In addition to a night of wrestling action, a special press conference will be held earlier in the day that will unveil a big announcement concerning WWE wrestling in the Bayou City. (Look for more on that to be posted tomorrow.)

Ticket prices range from $20 to $70
# Toyota Center Box Office
# Via Phone: 866-4HOUTIX (866-446-8849)
# TDD: 1-877-820-0008

Renewable energy production (from sources such as wind, solar, hydro, biomass, and geothermal) is coming on strong and mainstream for both utilities and smaller applications such as homes, neighborhoods, farms and ranches. Traditional power generation (from sources such as coal, gas, and nuclear) will be an important component for our baseline energy production for many years, but forward-thinking states are adopting (or increasing) Renewable Portfolio Standards (requirements to achieve specified amounts or percentages of power from renewable sources by particular dates).

Texas is host to the annual WINDPOWER 2008 conference this week. Everything in Texas is big and this conference is no exception with over 10,000 attendees and over 750 exhibitors. As we seek to transform Texas into the new energy capital of the world, it takes a number of different constituencies coming together to transition from the traditional ways we have been creating and delivering power.

Ohio’s Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher came to the conference to talk about the lessons they learned in passing their recent Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard, and the challenges and opportunities they face in implementing the legislation through their Public Utilities Commission.

To build consensus across multiple groups for this initiative, Fisher said the state leaders “built a very powerful coalition made up of those in the environmental and renewable energy sectors, the manufacturing sector, and small business, as well as labor.” He said that “developing the broad based coalition at the outset ” and “keeping the coalition together by regular communication” was a key component to getting the legislation passed. He also noted there was bipartisan support in the legislature, and it “couldn’t have been done without a bipartisan consensus.” One of the challenges they now face is to track and make sure the “benchmarks have teeth and are enforced.”

These initiatives bring more jobs, too. Fisher noted their “manufacturing and agricultural base, combined with their strategic location and well-built infrastructure” gives them “home court advantage when it comes to growing and attracting a renewable energy industry.”

When we bring new energy companies to Texas, it creates jobs and increases our economic diversity. At the city, county, regional, and state level, we can work together to improve our energy situation, ensuring reliable availability and affordable pricing. But, our elected leaders need to hear from us, and our government bodies need to know this is important to us.

Start local, get involved, meet with your community leaders, and start talking about how we can bring new jobs and new companies, to our region. Get to know your legislators, find out where they stand on developing renewable energy, and encourage them to bring more supportive and actionable legislation into the light of day.

By STEVE HARVEY
Cleantegrity

The conference program includes 300 speakers and moderators, 150 poster presentations, and over 50 sessions on leading wind energy topics organized into tracks with policy, business, and technical focuses. Look for interviews and reports from the conference soon.

America’s Energy Future Symposium
featuring the top Presidential candidates
hosted by Opportunity Houston
February 28th

713-568-6361 Call in your news!!

22nd Annual Texas Home & Garden Show
February 15th through 17th

713-568-6361 Call in your news!!

photo courtesy of HoldThatTiger

Tonight the Art Dept. at University of Houston is having their student show opening at the Blaffer Gallery. The opening is from 7 to 9 in the Fine Arts building on the UH central campus (Entrance 16 off of Cullen, near Cullen & Elgin).

In addition to the works shown in the gallery proper, tonight all four floors of the building will be opened up for touring the studios of the various disciplines and media within the department.

From the Blaffer’s website:

The 2007 School of Art Annual Student Exhibition showcases a broad variety of artistic approaches by including work by students in their first to third year. Held every year, the student exhibitions offer a mix of fresh and ripened ideas and allows for many new discoveries. It includes work from all disciplines taught at the School of Art including painting, sculpture, photography/digital media, graphic communication, interior design and jewelry.

The show in the Blaffer will run until Dec. 15th.

The October Critical Mass

Dress up, come out and ride! Critical Mass rides are self-organized, non-commercial and non-competitive, just fun. Starts at Tranquility Park on Friday the 26th at 6:30pm to ride at 7:00pm. Find out more at Critical Mass’ Myspace

Moonlight Ramble 2007

Saturday night/Sunday morning brings us the Moonlight Ramble, an all-ages annual rolling bike party through the city. Costumes, bikes, noise, people all night long. A ride with your choice of 8 or 20 miles, starting at 2am (the second one) and rolling from the GRB Convention Center downtown and path through the city.

Registration for the Moonlight Ramble is $30/person and all proceeds benefit Bike Houston. Find out more info on the flyer [pdf] and the FAQ.

So, come out and support cycling, fun and great people. And remember to dress warmly, its gonna be in the low 50’s.

Oh? You don’t know what the BP MS150 is? Well then, the MS150 is a two day bike ride from Houston to Austin to raise money to support research into the cause and treatment of Multiple Sclerosis.

So, get out there, sign up and do some good! And then start training like mad.

The Turkic Cultures and Children’s Festival 2007 will be taking place on September 8th and 9th at the Hermann Square from 1pm-10pm. Some of the showcases at the festivities will include Ottoman military bands, displays of glazed tiles, Islamic calligraphy, and Turkish folk dances.
Even cooler, there will be a drawing on the second day of the festival for 2 free tickets to visit Turkey!

More info can be found here.

Event Info
Name: 2nd Twitter Meet-up
Tagline: Come tell us what you’re doing, but in person.
Host: Houston Twitterites

Time and Place
Date: Saturday, August 11, 2007
Time: 12:00am – 2:00pm
Location: Freebirds @ Shephard
City/Town: Houston, TX

Oh and go ahead and sign up to get my Tweets. :)