Bi-Annual Sierra Club Legislative Self-Defense Class

Texas environmentalists are a hardy lot. They have to be given the state's political leadership over the last two decades. Being from Texas, we know what lost causes look like, and how to most gloriously lose them. Being environmentalists, we understand that you have to wade through a lot of biowaste to get any energy produced.

In fact, what's really remarkable about the last 20 years is not how many times environmentalists have been defeated in Texas, but how much they've won through opportunistic skirmishes and battles. We could be much worse off than we are if it hadn't been for citizens fighting back against the very worst ideas and planting seeds of change that have grown and taken root enough to hold when floods of foolishness threaten them.

And of course, there's hardly any bigger flood of foolishness in Texas these days than the convening every two years of the Texas Legislature.

Schools are falling apart, medical care coverage is sketchy, and we'll all be paying toll fees to match our cable bill soon, but never fear, the Legislature will find a way to take a perfectly sensible idea like "sustainable energy" or "environmental health" and make it an object of scorn and ridicule for 120 days.

That's why it's important to be prepared and arm yourself with knowledge about the Lege in advance of its next get together this coming January through May. For a very long time now, the most inexpensive and painless way to do that has been to attend the Sierra Club's bi-annual one-day legislative workshop in Austin. This year it's on Saturday, November 10th – just days after the election.

For only $25 bucks ($5 for students) – and that includes lunch – you can learn all you wanted to know but were afraid to ask about how Texas legislative sausage will get made in 2013. This year, both the Public Utility Commission and Railroad Commission are up for Sunset Review. That means their organizational charters and missions are being looked over from scratch, and all kinds of opportunities for mischief and good stuff present themselves. For people in the Barnett and Eagle Shale plays, the RRC process could make their lives a little better or much, much worse. Same is true for the PUC, which is now backsliding on renewable energy goals.

Even if you don't think you have a dog in this next year's fight, you can always count on some industry-friendly lawmaker throwing a grenade that many of us will have to fall on or disarm to prevent something more dreadful than what we have from happening. Be parepared and be effective. It's only a tank of gas and $25. Register here