Blogs

Last week, Harris County agreed to join the Gulf Coast Community and Recovery District. Harris County joins Galveston, Brazoria, Chambers, Jefferson and Orange Counties which had agreed months ago. The creation of this district means that they can launch a study of "ways to protect communities and the Houston, Galveston and Texas City ship channels from storm surge" (Galveston Daily). Importantly, it can study the feasibility and effectiveness of Bill Merrell's Ike Dike.

Big news in energy efficiency here in Texas: The TDHCA Weatherization Training Academy had its first class in the Dallas area yesterday!

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) has run the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) for years to reduce the energy burden on low income households as well as the elderly, persons with disabilities, and families with small children. However, when the ARRA increased funding for the program by almost 3000% last year, TDHCA decided to use the additional money to invest in training individuals throughout Texas to conduct weatherization, in addition to expanding the existing program. Talk about an investment in developing green jobs here in Texas!

The City of Austin is now accepting applications for Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training.

The CERT Program educates people about disaster preparedness and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. Using the training learned in the classroom and during exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an event when professional responders are not immediately available to help. CERT members also are encouraged to support emergency response agencies by taking a more active role in emergency preparedness projects in their community.

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Nearly two months after the end of the conference, there is still a lot of debate about the outcome of Copenhagen: did it pose a serious step forward or is it now an archetype of missed opportunity? The faith community worldwide has continued to voice its disappointment, and push for a comprehensive plan to ensure that we protect the Creation and assist with adaptation and mitigation in developing nations. In the United States, debate about a climate bill continues to simmer, even if it feels like it has been moved to the back burner.

Still many months away, a few private weather forecasters have started thinking ahead to the warmer months. As Paul Yeager reports, "WSI, a private forecasting company, and the Tropical Meteorology Project of Colorado State University (CSU) have both issued early season projections of more storms than last year -- and more storms than an average tropical season."

Although Hurricane Ike struck over a year ago, the recovery has not been fast enough for some. Around 20,000 cases of Hurricane Ike survivors have not been looked at. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee from Houston requested that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) extend housing and case management assistance programs for Hurricane Ike. Craig Fugate, FEMA Administrator, has yet to respond, but has visited Houston recently at the request of Representative Lee. The Houston Chronicle reports.

I was fortunate enough to go to Plano on Saturday for a Congregational Green Teams training on energy efficiency. The city is conducting a number of sustainability and resource efficiency training programs; this was the first to specifically target congregations. Needless to say, it was wonderful to see this collaboration between the city and its residents and to hear different green teams talk about what they are doing in their own congregations to be more connected to the environment and protect the Creation.

Help us launch the Texas Food Policy Roundtable on January 20th at the Texas Capitol. Like many emerging groups around the country, the Roundtable will address issues of childhood wellness, environment, hunger and community food security. The Texas Food Policy Roundtable is a broadly based group of Texas leaders who will develop, coordinate and improve the implementation of food policy to address hunger and promote equitable, sustainable, and healthy food in Texas. Please contact Rob Borowski for more infomation.  Details and location are on the attached invitation.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department CO-OP grant helps to introduce under-served populations to the services, programs, and sites of Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. This is not a land acquisition or construction grant; this is only for programs. Grants are awarded to non-profit organizations, schools, municipalities, counties, cities, and other tax-exempt groups. Minimum grant requests are $5,000 and maximum grant requests are $50,000. The application deadline is February 1st and October 1st with awards on April 15th and December 15th.