwide has dropped 45%. According to the Post, scientists are attributing climate change as the cause for the insect crash.