Say what you will Lois Kolkhorst, but if any Texas legislator could tell TCEQ what to do, she would be the one.
State Senator Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) and State Representative Stan Gerdes (R-Smithville), sent this letter (also see Giddings Times & News article below) to the TCEQ Commissioners (Texas Commission for Environmental Quality) urging them to overrule the TCEQ Executive Director's decision not to hold a meeting about the planned "slop dump" in Lincoln, Texas coming from Austin. We at LIV attended a meeting in December held in the tiny town of Lincoln (Lee County) with hundreds of people from the potentially affected rural communities. We agree with the concerns, especially about the potential contamination of the water supply impacting Lee County and many others.
Senator Kolkhorst has walked an ever-thinning political line as both a water champion and advocate for open government, and a key ally of Lt. Governor Dan Patrick. She delivered big-time for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's failed and distracting "bathroom bill" legislative sessions in 2017 that appalled most everyone except the faction of the now highly factionalized GOP that has inserted a narrow social agenda into the GOP.
We Texans of all stripes are just trying to live here, where a fundamental need -- water -- is clearly under duress. (See Ag Commissioner, Sid Miller on WFAA-TV interview).
What are the chances positive deal-making will take place on something so basic as water policy in this Legislative Session now underway through June 2? The GOP bigwigs seem far too busy in-fighting for power and spending even more than $11B on immigration already (a federal issue!) when water policy requires a massive investment, and buy-in, aka consensus building.
Meanwhile, some Texas leaders want it all: mass industrialization*, rapid in-migration population growth (other than poor folks from south of the border, of course), and perhaps the chaos required to get their way. We also know the Dems are in turmoil and dysfunction. See today's article by independent journalist, Lee Fang, “The “DNC Chair Election Suggests Democrats Have Learned Nothing.”
Common sense and caution are unlikely without a practical, peaceful, and expansionary change in our politics. This is why LIV exists and just might be our only way out of the 1 - 1 equation.
LIV is holding regular meetings and forums on Zoom. See our Events page here.
A little begging is in order. LIV needs your help to develop as the place for 6.5 million Texans who do not party identify. Please become a member of LIV today.
___________________ *Note: This Texas 2036 one-pager on AI is cautionary about the water and energy demands for data centers of which there are already 279. Their energy and water demands are extraordinary, especially in light of a rapidly changing picture for AI.
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