General Meeting - Texas Energy Issues

Join us at our monthly General Meeting at the Mosaic Workshop in East Austin for socializing, networking, and engagement on environmental topics of local interest. Doors open at 6:30 for light snacks and conversation. Club updates and program starts at 7pm. Shane Johnson of Lone Star Sierra Club staff will present on the status of clean energy in Texas: Many Sierrans and environmental allies are motivated to help stop or slow climate change. For the past several years, in order to help broaden the base of everyday Texans who are engaged in that critical climate justice work, the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter has prioritized campaigns that address energy burden, energy poverty, and economic justice; all issues exacerbated by the rapidly warming climate. Texans are struggling with skyrocketing energy bills, on top of rising cost of living, thanks largely to the data center boom and how Gov. Abbott and many state leaders allow energy companies to keep raising our bills to make more profit off of our backs. We are all tired of Texans having to choose between groceries, medicine, clothing for their kids, and a safe thermostat setting. But we need your help to make a difference. To help regular Texans, we need enough everyday people coming together to have the influence to combat these powerful companies and the ultra-wealthy who own many (but not all ) Texas lawmakers. Join us on Wed, July 15th to learn what major decisions on energy issues are coming up at state agencies and the legislature, like whether the people or corporations pay for majorly expensive new transmission infrastructure, and what you can do about it. Shane Johnson (he/him? is Clean Energy Organizer for the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. He is a native Austinite and has been community organizing since high school when he first joined the Austin Beyond Coal Campaign. He graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. degree in Engineering Physics and co-led several student organizations during his undergrad. Since moving back to Austin at the end of 2016, he has dived back into community advocacy at the local- and state-level as a volunteer on the policy team of the criminal justice reform and black empowerment organization Austin Justice Coalition, as a board member of Indivisible Austin, and as a new member of the city's Resource Management Commission. Shane previously worked as a Programming Manager and Programming Coordinator at Earth Day Austin, as the first Executive Assistant at Solar Austin, and as a Program Assistant at the youth empowerment organization C5 Texas. Not able to make this event but still keenly interested in the topic? Look for a recording of the presentation posted to the Austin Group's Youtube channel within a few days.