Last week Austin Energy formally recommended to the city council that it begin planning for the 2012 rate case that we've known about for some time. A confluence of circumstances, including workforce issues, new transmission, rising fossil fuel costs and decreases in revenue this past year have made what will be Austin Energy's first base rate increase in 15 years (!) a real necessity. 

At this point only a few of the costs are known or even quantifiable, particularly the transmission and fossil fuel costs to the system. In looking at Austin Energy's report, the cost for new transmission to bring more wind to Texas will be less – about 0.7¢/month for the average customer in 2015. If fossil fuel prices don't increase more than they have over the past six years, the General Fund Transfer costs associated with fossil fuels might be only 0.4¢/kWh by 2015. Of course, that's assuming that Austin Energy stays smart and doesn't put too many more eggs in the fossil fuel basket. Read more »

Maybe you read the reports from the renewable energy industry like I do, but just in case you missed it: China is officially staking its flag on the Texas wind market. Fortunately it can't export the construction and installation of what will be one of the biggest wind power plants in Texas (and the U.S.), but China will be building all 240 wind turbines for this 36,000-acre project and shipping them here for installation.

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As Halloween draws near, beware of vampires – not the mythical blood suckers, but the unrelenting energy suckers draining power from your house right now. These costly creatures can add as much as 20 percent to a family’s utility bill, and that’s a pretty scary thought during these tough economic times.

Energy vampires are the appliances and electronics that continue to use our valuable electricity in standby mode even when turned off. Chargers without anything attached to them represent just some of the culprits. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that five to 10 percent of electricity used Read more »

The town of DISH, Texas (population circa 200) is located in the midst of the major natural gas drilling boom occurring in the Barnett Shale. DISH recently attracted national attention after publicizing results of air pollution measurements taken near a natural gas facility within the city.  DISH leaders hired a consultant to analyze air quality due to concerns about possible harmful effects of emissions from natural gas production on the health of its residents. Their measurements uncovered more than a dozen chemicals at levels that exceeded the Effects Screening Levels used by the Texas Commission on Environmental Read more »

A New York Times Green Inc. article yesterday – "Big Utilities Pull Back on Coal Plant Plans" – stated that many Southwest utilities were shifting away from coal-generated power and moving toward renewables and energy efficiency. Many plants that were planned are now canceled or on hold.

So my question for all Texans is, "Why would we foolishly try to build even one more conventional coal plant?"

On September 22, 2009, the Texas Public Utility Commission plans a climate change summit asking the question, "Is Waxman-Markey Good for Texas?" After review of the topics and panelists invited, Environmental Defense Fund offers without editorial comment, the following facts on those representatives speaking in the first panel, "Academic/Not for Profit/Think Tank": 

• The Heritage Foundation has received more than $57 Million from oil and chemical related foundations, including the Scaife Family Foundations, the John M. Olin Foundation and the Koch Family Foundations, as well as more than $500,000 from ExxonMobil. – SourceWatch.org, ExxonSecrets.org 
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Yesterday I sent out this open letter about a joint meeting on the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACESA) being proposed by the Public Utility Commission, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Railroad Commission's Chairmen.

Let me know what you think. See the formal version here.

Dear Chairman Smitherman, Chairman Shaw, and Chairman Carillo,

I am glad to hear about your proposed joint meeting on the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACESA) and that you are interested in hearing from all parties. I would like to add my voice to those legislators around the state such as Senators Rodney Ellis and Kirk Watson, and Representatives Rafael Anchia and Mark Strama who are asking that this joint meeting be a fair review of the facts regarding the bill and the economic impacts of climate change on Texas.  I would also like to see this joint meeting rise above the recent politically motivated press releases and op-eds by some Texas politicians, which relied on so-called "studies" that admittedly and intentionally did not analyze the job and economic benefits of the ACESA.  Read more »

It sounds like our Texas Senators have been reading forged constituent letters from the coal industry more than they've been listening to what Texas citizens are really saying. In July, Senator Cornyn claimed that Texans “are growing concerned that they will be significantly impacted by higher energy and farm input costs.”  Meanwhile, Senator Hutchison seems to think that the bill passed by the House “disproportionately attacks energy-producing states like Texas.”  Well, that's not what real Texans are thinking.

National and statewide polls tell the real story: Texans agree with the rest of the country on the need for strong federal action on climate Read more »

The United States Military is perhaps the most advanced scientific entity in the world, and can tout advances such as the internet, “smart” armor using nanotechnology and sophisticated "war game" computer simulations to develop strategic plans. 

The military has used scientific theories throughout history to ensure a strong sense of national security in a world filled with international upheaval.  They have used the theory of gravity to develop bullet trajectories and the science of aeronautics to land a man on the Moon.  So it should be some comfort to Texans that our Senators have historically deferred to the military on such issues as the preeminent experts in keeping our nation and resources secure.

All the more reason that it seems strange that Texas' Senators Hutchison and Cornyn are trying to play political football with an issue that both our public and our nation's best military minds see as a grave threat to our national security. 

We now know that the climate change and the national security threats arising from it have been a focus of National Defense University and military intelligence analysts for years.  They find that the costs of inaction will be serious, and not just in terms of direct impacts to our farmland and coastline.  Read more »

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs in an op-ed today panders to the flat earth society with another phony study supposedly about the legislation to alleviate global warming, saying that it will wreck the Texas economy. The study is phony because it uses discredited numbers from ideological groups that receive large contributions from polluting industries and their allies. Even worse, it is phony because it doesn't acknowledge any of the huge benefits cap-and-trade will bring to Texas. 

In Combs’s op-ed, she cites her agency’s “initial look at the cap-and-trade provisions” in the Waxman-Markey bill now pending in Congress and proceeds to lay out a worst-case scenario based on the most negative analyses from known opponents of a cap-and-trade program. Upon a close reading of this “initial look” (released as an official report), you’ll discover that the comptroller's office openly admits that it made NO ATTEMPT to quantify any of the benefits of cap-and-trade legislation even though every neutral study on the issue Read more »