Observations from the Town Hall meeting

Roger Duncan -- a true genius in energy planning and Austin Energy's excellent General Manager, said some very interesting things at a Town Hall meeting last Wednesday concerning our utility's next 10 years...







(paraphrased)

1. "Wind is the cheapest electricity available"
2. "One day all of Austin will be solar-powered by its rooftops"*
3. "It's probably not going to be difficult to get out of the coal plant"
4. "We don't need coal to keep the lights on"

he also said

5. "You can't get clean, reliable, and affordable all at once"

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Re: #5, really?

Mr. Duncan knows a lot more about this than I do. He's a world leader in this area and his service to Austin over the last several decades has done immeasurably great things for making our community what it is. Indeed, great Austinites like Roger have made it easy for enviros like me to expect more. Thank you Mr. Duncan, thank you COA & Austin Energy, and thank you Austin for getting us this far. Now I wonder -- if burning coal is causing health & environmental crises, and clean is cheaper and/or cost competitive to coal -- why can't we do more?

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Thanks, more tomorrow - Chris Searles




chris_searles's picture
Submitted by chris_searles on Mon, 09/28/2009 - 9:50am
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Why can't we do more?

Submitted by ChristaFrench on Mon, 09/28/2009 - 11:55am.

Agreed.  From what I heard, the new game plan is to generate 35% of our energy from renewable sources by 2020.  That sounds good, unless you remember that eleven years from now we'll still be getting 65% of our power from burning coal.

I also had some questions:

  • I heard something about a new building code requiring all new homes to be zero energy capable by 2015.  Is that true?  Do they have to actually BE zero energy, or just be capable of it?  Does that apply only to single family dwellings or also to apartments and condos?
  • Are we limited as a city to what providers are offering?  Maybe I misunderstood this, but it sounded like we OWN the coal plant but BUY FROM renewable energy providers.  If that's so, why?  Can we own part of renewable energy facilities as well/instead?  What are our options here?