I am so proud of all of you who have written and called to say that you sponsored Texas Impact's resolutions at your precinct caucuses on March 4! Hundreds of people downloaded the resolutions from our website in the 3 days before the caucuses, and we have had reports from all over the state about what a great experience it's been participating in the caucuses. I was extra-tickled that the first person to report passing the resolutions was Vicki Baggett from Nacogdoches, where I was born.

Our friend the Reverend Steve Brown of Virginia Interfaith Power & Light forwarded me an op-ed by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ross Gelbspan, who is the retired editor of the Boston Globe and an international expert and voice for change on global warming and energy. Ross is a great friend to Texas and Texas Impact who has travelled down here several times to speak to religious and secular audiences on global warming challenges and solutions. His website is http://www.heatisonline.org/

Ross's op-ed is absolutely required reading for faith communities for a number of reasons, the most important of which is the context for hope Ross continues to operate in. As language about global warming from the scientific community gets scarier, we will need different ways of thinking about the future to keep us from shutting down and giving up. Ross Gelbspan's perspective is one that helps me stay grounded in hope for the long term as opposed to grasping for optimism in the short term.

Climate change may destabilize democracies

By Ross Gelbspan

This op-ed first appeared in the Lowell, Massachusett, Sun.

While senators and representatives diddle over the beginnings of authentic climate change legislation, it is depressingly clear that even our best-intentioned leaders don’t really get it.

Today's Austin American-Statesman reprinted a New York Times column by David Brooks on health care reform, which column in turn drew on an article by Jason Bordoff in Democracy. Both articles present interesting ideas that are integral to the national debate on health care reform that is just launching.

The articles are particularly useful discussion tools because they examine the broader idea of social contracts, rather than dwelling on details of the current American health insurance system. Both articles discuss a recently introduced health care reform model proposed by Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation. Butler's proposal is likely to receive significant attention in the health care reform debate.

Before the congressional August recess, both the US House and the US Senate passed versions of legislation reauthorizing funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Both versions of SCHIP reauthorization include increased funding for the program, which is vital to account for inflation and population growth. The House version of the legislation includes a larger increase than the Senate version, which would allow states to cover more children.

There were two important new reports on poverty released this week. First, the US Census Bureau released its annual report Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States (pdf). And yesterday, Texas' own Center for Public Policy Priorities released The Family Budget Estimator: What It Really Takes to Get by in Texas, which analyzes living costs for a family of four in several Texas metro areas compared to the official US poverty guidelines.

The reports show that more Texans and more Americans lack health insurance, and, while the official US poverty rate dropped for the first time in five years, household incomes are still below 1999 levels.

I have to take a minute to give some much-deserved recognition to Texas Impact's interns. As a small nonprofit, Texas Impact--like our colleague organizations--relies on interns to help accomplish our work. Texas Impact's interns come from a variety of faith and educational backgrounds. I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to work with the gifted, committed young people who come into our internship program, and I'm delighted to have the chance to tell you about our two interns this summer, Aiman Janmohamed and Shelby Wardlaw. They both got submissions printed in the Austin American-Statesman this week, so I thought this would be a good time to highlight their work and provide links to their respective pieces.

From today's Earth Portal News, a really good article on religion and the environment including well-laid-out analyses of the environmental teachings of a number of world religions:

The 80th Texas Legislature should have enjoyed a relatively amicable budget process compared to the brutal battles of the past two sessions. Because there is an ample stash of cash carried over from prior years, lawmakers could be turning their attention to restoration of vitally needed programs such as children’s health, and strategic new initiatives such as the Governor’s proposal to make Texas the national leader in cancer research.
 
Instead, the state budget process is off to a frightening start for anyone who expects their elected officials to make reasoned and deliberate choices about budget priorities. In their haste to fund property tax cuts that were promised during last year’s special session on school finance, lawmakers are carving out areas of state spending and exempting them from the normal budget processes, including processes designed to ensure public participation. In adopting ad hoc rules that only apply to some parts of the budget, legislators are establishing dangerous precedents.

Legislators are up in arms because the Governor issued an order that is intended to prevent cancer. How much more up in arms should they be about an order that will generate new cancers — not to mention heart disease, asthma and brain damage?

The instant and overwhelming outcry from legislators over the Governor's "executive prescription" for anti-cancer shots is a breath of fresh air, and it's coming not a moment too soon. Lawmakers are finally waking up to the Governor's overstepping of his authority through his directives to state agencies. It's too late to prevent many of the processes set in motion through executive orders, but there is still time for lawmakers to take back control and stop the Governor's coal rush.

All year, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has been hurrying through the process of issuing permits for as many as 18 new coal-fired power plants. There is widespread acknowledgement that the proposed plants would exacerbate Texas' already-severe air pollution problems, make thousands of Texans sick, and increase Texas' global warming emissions. The plants would cost ratepayers, cost the health care system, and cost the state if Congress enacts carbon caps.

But the agency is "fast-tracking" the permitting process, reducing the time for public comment and cutting corners on important environmental and health impact analysis. And all because of an executive order from Gov. Rick Perry.

In October 2005, the Governor issued an executive order, "RP-49," directing the TCEQ to shorten the industrial facility permitting process that lawmakers approved several years ago, because of a study showing that Texas will face new electric generation demand in the future and therefore should start planning now to meet that demand. Utility companies responded to RP-49 with campaign contributions and a slew of permit applications.

Local elected officials, health professionals, business interests and residents of affected communities are protesting the proposed plants. Environmental groups have filed lawsuits to intervene in the permitting process. And Rep. Charles "Doc" Anderson, R-Waco, has filed a resolution, HCR 43, calling for the TCEQ to stand down from the fast-track process so the Legislature can weigh in and to allow time for more complete evaluation of the proposed permits.

Some opponents of the fast-track process oppose coal in general. Others simply want TCEQ to slow down. In announcing his filing of HCR 43, Rep. Anderson said the state should consider all its energy options, including all potential sources of generation, as well as energy efficiency strategies — what he called "the whole enchilada."

But it's a big enchilada plate to consider, and time is running out. The TCEQ has consolidated seven of the contested permits into one mega-permit because the proposed plants are all of similar design. State administrative law judges in Austin will hold hearings on the bundled cases for 10 days in a row starting February 21.

If the Governor's HPV order stands, parents would have the opportunity to opt their daughters out of the vaccination for a variety of reasons including religious and philosophical positions. If the new coal-fired plants are built, no Texan will be able to opt out of the air pollution they produce. No living creature will be able to sign a waiver refusing the global warming impacts.

The HPV uproar has succeeded in focusing the Legislature's attention on inappropriate executive orders; now, let's hope they get serious about saving lives and reassert their authority over the power plant permitting process.

I had a great time earlier this week visiting with more than 30 folks who turned out for "Texas Toast Events"--a new speaker series for Hill Country communities.

Tuesday's event took place on the campus of Texas Tech University in Junction. We talked about the proposed coal plants and how people can be involved in the legislative process even if they can't come to Austin. Attendees were especially interested in renewable alternatives to coal-fired generation and the economic development potential of renewables for the western half of the state.

According to Kim Paxson, the series is a nonpartisan forum for discussing a wide variety of topics of interest to Hill Country residents. Some topics will be legislative/policy oriented, while others will be more "hands-on."