CEC Newsletter May 1996

President's Message

Annual Meeting: Looking Back, Looking Ahead by George Farenthold

Despite the rain and tornado warnings, the CEC held its Annual Meeting this past Earth Day, electing five new board members and four new organizations, and renewing our commitment to continually work to make Houston a better place to live.

The new board members are: Justus Baird, a graduating senior at Rice University who has worked with CEC as an intern for the past year. Among his numerous accomplishments at Rice, Justus was responsible for putting together the enormously successful Environmental Conference this winter.

Lenwood Johnson, a resident of Allen Parkway Village and long-time community activist. Lenwood will bring a fresh and welcome perspective to the Board.

Suzanne Kersten, former host of KPFT's "Talk of the Earth" and a former CEC program director. We are happy to have Suzanne returning to the organization.

Beth Niederman, Houston Director of U.S. Public Interest Research Group, among the nation's most effective grass-roots activist organizations. Beth's insights from years of experience working at the heart of issues that affect our community will serve CEC well.

Gary Woods, a former Southwestern Bell executive and a board member of the Houston Audubon Society. Gary will be bringing his years of involvement with a host of local environmental organizations with him to CEC.

We would also like to welcome the following new organizational members: Project Row Houses Texas R.I.C.E. (Rice Industry Coalition for the Environment) Texas Citizen Action U.S. PIRG

As we set our sights on the future, the annual meeting also gives us pause to reflect on the accomplishments and assistance we've received over the past year. First, we would like to thank the following departing Board Members, whose untold hours of service and dedication played no small part in CEC's successes: Linda Brannen, Mary Dodd Dubbert, Barbara Elmore, Anna Russo Fisher, David Gresham and Jean Harris.

Other individuals and organizations who deserve special recognition for their moral, financial and/or leadership support over the past year include Terry and Jake Hershey; The Wray Todd Lead Annuity Trust; NASA, Rice University and CEC Board member Prof. Pat Reiff for their assistance with our Worldwide Web page; Texaco, especially Frank Miller and Eric Graves, for their assistance with the 1995-96 Environmental Resource Guide; Dupont, especially John Caudill and Gary Wigginton; The East Harris County Manufacturing Association; and finally John Wilson of the Houston Advanced Research Center and the Foresight Committee for the long hours and hard work it took to put together what, for my money, is one of the best documents of its kind I've ever seen. Of course, not enough can be said for Jolene Cornelius, who has served as Executive Director for nearly the past two years, steering the organization through all waters - smooth and choppy. Successes of the past year were many, as well. Thanks to Board Member Jane Elioseff and GHASP, Houston now has an ozone forecasting system. Thanks to Justus Baird and the Rice Environmental Club, the Rice Environmental Conference was the best it's ever been. The publication of the Foresight Committee report was no mean feat, and our involvement with Clean Industries 2000 has led to broad partnerships with the business community that we are all confident will fulfill their potential. Our web page was refined and our publications kept getting better, and 3,000 of our Resource Guides were distributed to HISD science teachers. The list goes on, but suffice it for now to say that, all in all, not a bad year at all for CEC.

For the environment, however, the past twelve months have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt the need for the continued vigor of CEC and all its members. We saw an assault in Congress like none in recent memory on the reasonable and sensible regulations that protect our air, water and wildlife. Despite the best efforts of the environmental community, Houston's air quality remains the second worst in the country - a shocking and literally life-threatening disgrace. And tar balls are washing up on the beaches near my hometown of Corpus Christi, making us uneasily thankful that things weren't worse. In short, the year certainly gave us many reasons to be proud, but, like most years, gave us many more reasons to go on.