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STP Outage extended – what will be the cost to Austin and San Antonio?
A couple of weeks ago an outage at South Texas (Nuclear) Project (STP) occurred when unit 2 automatically shutdown due to an ”equipment failure”. This outage triggered a reliability deployment of...
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Could Austin make another bad deal with STP
On January 25th, Juan Garza, President of Advanced Technology with NRG Energy, Inc. sent a letter to Austin Energy general manager, Larry Weis. The contents of that letter are outlined below. Two...
View ArticleSolar Si, Nuclear No!
Citizens spoke at Austin City Hall to let city leaders know that purchasing more nuclear power is unacceptable. NRG, the energy company that is the major owner of South Texas (Nuclear) Project, is...
View ArticleHeat Wave Renews Call for Renewable Energy
At the height of the energy crisis last week, Public Citizen’s Texas director, Tom “Smitty” Smith, told the Austin Chronicle, “Austin Energy was one of the first cities in the United States to really...
View ArticleAustin Energy’s Proposed Rate Increases Hurt Austin’s Residential Consumers...
Consumer, low income and environmental groups say the low-income and low energy use customers will bear a disproportionate share of the proposed Austin Energy rate increase and are calling on Austin...
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Austin Energy drought proofs its energy with new Webberville Solar Project
On a blustery and brilliantly sunny Texas winter day a couple hundred Central Texas citizens, that included officials and solar enthusiasts, gathered on what had been an empty 380 acre field only three...
View ArticleTonight – 6 p.m. – Defend Citizen Control of Austin Energy
While the proposed resolution to give Austin Energy governance responsibilities to an appointed board has been taken off the “consent agenda”, it’s still alive and kicking. City Council will take up...
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Message to Austin City Council: Make Fact-Based Decisions
Would you decide who manages your retirement account by closing your eyes and pointing? Probably not. Yet, Austin City Council is moving forward with a rash plan to hand over the bulk of its power to...
View ArticleAustin City Council about to give Austin’s municipal utility away to special...
Today, Thursday (April 11th) at 4 PM Austin City Council will vote on ordinance that would hand control of the city’s municipal utility, Austin Energy, to an unelected board chosen by corporate...
View ArticleCPS Energy’s Unelected Board Announces Plan That Will Squash Small-Scale...
If you weren’t already convinced that Austin would be misguided to hand over governance and oversight of our municipal electric utility, Austin Energy, to an unelected board, CPS Energy’s unelected...
View ArticleTide Turning on Austin Energy Governance Ordinance
I was part of and witnessed an inspiring evening at Austin City Hall yesterday. Engaged citizens came together to speak passionately about the importance of maintaining democratic leadership for...
View ArticleTexas Legislature Attacking Austin Democracy
While Austin City Council continues to move forward with an ordinance to transfer governing authority of Austin Energy from our elected City Council to an unelected board, Austin democracy is being...
View ArticleDiscussion of Austin Energy Governance Ordinance at City Council Abruptly...
Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell just postponed a major agenda item (#15), regarding an un-elected board taking over Austin Energy. Numerous citizens were planning to attend the council meeting tonight to...
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Austin City Council Heard Its Citizens
UPDATE This morning, Mayor Lee Leffingwell pulled Item 29 from the consent agenda indefinately. Item 71 has been set for 7PM May 22, 2013 Our basic premise that governance by an elected body is more...
View ArticleA win for democracy at Austin City Council meeting
The democratic governance of Austin Energy has been preserved thanks to all the citizens who have turned out and did so again last night. It was a late night at City Hall yesterday. By the time many of...
View ArticleSan Onofre Nuclear Plant Closing: A harbinger of things to come for the...
Earlier today, Southern California Edison (SCE) announced that they will retire Units 2 and 3 of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), essentially closing the troubled nuclear power plant...
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Public Citizen’s Legislative Wrap-Up: Where We Made Progress & Avoided...
With the regular session behind us and energy and environmental issues not likely to find a place in the special session, it’s a good time to look at what we accomplished. Our wins came in two forms –...
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Solar a Shining Opportunity for Austin – Solar Goals and Programs Need Expanding
Business leaders, environmentalists and low income advocates are behind a push to get Austin to increase its solar energy goal to 400 megawatts by 2020 and expand solar programs to meet that goal. A...
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Austin Solar Victories
Many of you probably remember our concern when Austin Energy proposed slashing the solar budget by 42% for fiscal year 2014 – which we’re now in. But public outcry and our meetings with Austin City...
View ArticleAustin Energy Cutting Solar Credits
Is Austin Energy joining the war on solar? Bit by bit, our publicly owned, nationally renowned, supposedly green electric utility is trying to roll back programs that support customer owned solar....
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