Happy Holidays and thank you for being part of the Drive Clean Across Texas e-mail group. We hope you use this listserv as a means to ask questions, share ideas and success stories, and to learn what others are doing to clean up our air. Here is the latest news from Drive Clean Across Texas.
Drive Clean Across Texas campaign staff are available to attend trade shows, conferences, and other clean air events nearly year-round. One or two campaign staff members will attend an event with a booth, brochures, educational campaign tools, and electronic media designed to share the Drive Clean messages with fellow Texans. Campaign personnel may staff an exhibit for up to one-week in duration. Please provide a minimum 45-day notice in advance of your event.
To invite Drive Clean Across Texas to your event, please e-mail m-hoelscher@tamu.edu with the following information:
To view a graphic of the booth, see Trade Show Exhibit within the Campaign Materials section.
A new Drive Clean Across Texas activity book for K-5th graders is now available. TxDOT’s characters, Tex and Dot are joined by friends Cool Jay and Ollie Ozone to learn about air quality and how vehicles pollute the air. The book is downloadable and includes coloring pages, puzzles and games. Check our website often because this activity book is just one of many educational materials that will soon be available from the Drive Clean Team.
To complement our new Blue Skies of Texas video, a downloadable quiz consisting of 10 questions to test students after watching or during the video is available along with the answer key. The quiz may be used for extra credit and to encourage students to watch the video closely. In the future these .pdfs will also be posted on the Drive Clean high school education home page. You can watch the video online and can order a free copy by emailing m-hoelscher@tamu.edu.
The National Environmental Policy Institute reports the following benefits of eCommuting in their NEPI Telework and Environment Report.
Emissions savings from eCommuting are like snowflakes in an avalanche – while one eComuter may not seem a noticeable difference, many together have an enormous impact. Every individual can make a difference for the environment by eCommuting. Nationally, if 10% of the workforce eCommuted one day per-week, the annual pollution savings would be the weight equivalent of three capitol domes – 12,963 tons. Cities vary, but research shows that if an individual eCommutes 1.8 days per week for a year instead of their average commuting distance (in this instance, in Houston), the miles not traveled represent 44 pounds of criteria pollutants a year that don’t go into the air, per vehicle.
If you are planning on a holiday road trip, don’t forget about the car care checklist:
Preparing your car for holiday travel saves you money and time – plus you give Texas the gift of cleaner air. Happy Holidays!
For more details, listen to our Clean Air Minute airing on radio stations throughout the state.
Silver Eagle Distributors, based in Houston, TX, was recognized at a special event as a Clean Air Leader by the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) and US Rep John Culberson (R-District 7) for being the first privately owned fleet in Texas to convert to clean diesel technology.
By implementing this technology, the Silver Eagle beer distribution fleet will reduce the amount of nitrogen oxides released in the air by 8.9 tons annually.
Under the Federal Clean Air Act, the Houston-Galveston region has until 2007 to meet the health standard for ground-level ozone smog. Failure to meet this air quality criterion will result in the loss of about $1 billion in annual transportation funding, greatly restricting expansion and enhancement of infrastructure in the Houston area.
"Let me assure you that 2007 is a serious deadline and pivotal milestone for this region," said Culberson. "It's companies like Silver Eagle, utilizing federally funded programs such as the Clean Cities/Clean Vehicles initiative, that are helping Houston reach its emissions reduction goal."
Clean Cities/Clean Vehicles is an H-GAC program designed to provide money and assistance to area businesses and local governments for conversion of their fleets to more environmentally friendly vehicles. As a participant in this initiative, Silver Eagle will receive $267,750, a 75% reimbursement of the incremental cost of equipment and technology for the project. Additionally, all of its trucks will be branded with a special logo, designating them as a clean air vehicle.
The following air quality articles recently appeared in the news:
USA Today — Bigger, faster new Prius hybrid's pretty slick
Austin American Statesman — Smokers beware: Bad Air
WebMD.com — Air Pollution Hurts Heart, Causes Asthma
What has been the most successful thing you have done in your area to educate the public on air quality and their responsibility to clean air? E-mail your thoughts to drivecleanacrosstexas@listserv.tamu.edu.
Thank you for your support of Drive Clean Across Texas.
