News Release | Environment Texas

President Obama Outlines Plan to Tackle Global Warming with Clean Energy

AUSTIN – Tonight, President Obama delivered his State of the Union address. Luke Metzger, Director of Environment Texas, responded with the following statement: “Tonight, President Obama backed up his bold words on addressing global warming from his inaugural address by outlining clean energy solutions that will pave the way towards a cleaner, healthier future.

News Release | Environment Texas

President Recommits to Tackling Global Warming in Inaugural Address

AUSTIN  – Earlier today, President Obama concluded his second inaugural address. Environment Texas Director Luke Metzger, made the following statement in response: “I am pleased that President Obama committed to do more to tackle global warming in his second term, building on the strong foundation his administration laid over the last four years.          

News Release | Environment Texas Research & Policy Center

Obama Admin. Finalizes Historic Clean Car Standards

AUSTIN - Today the Obama administration finalized new clean car standards that will double the fuel efficiency of today’s vehicles by 2025, drastically reducing emissions of carbon pollution and cutting oil use in Texas and nationwide. The standards will cover new cars and light trucks in model years 2017-2025, and require those vehicles to meet the equivalent of a 54.5 miles-per-gallon standard by 2025. A recent joint analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Union of Concerned Scientists projects that by 2030 in Texas alone, the standards will annually cut carbon pollution from vehicles by 28.2 million metric tons—the equivalent of the annual pollution of 4.2 million of today’s vehicles—and save 2.4 billion gallons of fuel.

Report | Environment Texas Research & Policy Center

When it Rains, It Pours

Global warming is happening now and its effects are being felt in the United States and around the world. Among the expected consequences of global warming is an increase in the heaviest rain and snow storms, fueled by increased evaporation and the ability of a warmer atmosphere to hold more moisture. An analysis of more than 80 million daily precipitation records from across the contiguous United States reveals that intense rainstorms and snowstorms have already become more frequent and more severe. Extreme downpours are now happening 30 percent more often nationwide than in 1948. In other words, large rain or snowstorms that happened once every 12 months, on average, in the middle of the 20th century now happen every nine months. Moreover, the largest annual storms now produce 10 percent more precipitation, on average. An increase in extreme downpours has costly ramifications for the United States, with the potential to cause more flooding that jeopardizes property and lives. With scientists predicting even greater increases in extreme precipitation in the years ahead, the United States and the world must take action to reduce pollution that contributes to global warming.

News Release | Environment Texas

New Report: Extreme Downpours Up 29 Percent in Texas

AUSTIN— Just weeks after historic rainfall levels led to devastating flooding in Houston, a new Environment Texas report confirms that extreme rainstorms are happening 29 percent more frequently in Texas since 1948. “As the old saying goes, when it rains, it pours—especially in recent years as bigger storms have hit Texas more often,” said Luke Metzger, Director of Environment Texas. “We need to heed scientists’ warnings that this dangerous trend is linked to global warming, and do everything we can to cut carbon pollution today.”

Headline

Forecast calls for more downpours, according to Environment Texas

Environmental group Environment Texas released an analysis Tuesday that found that heavy rainstorms are happening increasingly frequently.

The report found heavy downpours used to happen once a year on average in the state; they now happen once every 9.3 months, according to data from the National Climatic Data Center.

Report | Environment Texas

Charging Forward

America’s reliance on gasoline-powered vehicles has long contributed to air pollution, including global warming emissions, and our nation’s dependence on oil. In the past decade, however, the automobile market has begun to change, integrating new technologies that are dramatically less dependent on gasoline. Hybrid electric vehicles, powered in part by energy stored in a battery, have become increasingly popular.

News Release | Environment Texas

Texas environmental groups applaud air protection ruling

AUSTIN—Environment Texas and Public Citizen support Texas District Court Judge Gisela Triana’s ruling Monday that air is a public trust.  This ruling comes amidst recent studies that global warming is the culprit behind the record heat and drought of 2011.  In the face of these events, the environmental groups urge Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to join the effort to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and keep global warming in check.

We can change the climate (it's just a little too late for this week...)

Monday, June 25, 2012
By

Summer has officially begun—we have welcomed in Austin’s first triple digit heat wave of the year, with temperatures projected to spike as high as 106° F through the rest of the week. Don’t be surprised if coming years bring heat waves like this earlier and earlier in the summer due to climate change. Extreme heat is one of the most obvious effects of global warming and it is one that most Texans are likely all too familiar with. Average temperatures in our state are expected to increase between 4.5° and 9° F by 2080, according to a 2009 report from the United States Global Change Research Program. This hotter weather poses a threat to both human and environmental health and security. In 2011, the Texas Department of State Health Services recorded over 150 heat-related deaths in the state. As heat waves become more frequent and severe, the instances of heat stress and stroke will rise.

News Release | Environment Texas

Obama Administration to Protect Americans’ Health by Setting Carbon Pollution Standards for New Power Plants

AUSTIN—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today proposed historic new limits on carbon pollution from new power plants. Carbon pollution fuels global warming, which leads to poor air quality that triggers asthma attacks and other respiratory problems. Scientists also predict that global warming will lead to more devastating floods, more deadly heat waves and the spread of infectious diseases. Coal-fired power plants are the largest single source of carbon pollution in the U.S., yet there are currently no federal limits on this pollution from power plants. The proposed Carbon Pollution Standard will correct that for new power plants by limiting emissions to more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide pollution for each megawatt of electricity produced. Texas currently leads the nation in emissions of carbon pollution from power plants.

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