Great news! HB 821, Representative Leibowitz’s bill that would expand the 2007 computer takeback recycling law to include televisions, is scheduled to be on the House floor today. Please call your representative today to voice your strong support for this bill. With the digital switch on June 12th, establishing a producer takeback program for television recycling is more important than ever.

HB 821 is the top bill on ACT’s 2009 Electronic Waste Recycling legislative agenda. For additional information about producer TV takeback programs, please visit ACT member organization Texas Campaign for the Environment.

Thanks for all you do to make Texas a cleaner, healthier place to live.

Great news! Senator Watson’s SB 541 has been placed on the Senate intent calendar and will soon be on the Senate floor. This bill would establish a 3,000 MW renewable portfolio standard for the state – a commitment to solar and other renewable energy very much like the one made to wind in 1999. This bill would pave the way for Texas to become the national leader in solar generation. (Today, Texas is ranked 9th in solar power generation, hard as that may be to believe.)

Please call your senator today and ask him or her to support SB 541.

SB 541 is one of the two essential renewable energy bills ACT supports this session. (The other bill, Senator Fraser’s SB 545, has been passed by the Senate and is now in the House Committee on Energy Resources.) Passing both bills is essential to making Texas the national leader in solar. SB 541 would establish solar and other renewable energy on a utility scale, as was done for wind. SB 545 would establish a statewide goal for distributed generation such as rooftop solar – the essential component to making Texas the leader in the booming solar manufacturing industry.

How important is adopting an RPS for solar to jumpstarting the solar industry in Texas? Even Luke Bellsnyder, executive director of Texas Association of Manufacturers, acknowledges as much, despite his association’s opposition to these two bills. Here’s what he said to The New York Times on Monday:

solar advocates “tell us constantly that panel manufacturer X or Y was looking to Texas, but decided to go to other states because they have a better R.P.S. or better incentives for production.” (R.P.S. refers to “renewable portfolio standard,” which is a target for renewable energy production.) “I want solar manufacturers to come to Texas,” Mr. Bellsnyder added. “If we’re going to expand and have solar on the grid, as I think we can acknowledge, then let’s make sure they’re coming here.”

Please call you senator today in support of HB 541. Let’s do for solar what we did for wind – and make Texas the energy leader of the 21st century.