According to Lone Star Gridiron, Houston’s Reliant Stadium will be home to the top two title games in all of high school football. The Class 5A Division I and Division II championship games will be played December 20th at Reliant.

Traditionally with playoff games, it was left to the teams to agree on an available venue large enough and roughly between the two cities. For large metropolitan areas such as Houston and Dallas (which are frequently playing in those championships,) it was difficult to find a good venue which offered similar travel requirements. If you split the distance between Houston and Dallas, you are in Centerville which doesn’t have a stadium near large enough to accommodate the fans from both cities. The result was often that one team had a distinct advantage because the site was much closer to their fans.

Three years ago, there was a lot of talk about rotating the title games between Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. For the last two years, the championships for 5A has remained in San Antonio because of contractual obligations. This year may be the beginning of that rotation.

The Toyota Center welcomes World Wrestling Entertainment’s SmackDown and ECW promotions Tuesday night at 6:30 PM. The shows will be taped back-to-back, one after the other, under the same roof on the same night! The visit will include the new lineup of wrestlers chosen in the draft between RAW, SmackDown and ECW Monday night in San Antonio.

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

Listen to the audio interview with Lee Fisher:

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 George R. Brown Convention center is filled to the rafters with attendees of the WINDPOWER 2008 Conference. The event, which began June 1st, and runs through June 4th, brings the leaders of the wind power industry to the energy capital of the world.

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.