AE's Long Road to Reducing Emissions

At a Tuesday community meeting on Austin Energy's new Resource & Climate Protection Plan, Karl R. Rábago, AE vice president of distributed energy services, pitched the importance of long-range cost benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He then presented a brief overview of the utility's recommended generation plan and how it supports City Council's 2007 Austin Climate Protection Plan. Between now and 2020, the plan – currently undergoing community review before it goes to council – would increase the city's renewable energy portfolio from 13% to 37% of total generation. That includes reducing the output of Austin's coal-powered Fayette Power Plant ­­ – responsible for 70% of AE's carbon emissions, according to Rábago – to 60% of capacity. (For more on AE's generation plan, see "Twisting in the Wind," Aug. 21.)

Acknowledging that the utility has chosen to recommend a plan that isn't the most aggressive solution to reducing local carbon emissions, Rábago said, "If we really worked hard on it, we could figure out how to do it without undue discomfort," but he asserted, "It's sufficiently aggressive that I would be proud if we accomplished it," characterizing the plan as "about in the middle on cost."

That wasn't nearly good enough for a number of the audience members in attendance. Underlying the proposed plan, for instance, was a starting assumption that Fayette couldn't be closed before 2020. Audience members expressed frustration with that assumption – community support has been mobilizing around an alternate scenario in which Fayette would close by 2014. But Rábago, considered a likely candidate to replace Roger Duncan as head of Austin Energy, said the utility's recommendation will remain unchanged; he punted the job of adjusting the plan to City Council.

Some in the audience also expressed disappointment that Rábago spoke only to the generation plan, rather than the overall Austin Climate Protec­tion Program he oversees. The ACPP has yet to start a meaningful communitywide program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all sources, after more than two years in existence. When asked about a timeline for starting that program, Rábago said, "We're planning something like a community charrette in the next couple of months." ­