Government Transparency – How Much is Right for Austin ?
What Austin Energy Needs: Cheaper, Cleaner, Sooner
Austin Energy’s final recommendations on the City’s Resource and Climate Protection Plan are a step in the right direction, but lack the resolve to reduce the burning of carbon.
That’s too bad, because Austin rarely examines its energy policy. And with the world changing so fast, this may be the last chance for Austin to catch the clean energy train before it leaves the station.
Austin Energy has some great people, starting with General Manager Roger Duncan. Their team deserves praise for ideas that recognize the need to transition to a cleaner and more cost effective future, including:
- Business Model reform
- More energy efficiency
- More solar and wind
Yet, given Austin’s Climate Protection Plan, and the City’s stated desire to be a leader on climate protection, it is disappointing to see a 15% increase in power plant capacity that burns fossil fuel. If Austin is serious about reducing its carbon emissions, it must eventually reduce things that burn carbon.
The biggest surprise and disappointment is the continued operation of the Fayette Coal Plant through 2020. This plant is responsible for the vast majority of Austin Energy’s harmful emissions and it has become expensive, requiring more that $180 million in 2008.
By clinging to coal and other power sources that burn carbon, Austin loses the financial bandwidth to act boldly on clean, local solar power, which offers tremendous economic dividends to places that spearhead its development. It is perplexing that Austin readily doles out nearly $400 million per year to buy imported fuels to burn in power plants, while our solar future — embodied by the Pecan Street Project — seems to boil down to keeping our fingers crossed for federal money.
It’s all a matter of priorities.
Below is a presentation given by Mike Sloan laying out his position for Austin’s Energy Future as a member of Austin’s Generation Resource Plan Task Force on Wednesday, August 26, 2009.
Why is Austin Clinging to Coal?
