As chairman of the City task force that planned Austin’s green power program in 1997, it was with keen interest I read two Statesman articles during the past week suggesting that Wind Power is too expensive for Austin.
The current lack of sales is simple: as you point out, GreenChoice is now priced too high. This is not due to the price of wind power — which is cost competitive — but rather because GreenChoice customers are now subsidizing fossil fuel use in Austin. Extra charges have been added into each successive GreenChoice “batch.” What started as the nation’s lowest priced green program, has become one of the most expensive.
Roger Duncan has been a force in moving Austin toward green energy. His attention is needed to get our green program back on track.
Mike Sloan, President of Virtus Energy
# this was submitted as a letter to the editor at the Austin American Statesman on July 17, 2009
