With meetings of the House and Senate State Affairs committees, House Energy Resources, House Environmental Regulation and not one but two meetings of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, the environmental agenda is in full swing in the 81st Session. This morning, Senator Lucio and Representative Gallego led a press conference highlighting legislation filed that supports investment in emerging renewable energy such as solar and geothermal. (The entire press packet is available here.) Among the benefits to investment in renewable energy? Green jobs, for one. (Stay on the lookout for green hardhats in the Capitol. You never know who’ll turn up wearing one.)

In addition to testifying in committee hearings and planning press conferences, ACT organizations are busy raising awareness about the issues they’re working on this session. Environment Texas is sponsoring a video contest to get the word out about solar power. Everyone is encouraged to watch the videos and vote for their favorite. (The prize-winning video will be used to help convince lawmakers that solar power is the path to Texas’ energy future.)

The Texas office of Environmental Defense Fund has started a new blog–Texas Energy Exchange. The latest post describes the hard-to-believe situation that a major solar company has decided to locate its first U.S. manufacturing plant in Tennessee instead of Texas. And the Lone Star Sierra Club has recently published its State Capitol Report (pdf) for March.

We’ll publish the week in review on Friday afternoon. Additionally, a list of legislation that addresses ACT recommendations will be available on the ACT website starting next week. The news feeds are updated daily and the Get Active section is being updated to provide additional information and tools that will help make Texas a cleaner and healthier place to live. With only 74 days left in the session, time’s come for everyone to get busy.

The week of March 9th was marked by three events: the 24 hour Senate floor debate on voter ID, the 6 hour joint meeting of the House Energy Resources and Environmental Regulation Committees the following day, and the bill filing deadline on Friday. Clearly, only one of these has a direct relation to the legislation supported by ACT organizations. However, all three set the stage for the coming week and underscore the challenges the environmentalists and their allies face in the 81st Session.

The Senate debate on voter ID would seem to have little-to-no relation to ACT. However, the ongoing debate on voter ID could have an impact on environmental legislation this session because it does two things: it slows work on other issues and it takes focus off the legislation that will make the difference for a cleaner, safer, healthier Texas. The Senate Committee on Natural Resources did not hear Senator Watson’s “no regrets” bill (SB 184) last Thursday because the hearing was canceled. In fact, Senate hearings were canceled on Tuesday, Wednesday, and into Thursday due to the voter ID debate. SB 184 is now scheduled to be heard Tuesday, March 17th.

The legislative process moves in fits and starts; changes in hearing dates are nothing new. However, if you look at this latest delay (and it is just the latest delay–the general consensus is that the session is currently about 10 days “behind” due to the change in speaker, new committee chairs, and the recess for the inauguration) in light of the bill filing deadline, it becomes clear that activity the 81st Session is soon to reach a sort of frenzy. The numbers are yet final, but the general consensus is that approximately 20% more bills have been filed in the 81st Session than in the 80th. The good news is that many legislators have filed excellent bills that would create meaningful change for Texas. The challenge now becomes getting these bills through a crowded and shortened committee process.

The joint meeting of the House Committees on Energy Resources and Environmental Regulation on carbon issues set the stage for much of the work that will take place on the ACT 2009 legislative recommendations. Representatives of four ACT organizations testified: Scott Anderson of Environmental Defense Fund, Tom “Smitty” Smith of Public Citizen, Cyrus Reed of Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter, and Luke Metzger of Environment Texas. Hearing testimony ranged the future of energy demand and consumption to carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) to the role of renewable energy sources in the energy mix. (A video of the complete hearing is available on the House website; select March 11th.)