Weekend Roundup - Coal Plants Reconsidered?

There's a deal being hashed out for some private firms to buy TXU, the current bad guys on the Texas environmental scene who would really, really like to build eleven coal plants and do it fast. If the $45 billion buyout happens, the new private equity firms that would take over TXU would do away with plans for eight of those eleven plants and undertake some serious environmental policy revision.

Governor Perry joined many in the state legislature who have been busting caps lately by signing legislation that circumvents the state spending limits. My guess is that this is going to create more budgetary problems for health care and education, although depending on which side you're on, you might replace "problems" with "opportunities to cut welfare-enabled funds for." We'll see.

The Dallas Morning News has some coverage of the Obama event in Austin on Friday. We political professionals would describe what he did as "tearing it up old school." The crowd he drew was enormous — over 20,000 people by final count. Now all he has to do to win is maintain that level of excitement for another ten months. And raise more money than Clinton.

With more on Presidential politics, I give you this: the Christian right is doing some wailing and gnashing of teeth in its search for desirable "values" candidates. Every potential or declared candidate they like seems to have some problems. Senator Sam Brownback, for instance, is unelectable. Governor Mike Huckabee is too nice. What's a social movement to do?

State auditors have done some studying on the Trans-Texas Corridor, and they determined that the total cost of the project to taxpayers may not be a knowable quantity with the current deal structure. They view that as a problem. The closer this project gets to actually beginning, the more reports like this you'll see.