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Blog Post | Financial Reform

2019 Fight Over Data Privacy Rights Heating Up Already | Ed Mierzwinski

Next year, a highly-anticipated privacy and data rights battle will occur in Congress. Powerful special interests from Google to Facebook are responding to the new European General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) by seeking to quash any similar effort to protect U.S. consumers while simultaneously seeking to preempt a new California privacy law before it takes effect in 2020. Will we continue as data collector products, not their customers, or will we gain control over our own financial DNA? The state PIRGs are in this one; guess which side we're on. Today we joined 34 leading groups in issuing shared Privacy Principles.

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Blog Post | Transportation

'Electrification is the future': TexPIRG video urges Austin transit to commit to 100 percent electric buses

Electric buses are cool, new and beautiful—but are they affordable?

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Blog Post | Solid Waste

Fixing your device just got easier: Right to repair movement scores major win

Repairing your electronic device just got a little easier thanks to a seemingly unexpected source: The Library of Congress.

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News Release | TexPIRG Education Fund | Transportation

Ditching diesel isn’t just good for public health and the environment -- it’s affordable

Press Conference Today with an Electric Bus! Come get some great pictures and a ride on a fantastic electric bus. 2910 E. 5th St. Austin, TX. 78702

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Report | TexPIRG | Transportation

Paying for Electric Buses

Most of America’s school and transit buses run on diesel, a highly-polluting fuel, but there is a better option. All-electric buses are here, and they’re cleaner, healthier and save money for transit agencies, school districts and bus contractors to run in the long-term. Diesel is internationally recognized as a dangerous carcinogen, and diesel exhaust contributes to several respiratory illnesses, including asthma. Children are particularly susceptible to the negative health effects of diesel exhaust because their lungs are still developing.

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News Release | TexPIRG Education Fund | Transportation

Ditching diesel isn’t just good for public health and the environment -- it’s affordable

Press Conference Today with an Electric Bus! Come get some great pictures and a ride on a fantastic electric bus. 2910 E. 5th St. Austin, TX. 78702

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Consumer Protection

U.S. PIRG response to reports of Facebook security breach

Facebook announced today that earlier this week, "attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code that impacted “View As”, a feature that lets people see what their own profile looks like to someone else. This allowed them to steal Facebook access tokens which they could then use to take over people’s accounts."

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News Release | TexPIRG Education Fund | Food

TexPIRG Applauds College Station for Protecting Pollinators

Last month, city officials responded to TexPIRG’s request for information about the use of a class of pesticide called, “neonicotinoids”. In doing so, they found to their surprise that one of their contractors had been using the class of substance despite it being against city ordinance.

Upon learning of this information, the city promptly instructed the contractor to cease their applications of the pesticide, making College Station a bee-friendly city once again.

“Sometimes all it takes is for someone to ask,” said Bay Scoggin, TexPIRG State Director. “College Station has the right policy, they just needed to enforce it. We are very happy with them for their actions today. Hopefully, this will help stir up some buzz with the other cities that seem to be bumbling this opportunity”

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News Release | TexPIRG | Consumer Protection

TexPIRG Recommends Credit Freezes, Now Free for All By Law

A new federal law eliminates fees for getting and removing credit freezes in Texas and across the country at the three nationwide credit bureaus on September 21st. The consumer advocacy group TexPIRG recommends getting credit freezes, not the similar locks offered by the bureaus, to prevent new account identity theft.

 

In 2003, TexPIRG led the effort in the Texas legislature to pass one of the nation's first laws creating security freezes. However, the law required consumers to pay $10 per freeze per credit bureau, for a total of $30. In the 2017 Equifax data breach, Attorney General Ken Paxton says that 12 million Texans had their information stolen.

"It’s about time the credit bureaus stopped charging us for the right to control our own information. We didn’t give them permission to collect or sell our information in the first place," said Bay Scoggin, TexPIRG’s State Director

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Result | Democracy

Delivering one million petitions to President Obama on dark money

U.S. PIRG joined a broad coalition to deliver one million petitions from Americans, including U.S. PIRG members and supporters, calling on President Obama to shine a light on dark money, or secret political spending.

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Result | Consumer Protection

30 years of toy safety

For the past thirty years, our sister organization U.S. PIRG Education Fund has taken a close look at the safety of toys sold in stores. Their reports have led to more than 150 regulatory actions. In November 2015, they released our 30th annual Trouble in Toyland report.

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Result | Democracy

Giving more Americans a greater voice in our elections

In our democracy, the size of your wallet shouldn’t determine the volume of your voice. In 2015, we helped win reforms in Maine and Seattle to ensure that more Americans have a greater say in our elections. Seattle’s Initiative-122 empowers small donors with “democracy vouchers” that can be donated to local candidates and lowers the cap on contributions. In Maine, the state’s Clean Elections Act was improved by strengthening campaign finance disclosure laws and offering qualifying candidates increased public funding.

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Result | Public Health

Convincing McDonald’s and Subway to protect public health

In 2015, bolstered by the support of more than 100,000 members and supporters, we convinced both McDonald’s and Subway to take action to protect public health. In March, just two days after we delivered more than 30,000 petitions to McDonald’s headquarters, the company announced that they would stop serving chicken raised on medically-important antibiotics. And in October, after more than 100,000 called on the chain to take action, Subway announced a similar policy for all the meat they serve.

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Result | Higher Ed

Protecting students from unfair bank fees

We helped win protections for students from unfair fees associated with campus bank accounts. The new rules, released by the U.S. Department of Education, ban some of the worst and most predatory fees that students encounter from banks.

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Report | TexPIRG | Transportation

Paying for Electric Buses

Most of America’s school and transit buses run on diesel, a highly-polluting fuel, but there is a better option. All-electric buses are here, and they’re cleaner, healthier and save money for transit agencies, school districts and bus contractors to run in the long-term. Diesel is internationally recognized as a dangerous carcinogen, and diesel exhaust contributes to several respiratory illnesses, including asthma. Children are particularly susceptible to the negative health effects of diesel exhaust because their lungs are still developing.

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Report | TexPIRG Education Fund | Transportation

Highway Boondoggles 4

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Financial Reform

Debt Collectors

Report: Our latest report based on the CFPB's public Consumer Complaint database reviews the most-complained about debt collectors. Funny, a new CFPB complaint "snapshot" does not. The report comes as the CFPB's acting director threatens to make the database non-public. If the CFPB both shuts down the public database and continues to issue industry-friendly reports that don’t give out any real information, the public and marketplace harm is even greater.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Financial Reform

Shining A Light on Consumer Problems:

Our report, Shining A Light on Consumer Problems: The Case for Public Access to the CFPB’s Financial Complaints Database, details why it is important that the highly successful Consumer Financial Protection Bureau database of over one million consumer complaints remain open to the public, so consumers, researchers and others can study the financial marketplace.

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Report | TexPIRG Education Fund | Transportation

Electric Buses

More than 60 percent of the transit buses run on diesel, while just 0.2 percent of buses are all-electric. Numerous studies have shown that inhaling diesel exhaust can cause respiratory diseases and worsen existing conditions such as asthma. Diesel exhaust from buses poses a particular public health risk; buses primarily travel where there are lots of people, including in the more densely-crowded areas of cities, on the busiest roads, and near schools.

 

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Blog Post | Financial Reform

2019 Fight Over Data Privacy Rights Heating Up Already | Ed Mierzwinski

Next year, a highly-anticipated privacy and data rights battle will occur in Congress. Powerful special interests from Google to Facebook are responding to the new European General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) by seeking to quash any similar effort to protect U.S. consumers while simultaneously seeking to preempt a new California privacy law before it takes effect in 2020. Will we continue as data collector products, not their customers, or will we gain control over our own financial DNA? The state PIRGs are in this one; guess which side we're on. Today we joined 34 leading groups in issuing shared Privacy Principles.

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Transportation

'Electrification is the future': TexPIRG video urges Austin transit to commit to 100 percent electric buses

Electric buses are cool, new and beautiful—but are they affordable?

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Solid Waste

Fixing your device just got easier: Right to repair movement scores major win

Repairing your electronic device just got a little easier thanks to a seemingly unexpected source: The Library of Congress.

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Safe Energy

#EEDay2018 - States Can Lead | Abe Scarr

The cheapest, cleanest energy is the energy we don’t use in the first place. Whether you care about improving air quality, fending off the worst impacts of global warming, or simply saving money, energy efficiency and conservation are critical.

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Blog Post | Public Health

Court Rules That The EPA Must Stop Delaying Critical 'Chemical Disaster Rule'

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, the Arkema chemical plant outside of Houston, Texas, was wracked by a series of fires and explosions. Due to a court ruling, the Environmental Protection Agency can no longer delay action to prevent chemical disasters and protect first responders.

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Blog Post | Transportation

'Electrification is the future': TexPIRG video urges Austin transit to commit to 100 percent electric buses

Electric buses are cool, new and beautiful—but are they affordable?

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Solid Waste

Fixing your device just got easier: Right to repair movement scores major win

Repairing your electronic device just got a little easier thanks to a seemingly unexpected source: The Library of Congress.

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Public Health

Court Rules That The EPA Must Stop Delaying Critical 'Chemical Disaster Rule'

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, the Arkema chemical plant outside of Houston, Texas, was wracked by a series of fires and explosions. Due to a court ruling, the Environmental Protection Agency can no longer delay action to prevent chemical disasters and protect first responders.

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Consumer Protection

1 Year After Equifax Data Breach, Here's Everything You Need To Know

One year after announcing the biggest data breach in history, Equifax still hasn’t been held accountable or provided the information and tools consumers need to protect themselves. Since Equifax won’t help protect consumers, TexPIRG is stepping in.

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  • HELP SAVE LIVES BY SAVING ANTIBIOTICS
    Effective antibiotics are critical tools in live-saving procedures, from cancer treatment to caring for premature babies. Sign up to help stop the overuse of antibiotics.
    SIGN UP
  • HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?
    One year after the Equifax breach, a U.S. House committee is recommending weakening privacy standards.
    ACT NOW
  • Tell L’Oréal: Make It Toxic-Free
    Products we use on our bodies shouldn’t contain toxic ingredients that put our health at risk. Tell L’Oréal: It’s time to make toxic-free products.
    TAKE ACTION
  • JOIN THE CALL FOR CLEANER BUSES
    All-electric buses are here, and they’re cleaner, healthier and often cheaper in the long run. Tell our governor to invest in clean, all-electric buses.
    Take Action

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