By John Sutton and Robin Rather OCT 18, 2010.
Last Wednesday, Austin Energy “unveiled” its Affordability Goal report (Affordability Matrix Reports) at a crowded, standing room only conference room on Barton Springs Road. If you weren’t able to go – we’ve got you covered with this debrief and outline of the upcoming action.
Fact is, you didn’t miss much. The report as presented features a whole lot of data. But no information. Business and community leaders present expressed some mild shock that the $90,000 consulting report prepared by RJ Beck that took months to compile appeared to contain not much more than a high school intern could have found on Google.
It featured few if any of the recommendations made by both business and environmental groups during the public input process that took place over the summer.
Most surprising: There is no “Goal.” There is not even a recommendation for a goal. The Affordability Goal is literally AWOL from its own report.
As background, the Beck report was ordered up by the City Council on April 22. Instead of unanimously passing and getting on with the new AE Generation Plan ( Resource and Climate Protection Plan ) that was two years in the making with extensive business and environmental community participation, the Council passed it contingent upon AE’s preparation of an “Affordability Goal” to accompany the renewable generation, efficiency and carbon reduction goals set out in the Plan.
So the Affordability Goal is absolutely essential for two reasons: 1) To ensure that Austin ratepayers have a gameplan that keeps electric costs low and 2) to lift the delay now preventing AE’s progress towards acquiring cheaper, cleaner energy sources.
The report was expected to be wrapped up in September but was delayed until December for reasons not explained by AE.
The report, essentially shows a snapshot of AE rates compared to certain other cities. It concludes AE rates have been competitive in the past, which we already knew. It says nothing about where AE rates are going in the near or medium term future. The Council and the community need a real affordability goal and a forward-looking information dashboard – not a snapshot — to be able to see energy and rate trend projections and have a decision support tool. While the council directive did not specify exactly what kind of deliverable it expected, community leaders have been very detailed in their expectations. And these expectations were clearly not met in this report.
The Wednesday meeting was attended by Austin Energy’s new GM Larry Weis, who appeared to more than understand the widespread dissatisfaction over the lack of substance in the report and the absence of a goal. Weis gets some real kudos for showing up in person at the unveiling and for going out of his way to assure the attendees that there would be more of a goal coming soon, saying this report was just the “background data’ for the real deal.
We feel strongly that affordable, predictable rates are as important to Austin as clean energy is. The two should go hand in hand. Whether the ratepayer is a large business like Freescale or Dell, or any of the smaller, iconic businesses that keep Austin weird, or middle class and low income families struggling in this economy, Austin energy bills should be as low as possible in meeting the economic and livability needs of the City in the near-term and over the long haul.
A group of business and environmental stakeholders, frustrated at the lack of progress by AE to set a goal over the summer met informally and is floating the idea of setting an affordability goal of a maximum per year energy bill increase (such as not to exceed 2% per year or the three-year average of the local Consumer Price Index, CPI). CCARE is recommending a target of AE shooting to stay in the bottom 40% of all Texas utilities in terms of rates.
Both are strong ideas; both will likely garner wide support among stakeholders looking for predictable, low rates along with cleaner energy. And in fact, both could be adopted together.
We feel that Austin needs a “not to exceed’ kind of goal rather than just benchmarking itself to other Texas cities which may not be as innovative as AE can and should be. But the larger point is to get AE to stop dithering around, set a Goal, and move on with its plans.
If the business and environmental community can come up with credible recommendations for a Goal, then why can’t AE?
Austin’s Electric Utility Commission takes up the matter tonight (Oct. 18) and is expected to vote on the issue on Nov. 15. It will be interesting to see if AE goes in with the same briefing or makes modifications based on the dissatisfaction of stakeholders present at the initial unveiling. You can attend the EUC meeting– 6 p.m., Monday (TONIGHT), 721 Barton Springs Road, or email the members your thoughts at:
Phillip Schmandt, Chair; pschmandt@mcginnislaw.com
Linda Shaw, Vice Chair: shawxlil@gmail.com
Gary “Bernie” Bernfeld: bernie.bernfeld@wellsfargo.com
Shudde Fath: Contact Phone: (512) 442-2718
Stephen Smaha: smaha_austin_euc@yahoo.com
Steve Taylor: steve_taylor@amat.com
Michael Webber: webber@mail.utexas.edu
Ultimately the Austin City Council and City Manager Marc Ott are responsible for setting policy on rates. You can email them here:
City Council: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council/groupemail.htm
City Manager: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/connect/email_marcott.htm
Council is expected to take the matter up November 18 and cast a final vote on December 9.
Meanwhile, we’ll keep you posted. All hat and no cattle is not how Austin Energy became a leader in its field. It is not the Austin way. We have to hold ourselves to a high standard of excellence. The Beck “report” just doesn’t meet the grade that a smart, green city like ours expects and deserves.
John Sutton
Sutton is Assistant Vice President of the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation and is the energy representative for the Building Owners and Managers Association. He served as a member of Austin’s Generation Resource Planning Task Force in 2009 and is a board member of CCARE.
Robin Rather
Rather is a longtime Austin environmentalist and CEO of Collective Strength, a research and planning firm.
