Truth Be Tolled

'Anti-toller intolerance'

Alongside his coverage of the slowly-brewing water shortage facing Texas, the San Antonio Current's Greg Harman recently added his voice of reason to the toll road debate. Perhaps, he suggests, the real issue is not whether an unpaid citizen activist is unduly influencing a public official, as raised by a recent San Antonio Express-News request for private emails between MPO Chair and Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson and Terri Hall of TURF and Truth Be Tolled, but whether or not a double-taxing,  big money-profiting toll road over the Edwards Aquifer is really in the best interest of San Antonio's long-term urban plans.

As Harman says:

"If there is a story at the MPO, it has long been about the intersection of private gain and the public good. From the cashing in of Perry cronies on the now-slumbering Trans-Texas Corridor to TXDOT and MPO skirmishes over tolling 281, pressing highway needs mean there is the scent of mad money in the air. Perhaps, the Express should listen to their readers when they suggest they should instead be shooting for MPO board members who may be overly influenced, I don’t know, by the monied interests at work and not gunning for two ideologues bridging a yawning political divide through their mutual distain for the notion of double-taxing residents for a functional roadway."

Read the rest of the article here.

Hank Gilbert to testify at tar sands pipeline hearing

Hank Gilbert of Truth Be Tolled, the Texas Democratic Party’s nominee for Agriculture Commissioner, will give public testimony on the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for the Tar Sands Keystone Pipeline, slated to cross through a number of Texas counties. The hearing is being conducted by the U.S. State Department,  Public Hearing, Ramada Hotel & Conference Center, 3310 Troup Highway, Tyler, Texas 75701 on Tuesday, May 20, 2010, 7:00 p.m. 

The Tar Sands Keystone Pipeline would potentially have the capacity to transport 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil to destinations in Port Arthur and in Harris County. The Project would consist of approximately 1,707 miles of new, 36-inch-diameter pipeline. The Sierra Club of Texas has estimated that more than 32 streams, rivers, and lakes in Eastern Texas could be endangered by potential pollution or spillage from the pipeline. Additionally, a significant amount of private and agricultural land—including land used for farming and/or livestock grazing, will be in danger of pollution in East Texas.

Originally in the Trans-Texas Corridor plan, the pipeline would run from Canada down through Texas. 

Read more  criticism about it here.

Texas Mayors petition FHA to halt Trans-Texas Corridor

In the midst of Governor Perry's photo-op turnaround in support of eminent domain reform, five Mayors of Texas towns in the path of the Trans-Texas Corridor took a stand against Rick's proposed land grab. 

The Mayors formed the Eastern Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission (ECTSRPC) and filed a petition with the Federal Highway Administration demanding that it reject the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Trans-Texas Corridor I-35 project.  

Their petition addresses a deep concern about the Blacklands Prairie, a swath of rich, vital farmland which is the heart of the region's economy.  The Mayors say that TxDOT's DEIS did not  sufficiently study the impact  of the TTC, which would cut through a significant portion of the Prairie.  In light of this and recent claims by TxDOT that the Trans-Texas Corridor in its previous incarnation is "dead," the petition is calling for a new study.  

To read a copy of the petition and the press release about the Mayors' fight, visit the Stewards of The Range website.

At the Senate hearing

Hand slapped

"I am … compelled to strongly denounce your comments to Mr. Hank Gilbert at the … meeting as completely out of line and wholly unacceptable.

Regardless of the criticism you may have received over the last few years in your duties as a commissioner and regardless of your thoughts about Mr. Gilbert or the group he represents, he is a Texas taxpayer, and it is extremely inconsiderate for you to dismiss him and the organization he represents as “idiots.” Anyone who holds the prestigious position of Texas transportation commissioner must take both the good and the bad that comes with that position and treat our fellow citrizens with respect; the same respect that he paid you in politely expressing his thoughts and opinions.

[I]ncidents like this one only underscore the problems of the past and retard future progress. They certainly do nothing to change the perception of many of my legislative colleagues that TxDOT remains arrogant and unresponsive to the people it serves…."

--Senator Glenn Hegar, District 18, in a letter to TxDOT Commissioner Ted Houghton, as reported by Paul Burka of Texas Monthly

Tar Sands Time Out

Tar Sands Time Out is the Sierra Club's page on the plan to build a pipeline through Texas to carry tar sands-extracted oil from Canada's Alberta Boreal forest. This pipeline was part of the Trans-Texas Corridor (which is now "dead," ), which was part of the NAFTA Superhighway (which "doesn't exist,") which will apparently get built in one incarnation or another.

Tar Sands oil extraction is a dirty, destructive, energy-inefficient process, which will produce a short-lived supply of oil at great expense to one of the last truly wild forests in the world.

Read a fact sheet about the environmental impacts of tar sands development here.

Sal moves on

Sal Costello, anti-toll road pioneer and a star of  Truth Be Tolled, has moved with his family to Illinois. 

We will miss him.  

Whatever side of the toll road fence you sit on, Texans owe Sal a debt of gratitude.  He and others like him have worked hard to bring the truth to light. Sometimes in that process, people get knocked around and the chips fall into broken pieces, but without truth, there is no democracy; without the guardians who are willing to question authority, we'd have a dictatorship.

Godspeed, Sal--and thank you.

Here's hoping

Thanks again to everyone who came to the premiere.  

Since then, the election has given many of us good reason to believe that things will be different, maybe even better, this time next year.  

With the global economy tanking, it's hard to imagine that risky ventures like privatized toll roads (that no one will be able to afford) and a NAFTA superhighway bringing in more cheap crap (that no one will be able to afford) would be on anyone's agenda.  But rest assured, some will still be making a case for them. 

 

If the past eight years have proven anything, it's that while the cats are away, the mice will play.  The money changers have had their way with our liberties, and while our backs have been turned, they've gotten away with murder.

That game is far from over.  So stay awake, stay involved, stay informed.  

And while you're at it, spread a little goodwill around.  This world could use some.

"I respect generosity in people, and I respect it in companies too, I don’t look at it as philanthropy; I see it as an investment in the community."

--Paul Newman, 1925 - 2008

Terri Hall on CNN