Tell Austin City Council to Vote NO on purchasing polluting gas peakers for Austin Energy

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I strongly urge you to reject Austin Energy’s request to approve a contract for more gas-burning peakers. Adding fossil fuel generation to Austin Energy’s portfolio flies in the face of the City’s community-wide net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 goal and the carbon-free by 2035 goal for Austin Energy.

Adding gas-burning generators as natural gas prices are skyrocketing puts Austin Energy customers at risk for even more Austin Energy bill increases. On April 8, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis issued a report titled “The misguided stampede to build gas power plants,” which discusses the financial risks of investing in gas-burning generation. I urge you to get an independent third-party financial analysis of gas peakers before taking any action.

The Austin Energy Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan (Resource Plan) includes the following commitment about the process for considering gas peakers on page 57: “These phases will incorporate regular updates to City Council, with a report to the City Council following the feasibility phase prior to moving forward to the pre-development phase, and subsequently gathering Council feedback, and incorporating community input, prior to bringing a project forward for approval. Further, should Austin Energy seek Council approval for any peaker units, we will show any analysis performed demonstrating why a carbon-free alternative was not available and how the requested action will impact the utility’s ability to reach the goal of 100% carbon-free by 2035.”

Austin Energy recently conducted a few poorly advertised “community workshops” on site selection, but clearly none of the feedback (which was overwhelmingly negative on adding gas peakers) was incorporated into the utility’s decision making. Austin Energy is asking you to approve a contract for gas peakers forward without identifying sites. That is entirely unacceptable and violates the commitment in the Resource Plan to incorporate community input.

Carbon-free alternatives are available. Some solutions are in the process of being implemented. Austin Energy’s first significant utility-scale battery is supposed to be online at the end of the year. The Solar Standard Offer, residential solar leasing and customer-sited battery programs are just getting started in Austin. Other solutions, like the Residential Solar Standard Offer, are still waiting to be implemented. Give clean energy a chance to meet the city’s needs before rushing to approve gas peakers.

We just had the hottest March on record in Austin and our air is already more polluted than allowed by federal standards for ground-level ozone. Climate change and air pollution negatively impact public health and our infrastructure. These burdens on our community cannot be ignored. Financial analysis of gas peakers should include the monetary costs of climate change and air pollution.

Please vote NO on any gas peaker contract.

Sincerely,

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Tell Austin City Council to Vote NO on purchasing polluting gas peakers for Austin Energy

Tell Austin City Council to Vote NO on purchasing polluting gas peakers for Austin Energy

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