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Bottom line drives Georgetown’s switch to solar, wind power

In Georgetown’s four-year-long process to become the largest U.S. city to purchase all of its energy needs from renewable sources, Mayor Dale Ross said the city had two major goals in mind: eliminate price volatility and seek minimal regulation.

“This is a long-term pocketbook issue,” Ross said. “It’s a win for economics and a win for the environment.”

The city’s shift to renewables is primarily focused on financial benefits. But the change has brought national and international attention to Georgetown at the same time that Texas, which is heavily fueled and funded by its oil and gas industries, is now the fifth leading state in renewable energy growth since 2008, according to a July report from the Environment Texas Research & Policy Center. The report ranks Texas first in wind and fifth in solar electricity growth between 2008-17.

“It shows that if you incentivize clean energy, the community values that and chooses that,” said Bay Scoggin, energy associate for the Environment Texas Research & Policy Center.

Media Hit | Transportation

VW settlement plan falls short of Houston’s pollution share

As Texas plans to spend the $209 million awarded by the Volkswagen "Dieselgate" scandal, TexPIRG Director Bay Scoggin is quoted as being "concerned" about the plan released late last week. While the money heading towards Electric Vehicle Infrastructure is great, there is a troubling lack of details about how the money is to be spent. Bay had this to say in the Houston Chronicle article:

“The lack of clear guidelines for the competitive process … leads to problematic uncertainty on whether communities or gas corporations will benefit,”

Media Hit | Democracy

State representative facing ethics questions

In what appears to be a clear-cut ethics violations by a longtime state legislator, Bay Scoggin, TexPIRG Director highlights how there is no way for State Rep. Jim Murphy to represent his constituents as a taxpayer-funded representative and a taxpayer-funded lobbyist at the same time. 

Media Hit | Consumer Protection

Trouble in Toyland: Dangerous toys in stores

Our Director, Bay Scoggin, was on KVUE Daybreak this morning, bright and early, at 630, letting mom's and dad's know which toys to avoid this holiday season.

Media Hit | Antibiotics

Commentary: Why America’s health can’t afford any budget cuts to CDC

Why are President Trump’s proposed cuts to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention such a bad idea? One big reason is that they are on the forefront of what Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC director, rightly called “one of our most serious health threats” — killer antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

A 2013 CDC report found that antibiotic-resistant bacteria, aka “superbugs,” infect millions of Americans per year and kill at least 23,000 of us annually. Four years later, experts say those numbers have likely grown.

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