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Background to Austin’s Energy Plan

In February 2011, Austin City Council unanimously adopted the Austin Energy Resource Generation and Climate Protection Plan.  The Plan is the result of several years of studies, task force investigations, public meetings and much community discussion. It commits Austin Energy to:

·         Obtain at least 35 percent of its electricity from all renewable resources by 2020;

·         Adopt a specific 200-megawatt goal for solar resources by 2020;

·         Reduce overall energy demand by a cumulative total of 800 megawatts by 2020:

·         Reduce reliance on dirty Fayette coal power by 30% less by 2020;

·         Conduct three important studies:

a.   Is it economical to raise Austin’s energy efficiency goal to 1,000 megawatts by 2020?

b.   What’s the potential goal for onsite renewable power resources?

c.   Could we end our dependence on the Fayette coal plant by 2020?  Or sooner?;

·         Review its plan within two years.

Sierra Club is concerned that Austin Energy has not made sufficient progress in planningto execute the agreed-upon studies.  We want to make sure that by next spring, Austin Energy meets its commitment to chart the course for implementing energy efficiency and onsite, rooftop solar power, while also planning to phase out the Fayette Coal Plant.

You can take steps to support our Mayor, Austin City Council, and Austin Energy to act on the climate protection commitments agreed to in the Plan. Austin's coal plant is only going to become more expensive to operate as it ages. New, common-sense safeguards to protect publich health will require investments to update the Fayette Coal Plant and reduce its polluting emissions. This technology is expensive, and while we need these common-sense safeguards, spending money to clean up an aging plant prevents us from spending omoney on long-term solutions, like energy efficiency programs and renewables. 

The Trouble with Coal Plants 

The City of Austin's Fayette Coal Plant, jointly owned by the LCRA, uses more than 5 billion gallons of water a year.  We can't afford to use our precious water resources to burn coal during this exceptional drought, the worst in Texas' recorded history.  Clean energy uses far less water to produce electricity than coal.
 

To operate the Fayette Coal Plant, LCRA and City of Austin are importing and burning 218 railcars of coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin each day and allowing emissions dangerous pollutants into the air.