Public Demands Clean Energy, CPS Accountability, and Green Jobs
Thursday, December 3, 2009
4:30pm
CPS Headquarters (145 Navarro St.)
As the Mayor heads to Washington for the White House Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth and as the world prepares to negotiate on climate change in Copenhagen, Southwest Workers Union and working class families converge to demand green energy investment locally that will create jobs and protect our health. CPS ratepayers will gather outside CPS headquarters this Thursday to demand real transparency and accountability from San Antonio’s public utility and offer real solutions to the economic and environmental crisis. We demand that CPS be accountable not only to the Mayor and City Council, but to community members whose utility rates for the past two years have already subsidized the financial risks of the STP expansion evidenced in CPS’s recent deception over the costs of the project.
Instead of nuclear or natural gas, Southwest Workers’ Union continues to insist that San Antonio’s energy future be a green one. A new era of clean energy, made possible by clean funding and accountable governance, must replace older reliance on carbon-intensive and fossil-fuel based sources of power generation. Nuclear energy is a false solution to the urgent imperative to cut carbon emissions, and we demand real solutions that are anti-poverty as well as anti-pollution. For instance, San Antonio’s residential sector represents the greatest potential for energy savings through efficiency, and weatherization programs available for free to anyone under 200% of the federal poverty line would not only reduce the city’s carbon footprint, but at the same time lower ratepayer bills and create local green jobs.
Our demand for green jobs is a timely one, as Mayor Castro travels this week to Washington, D.C. to discuss the Green Jobs Leadership Council and Mision Verde as a panelist at the White House Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth. As part of the Energy Action Coalition, Southwest Workers’ Union will also be sending youth leaders to D.C. this week to meet with President Obama around the issue of climate justice, and to participate in an action around stimulus funding and job creation convened by the Center for Community Change. As the City holds neighborhood meetings in each district to solicit community input on how to spend stimulus funding, we are calling simultaneously on Castro and Obama to direct federal money toward initiatives that build environmental sustainability and economic justice on the local and national levels, and for this to be reflected in a more democratic, transparent CPS committed to these goals as well.
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Labels: city council, CPS, energy justice, nuclear power, nuestra voz
Hondo Residents and Businesses Take Action Against Foul Odor
City of Hondo neglects community safety issues
March 20, 2008
4p at Silos
Hondo, Tx --The Hondo Empowerment Committee has grave concerns about the City’s handling of the public nuisance and health hazards due to Chapman grain silos on 18th Street between Avenues N & P. City officials promised that the moldy grain would be cleaned by Friday, March 21st. One week later, the nauseating odor worsens for the blocks surrounding the facility. The community and local businesses have been subjected to this unacceptable smell and potentially toxic mold for over a month.
The same owner is in the process of tearing down another silo complex on 14th Street. The HEC met with the mayor and city manager last week to bring up the concern of safety for children and families because of the lack of fencing. That same day children were seen playing in the rubble and the next day a fire erupted on the site.
Also at the meeting last week, the residents were informed by City Manager Robert Herrera that an investigator from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) had taken samples of grain from the site to determine potential negative health impacts. In a follow-up call to TCEQ, HEC learned that no samples had indeed been taken.
This pattern of misleading statements and unfulfilled promises is very disturbing and is indicative of a complete lack of concern for the citizens of Hondo that live by this facility and nearby businesses. HEC is calling on you again to immediately clean up the moldy grain, and to inform us what fines ($250-$1,000) have been assessed on the property’s owner for failing to meet last week’s deadline.
Labels: environmental justice, Hondo, nuestra voz
