 Texas cities find it can take a lot of green to be 'green'Mar 8, 2012 - Matthew Tresaugue - chron.com
An electric vehicle charges outside City Hall in Houston. The city partnered with Reliant Energy to convert ten city-owned Toyota Priuses into plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Photo: Johnny Hanson / Houston ChronicleCollege Station, the maroon-hued home of Texas A&M University, is finding it is not easy being green. Four years after launching an ambitious local effort to fight global warming, city leaders say their high hopes have fallen to hard economic realities, forcing them to abandon their green-at-all-costs approach. The College Station City Council decided last month that its green efforts should be "fiscally responsible" and create "a real and tangible return of investment to the city." The city also no longer will strive be a leader in energy efficiency and the reduction of emissions from carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. "Enthusiasm remains, but it is tempered by the current economy," said Bob Cowell, the city's planning director. 
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