Austin green energy goals due checkup
City Council members apparently agree with environmental activists who say Austin Energy’s recent green-energy successes have made an even more aggressive investment strategy possible.
On Thursday, the council ordered Austin Energy to convene a committee of local experts empowered to shape the cityowned power company’s goals — a step that, four years ago, led to the council doubling down on Austin Energy’s already ambitious plan for investing in renewable sources of energy, such as wind and solar.
That plan called for Austin Energy to get 35 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Austin Energy now expects to hit that goal four years ahead of schedule, primarily be- cause the price of renewables has dropped more quickly than predicted.
In light of that, “I think the (new) task force is really going to help us look at the generation plan and see if there are goals that should updated,” said council member Kathie Tovo, who sponsored the resolution creating the new committee.
The city is investing in renewables as part of an over-arching plan to reduce Austin’s carbon emissions, which most scientists say contribute to global climate change. Mainly, the wind and solar deals are intended to reduce Austin’s use of a coal plant in Fayette County.
Austin Energy executives have cautioned that suitable renewable investments are still tricky to find and getting more aggressive may not be affordable. For instance, the utility has wrangled wind contracts that did not raise rates and are as cheap as anything on the market, including natural gas. But the utility was so aggressive because federal tax credits are expiring, meaning taxpayers in other parts of the country will no longer be subsidizing potential contracts to Austin’s benefit.
Austin Energy also plans to expand its Decker Lake gas-powered plant, partly because natural-gas prices have dropped precipitously until recently. In addition, Austin Energy is investigating whether to buy or build another gas plant, where carbon emissions should be less than half of those from a coalfired facility.
Those possibilities have irritated the activists who pushed for more aggressive renewable goals.
“Austin Energy ratepayers have made it clear that they want this process to expand our clean energy goals, phase out our over-reliance on dirty coal and fracked gas, as well as preserve our affordability targets,” Dave Cortez, the organizer of the Sierra Club’s campaign to get Austin out of coal, said Thursday.
Council members were careful to note Thursday that every decision they make will have an eye toward cost. The council has set a goal of keeping Austin Energy’s rates lower than 60 percent of Texas utilities, and Tovo emphasized that point in her resolution at the request of the Coalition for Clean, Affordable Reliable Energy, a group of school districts and large companies.
“I think we can be a green-energy supplier for our community and maintain affordability,” council member Mike Martinez said. “It is equally as important.”