Environment

Our mayor and city council... the bigger the price tag, the more they seem to like any proposal that comes to the chamber.

The Travis Monitor: Up in Smoke - Austin's BioFuel Boondoggle

Valleywag has more on T. Boone Pickens' energy scam:

Greenwashing: T. Boone Pickens proves where there's a drill, there's a way

Greenwashing — the practice of gussying up old-fashioned capitalism as newfangled Earth-saving — is an art form. I used to think local greenwashers Pacific Gas & Electric and spam-prone solar shill Steve Westly were the masters. But they look like rank amateurs compared to Oklahoma native T. Boone Pickens. The man is a case study in how to effectively cloak your greed in green. As a result, he's won plaudits, taxpayer money, and eminent domain over private property. The latest example?

Update: The Travis Monitor has more.

For such a "green" city, Austin is really behind on a lot of things. We will finally getting single stream recyling this fall.

Single-stream recycling allows you to place all of your recycables into one container rather than having to sort them out into multiple bins. In our case, we'll be getting a 90-gallon cart. For my wife and I, that's going to be really handy. We recycle pretty aggressively and I have to drive our four bins down our long, steep driveway to curb currently. Yes, Republicans do recycle.

But probably the best thing about the new program is that you can now recycle more items, including mixed paper - cereal boxes, soda/beer cartons and the like. Before we had to take that stuff downtown to Ecology Action.