Shane Johnson, on the behalf of the Sierra Club, Lone Star Chapter, requests our support that the Austin City Council adopt an updated Austin Energy Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan (Resource Plan) that establishes a clear roadmap for our utility to eliminate its existing coal and gas-burning generation by replacing it with non-polluting technologies, including local solar, batteries, energy efficiency and other fully clean and renewable solutions.
This position demands the quickest possible cessation of coal-powered electricity generation at the Fayette Power Plant with no conversion to natural-gas-powered generation.
Call to Action
You can add your voice by
(1) joining the online petition to that effect at https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Texas?actionId=AR0404857&id=7013q000002HlGoAA
(2) contacting your City Council member (or Mayor Watson if you are served by Austin Energy but live outside of the City of Austin) directly or
via the Sierra Club (on their "Jamboard" at https://jamboard.google.com/d/1SqKozz6ZnuJZq1EQsrK9mj8f7GOc01W5mUV8oO8uHE4/viewer?f=0 or directly with Shane Johnson at shane.johnson@sierraclub.org.
(3) writing letters to the editor of your favorite news papers and magazines;
(4) attending the March 18th EUC meeting (6pm at AE headquarters at Mueller) and
(5) following the Sierra Club at https://www.sierraclub.org/texas for details of future actions (including a big public, family-friendly art-build event in a few weeks).
For the past several months, Austin’s city-owned utility, Austin Energy, has been in a process of updating its Resource, Generation, and Climate Protection Plan (Resource Plan). Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter has been working throughout the process to keep the public informed and engaged to make sure Austin Energy prioritizes clean energy, community needs, and transitioning the city off of fossil fuels as soon as possible.
Background
The Electric Utility Commission (EUC), an advisory committee to the Austin City Council, formed a working group in September of last year to begin work on an update to the Austin Energy Resource Plan to 2030. The EUC Working Group released their recommendations, (here: https://austineucresourceplanningwgorg.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/2024-02-01-ae-resource-generation-and-climate-protection-plan-to-2035-with-cover-letter-from-working-group-corrected.pdf ), with a presentation, here: https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=423218 .
Austin Energy recently proposed an update that includes construction of a costly power plant that will burn methane gas. Adding fossil fuels to its portfolio is the opposite of what the members of EUC working group proposed. Shortly after that Mayor Watson in his newsletter (here: https://mailchi.mp/a08ae87047c6/watson-wire-a-better-focus-on-fayette?e=8f963ea840 ) reacted to the Austin Energy proposal with a call to freeze the discussions Resource Plan discussion and start the evaluations of the options from the beginning. This proposal would discard the recommendations of the EUC Working Group and delay their implementation at least two additional years.
The Sierra Club is championing the position that the Austin City Council adopt an updated Austin Energy Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan (Resource Plan) that establishes a clear roadmap for our utility to eliminate its existing coal and gas-burning generation by replacing it with non-polluting technologies, including local solar, batteries, energy efficiency and other fully clean and renewable solutions.
Additional information is available at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vQXKlO5sGzxnDr3jYxpcSuzQg6rm8YCF2FFNlz4QX8A/edit#slide=id.g26367baa687_0_2319 and https://www.sierraclub.org/texas/blog/2024/02/city-working-group-releases-austin-energy-zero-carbon-resource-plan-decision.