Austin Archive

At what price greener electricity?

by Anthony J. Capraro Austin is in the process of deciding which fuels it will use to generate electricity through 2020. A scenario proposed by Austin Energy (a.k.a. the Staff Recommendation) would make some green progress relative to the current generation fuel mix, but would still continue to utilize coal...
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GreenChoice

By Mike Sloan for PowerSmack.org They blinked! Austin Energy has proposed that its GreenChoice Batch 6 charge be lowered to a much more affordable price point (5.7 cents/kWh down from a current level of 8.0 to 9.5 cents/kWh). This is a positive development for electric consumers in Austin. But In reading the 7/25/09...
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Texas Electric Rates Falling, but Not in Austin

There is a common perception that municipally-owned utilities (like Austin Energy) have lower electric rates than competitive “For Profit” utilities in Texas.  While that has generally been true in the past, it is not necessarily true today in light of lower fuel costs.Austin Energy’s rates are based on the TOTAL...
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Austin Energy to Provide Many Planning Options to Council

Last week, Austin Energy announced a revised Draft Generation Plan responding to the slowed economy.  The resulting plan: continued use of all existing power plants including COAL through at least 2020, delaying additions of MORE fossil fuel generation and ELIMINATING 75 MW of renewables from the original plan. On April 30,...
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Early Voting Starts Today (April 27)

For those of you who are ready to vote, early voting is now ready for you.Of course if you still have some questions about where any candidates stand on energy issues, you should be able to fill in those gaps from the PowerSmack site, which includes summaries of nearly every...
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