Eco-Currents

Oil spill got you down? As the ladies' magazines will tell you, the best remedy for the blues is a little volunteerism. Since authorities are asking that you not simply show up on the Gulf Coast with a dozen rolls of the quicker picker-upper, check out these sites for organized opportunities to lend a hand (or a dollar): www.nwf.org, www.oilspillvolunteers.com, and www.crcl.org. If knowledge is your weapon of choice, keep up with the Environmental Protec­tion Agency's latest updates at www.epa.gov/bpspill or join the call for a drilling moratorium at www.sierraclub.org/oilspill.

After receiving more than 2,000 comments from the public, the Texas Low Level Radio­active Waste Disposal Com­pact Commission has postponed consideration of a rule that would allow as many as 36 states to dump radioactive waste in West Texas – with no limits on the volume or level of radioactivity. With the commission still sorting through e-mails, it's not too late to join the chorus – see www.tllrwdcc.org.

The EPA has proposed regulations that could reduce mercury emissions from sources such as coal plants and solid waste incinerators by more than 50%, while limiting other carcinogenic air pollutants as well. See details at www.epa.gov/airquality/combustion. The agency will be soliciting public feedback on the proposals, so stay tuned.

We reported in March that students at UT-Austin and Texas A&M approved tuition increases establishing campus green funds for sustainability efforts. Those schools have since been joined by UT-El Paso, UT-San Antonio, and the University of North Texas. For more on the green fund movement, see www.reenergizetexas.org.

Speaking of green movements, do you want to see the Green Party on the ballot this November? Sign the online petition for ballot access at www.txgreens.org.

Suck it, Portland! For the eighth year in a row, Austin Energy's GreenChoice program has outsold every other U.S. green power program surveyed by the National Renew­able Energy Laboratory – including Portland General Electric, which came in a close second among more than 850 programs. About 480 commercial and 9,750 residential customers are currently signed up for AE's renewable energy program. Because it sells electricity using a fixed rate for fuel cost, subscribers to the first four batches are now saving money, having locked in fuel charges below the current going rate – 3.65 cents per kilowatt hour.

Look who else is gobbling up green power: Whole Foods recently rose to No. 3 on the EPA's Top 50 list of renewable power purchasers, behind Intel and Kohl's department stores (ranked Nos. 1 and 2, respectively) and ahead of the city of Houston (No. 4), the city of Dallas (10), and the EPA itself (12). The EPA keeps a separate list of "100% purchasers," by the way – on that list, Whole Foods ranks No. 2, behind Kohl's.

Green building appears to be gaining momentum in Central Texas despite uncertain economic times: Since 2008, the number of LEED-certified high-performance buildings has more than doubled, according to the Central Texas-Balcones chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. Granted, the actual numbers don't sound quite as impressive – having started out with 24 in 2008, the region now boasts a whole 62. Still, if you're saving your bottle of Champagne for the triple digits, you might not have to wait long; more than 400 projects now in the planning or construction phases are seeking certification.

The city has been promoting its Grow Green program – a campaign encouraging water-saving strategies outdoors – with 20-second spots featuring the folksy antics of animated garden bugs and one Dan-D-Lion. Now city officials are wondering whether the No. 1 weed and his cohorts, Johnny Mantis and Professor Dung, are getting the message across. Let them know by visiting www.cityofaustin.org/growgreen, where you can fill out a short survey and read about keeping your lawn green in more ways than one this summer – which should be none too soon: The Lower Colorado River Authority recently forecasted a mild drought in coming months.