Dear fellow Austinite,

Austin City Council will vote soon on an energy plan that will determine where Austin gets its electricity for the next 10 years. Clean Energy for Austin is a coalition of businesses, non-profits and individuals who support the energy plan put forth by Austin Energy as well as the additional recommendations of the Austin Generation Resource Planning Task Force.

Austin Energy’s proposed plan makes a sizeable commitment to clean energy, and lays a firm foundation for the future. The two-year long public input process has included public forums, surveys and hearings before several city commissions. This process has produced recommendations that will strengthen Austin Energy’s proposed plan, including important protections for Austin’s most vulnerable ratepayers.

We call on City Council to:

• Pass Austin Energy’s proposed generation plan with the nine recommendations that were approved by the Austin Generation Resource Planning Task Force, Electric Utility Commission and Resource Management Commission, including:

• Increasing energy efficiency savings and locally-generated renewable power
• Reassessing the plan within two years as new cost and environmental data become available, including the timeline for reducing our dependence on Fayette power plant.
• Providing initiatives to help low-income ratepayers save energy and money, and protecting utility customers from runaway rates in the future.

The proposals from Austin Energy and the Task Force will establish our city as a true world leader in clean technology and energy innovation. By implementing aggressive clean energy goals, Austin will create thousands of green jobs and attract manufacturing and educational opportunities. In the future, reducing Austin’s emissions from fossil fuels like coal will be necessary to protect against rising costs as well as protecting human health and maintaining future economic development. We look forward to continuing to work with city leaders in the coming years to continuously improve the plan to make this vision a reality.

By endorsing our goals, you also recognize that it takes more than Austin Energy to make Austin a truly sustainable city-it takes a community willing to act together.

If you share our values, please join us! Sign on as an endorser at Clean Energy for Austin.