The Daily Hustle: 4/22/10 (Updated)

Laura Morrison, Mike Martinez, Lee Leffingwell, enviros George Cofer & Hill Abell, and Rep. Eddie Rodriguez (Photo courtesy Matt Curtis, City of Austin)

A busy and not-so-busy day at City Hall. Once City Council finally got through the cornerstone of today's agenda – adoption of Austin Energy's renewables-boosting Climate Protection Plan – there really wasn't too much else.

It was just getting through that one item that was the problem …

Not coincidentally, the AE climate plan – which, among other eco-concerns, boosts the amount of renewables in the utility's energy mix to 35% by 2020 – was up for adoption this Earth Day. And the tributes to our planet started early. Around 9:45am, Lee Leffingwell held a press conference on the Mayor's Balcony to celebrate Austin Earth Day, and specifically, the Give Five Back to Mother Earth campaign, where dozens and dozens of businesses promise to donate 5% of their profits to a consortium of environmental groups (and the Austin Film Festival, natch.) Flanked by several council members, State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, and local enviro luminaries, Leffingwell said boasted “we do Earth Year” in Austin. “Happy Earth Day, Earth Week, and Earth Year,” he said in closing.

(It wasn't even the busy morning's first press conference: at 9am, the city announced plans to partner with Donate Life Texas to raise organ donation awareness, prompting cracks around the hall that this was the ultimate form of recycling.)

Council convened, blazing through several smaller (Laura Morrison's tweaks to liquor license applications) and arguably bigger items (Capital Metro's repayment plan to the city), before Item 2, the AE plan. After some confusion as to which sides would speak when – with plan opponents deferring en masse to speak last – the 75 minute gab-a-thon commenced. Speakers from Public Citizen, Texas Impact, and several other groups in support of the measure sounded its benefits: flexibility, less volatility in renewables than fossil fuels, ample opportunities to re-tweak the plan, and more.

Then there was the main opposing attraction – former mayor Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who, judging her history steering Austin into a nuke plant boondoggle during the '80s, should probably be the last person anyone should take energy advice from. The Hustle tried valiantly to transcribe most her remarks urging for a public vote on the plan, but Strayhorn has a faster mouth than any carnival barker – smoke billowing from the close-captioning machine was half-expected in chambers. She slowed down long enough for the Hustle to catch her plea: “It's not what you have to do, it's what you ought to do.”

By the time all speakers had finished, it was past noon – the time certain appointment for Citizen Communications – so council didn't return to Item 2 until approximately 2pm. When they did, Leffingwell lead off with a few words: Saying it had been a “long, hard road getting here,” beginning with then-mayor Will Wynn's call for an Austin Climate Protection Plan, he disputed Strayhorn and others' assumptions that the process hadn't been open enough. (The Austinites for Action crew seems to think local radio and TV stations are clamoring for the opportunity to air a debate on AE's energy generation mix.) “This has been public process on steroids. I frankly have never seen so much public process.”

However, affordability was still a concern. The most damning testimony didn't come from the industrial energy users or Republican front groups, but from the Capitol Area Food Bank's Adrienne Longenecker, who noted 55% of her clients report choosing between paying for food, or paying for utilities. To that end, Leffingwell proposed an amendment stating the plan wouldn't take effect until an “affordability matrix” was completed. After some assurances it wouldn't impact the plan's dynamic elements – council would continue to operate under a goal of 30% renewables until then – the item passed unanimously.

The Hustle asked Strayhorn if her group would begin collecting signatures to put the plan to a vote. Her reply? “We'll continue to take it to the people and make decisions at the ballot box.”

TDH will have more council fun for you tomorrow.

What the hell else is happening?

Not much of a damn thing on the city calendar. With council meeting, the B&Cs are taking they day off.

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