Home  About  In the News  Publications  Blog  Join  Donate  > Inside UT-Austin  Roosevelt Rx briefing, Hart Senate building, September 19th 2008 News from the National Office Post-Election Center TI Launched Roosevelt LiveBlogs the Presidential Debate On Campus Midwest Regional Fall Policy Workshop Blum speaks at Vermont Campus Compact conference Coverage of the Johns Hopkins Chapter Launch > More "The greatest doer must also be a great dreamer." — Teddy Roosevelt    Texas Renewable Energy Policy Project > Roosevelt Home > UT-Austin > Energy & Environment > TREP Project Your name: Your email: Recipient's name: Recipient's email: Message: To prevent spam, please enter the first letter of the recipient's email and the first letter of the recipient's name in the box below (for example, if the name is "John Doe" and the email is "bigjohn@johndoe.com", you would enter "jb"): We are working on a project promoting a renewable energy policy for Texas. Please join this group if you are interested in this project. Thanks. 1. State Representative Mark Strama is interested in this type of a project. He mentioned this back at TRI's launch event, I believe. We need someone to step up, take a leadership role, and follow up with Representative Strama. 2. Another has stepped up and expressed interest is Kinky Friedman. They are ready to work with us as soon as we determine who is committed to the project and willing to talk about deliverable. The following text is from Trevor, who works for Kinky's campaign for governor. Any questions? Please email me. Thanks, David From Trevor: Texas needs a new revenue stream. We're in gridlock over tax structures and philosophies, and we bicker in the capital with no hope of solving anything. The one thing everyone can agree on is that new money has to come from somewhere. It's likely that the only change possible on a realistic timescale is going to come from realizing revenue gains by mandating efficiency gains. So... We are looking for a far-reaching, visionary-but-plausible renewable energy policy. The over-arching theme of this initiative is raising revenue and creating jobs through short-term expenditures that encourage industry growth and increase energy independence. A successful policy would have (at least) the following characteristics: 1. The use of procurement powers, bond issues and the Texas Enterprise Fund to spur growth of the renewable energy economic sector in rural areas as well as urban ones. 2. A program to retrofit schools and other state buildings to realize energy savings within a specified period of time after the retrofit. If possible, extend this to all state vehicles as well. 3. A program mandating that future state buildings be designed at a certain level of "green" to make them more energy efficient. 4. The provision of tax incentives for localities seeking to make energy savings programs a priority. Austin's Green Choice opt-in electricity program and Denton's bio-diesel garbage trucks are examples of two such programs. 5. Earmarking gains in state revenues from these programs for improvements to education and children's healthcare. 6. Returning Texas to its former status as a net energy exporter within a specified time frame. Group members: Christopher P Allnatt Natalie R Bates David C James Nate Johnson Michael Keay Mike V Konieczki   The Roosevelt Institution is a nonpartisan, nonprofit national think tank devoted to bringing students' policy ideas to the policy process. The opinions expressed on this site are exclusively those of its members. DC Headquarters: Roosevelt Institution / 2100 M St NW Suite 610 / Washington, DC 20037 || (202) 833-1359