Central Texas
Austin single-use bagsOn August 4, 2011, the Austin City Council voted unanimously to instruct city staff to draft an ordinance to address single-use bag pollution. TCE and other advocates are pushing for the inclusion of paper bags in the final ordinance and requesting the city do a study on the societal and environmental impacts of paper bags, as it did with plastic bags. Seeing as paper bags cost four times as much, take up more landfill room when not recycled and use more natural resources during manufacturing than plastic bags, the inclusion of paper bags in the ordinance would be the most comprehensive plan.
LCRA coal plant lawsuitIn March 2011, TCE filed a federal lawsuit aimed at cleaning up air pollution from the Lower Colorado River Authority's (LCRA) and the City of Austin's coal-fired power plant located between Austin and Houston. The lawsuit seeks civil penalties for thousands of Clean Air Act violations.
DFW Metroplex
Safe Natural Gas DrillingIn January 2011, TCE successfully began generating letters to the Dallas City Council urging them to delay high-volume hydraulic fracturing, hydro-fracking, permits until the city ordinance could be strengthened and to appoint a task force to make recommendations on how to strengthen the ordinance. In June 2011, a task force was created and is slated to make recommendations to the council following the second of two public hearings at the end of October. Now TCE is making sure we hold the task force accountable to making the best recommendations for the people of Dallas—not the industry.
Greater Houston
Improving Local RecyclingTCE advocates for a much more expansive approach to recycling that would extend services to everyone including multi-family units. Austin and San Antonio have recently enacted ordinances to include apartments in their recycling programs, and Houston should do the same.
Central Texas
