Shades of Green, KOOP 91.7 FM (Conservation Voting)

This week’s Shades of Green program is all about conservation voting. With the elections just 8 days away, we give you some tips on which candidates are doing right by the environment and green jobs and why we should our vote to bring about a clean energy economy.

Our guests include:
David Weinberg, who is the Executive Director of the Texas League of Conservation
Voters, a statewide environmental organization which works to preserve and
enhance the quality of life of Texans by making conservation a top priority
with Texas elected officials, political candidates and voters. He has held the
position since the fall of 2009. Prior to his position at TLCV, David worked in
environmental advocacy and state politics in New York State. In environmental
advocacy, he held positions with Consumers Union and the New York Public
Interest Research Group. In state politics, David was Chief of Staff for New
York State Representative Linda Rosenthal. He holds a Masters of Public
Administration from Syracuse University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Politics
from Earlham College. David and his wife, Jennifer Laurin, a Criminal Law
Professor at the University of Texas Law School, live in Austin with their 2-year
old daughter Eliza.

Luke Metzger, who is the Founder and Director of Environment Texas, a statewide, citizen-funded advocate for clean air, clean water and open spaces. Mr. Metzger has played a key role in dozens of successful environmental campaigns, including winning voter approval of a $50 million bond to help protect land in the Barton Springs watershed and passage of SB20, which doubled the mandate for renewable energy in Texas. He regularly testifies before the Texas Legislature and appears frequently in the media including in the New York Times, NBC Nightly News, USA Today, and others. He is the author or co-author of several reports including Texas Natural Areas at Risk. His essay “Polluting the Brazos, Sullying the Soul of Texas” was chosen for publication in the college writing textbook, “The Longwood Guide to Writing.”

He currently serves as a Commissioner on the Austin Resource Management Commission and has previously served on the Pollution Prevention Advisory Committee of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Open Records Steering Committee of the Office of the Attorney General. He has been named one of the “Top Lobbyists for Causes” by Capitol Inside and was chosen for the inaugural class of “Next Generation Fellows” by the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at UT Austin. Prior to founding Environment Texas, Mr. Metzger worked as a consumer advocate for TexPIRG, the Texas field organizer for U.S.PIRG and a campus organizer for CALPIRG.

He studied political science and theater at the University of Southern California.