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- BG Reads 1.10.2025
BG Reads 1.10.2025
🟪 BG Reads - January 10, 2025
Bingham Group Reads
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January 10, 2025
➡️ Today's BG Reads include:
🟪 Austin leaders urge transparency amid D.O.J. antitrust lawsuit against corporate landlords (CBS Austin)
🟪 At citizens’ request, City Council reannexes land (Austin Monitor)
🟪 Bastrop County-based fuel supplier to swap trucks for pipeline to fuel Austin airport (Community Impact)
🟪 Texas tops US states for renewable energy and battery capacity (Reuters)
🟪 California was already in a home-insurance crisis before the Los Angeles infernos (Wall Street Journal)
Read On!
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
Council Member Vanessa Fuentes (District 2) was elected by Council peers to serve as the 2025 Mayor Pro Tem, with Council Member Chito Vela (District 4) set to serve as Mayor Pro Tem in 2026. The Mayor Pro Tem performs the duties of mayor in case of the absence or inability of the mayor.
📝 City Memos:
💬 Council Message Board
➡️ Helpful Links
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
➡️ Austin leaders urge transparency amid D.O.J. antitrust lawsuit against corporate landlords (CBS Austin)
The Department of Justice alleges these companies used the property management software RealPage to share highly sensitive information with each other.
In other instances, they're accused of communicating directly with the competition's senior management or conducting "market surveys" in which property managers would call competitors to discuss rent prices, occupancies, and even discounts.
In a city currently struggling with an affordability crisis, Austin city council member Ryan Alter says if the allegations are proven to be true, that's simply not fair.
"We have seen in numerous instances, not just in the housing market, where big businesses will do whatever they can to create that edge and earn an extra buck, and when you do it on the back of a renter, that's just not okay," Alter said.
He says the city council has worked hard over the past few years to lower rent prices in the city, work he says will continue in 2025, starting with transparency.
"Getting those rents and fees and everything more disclosed, so that all of a sudden, if you realize, hey, this apartment and five others seem to have the exact same rent and the exact same fees, maybe that's not a coincidence," Alter said. "And maybe that's exactly what this lawsuit is getting after."
Councilmember Krista Lane, who was just elected for her first term in November, is also ready to tackle this issue… … 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ At citizens’ request, City Council reannexes land (Austin Monitor)
Some property owners object to the rules and fees governing use of their land in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction and seek to escape from those rules. But their neighbors may not agree. City Council took action during their final meeting of 2024 to bring some property owners back into the city’s ETJ as they requested.
As a result of passage of a 2023 law governing disannexation, it is very easy for a property owner to disannex their property from a city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. Under Senate Bill 2038, a property owner can request disannexation for an entire area – even if the neighbors are unaware or opposed. If the majority of property owners vote for the disannexation, then their property is no longer part of the city’s ETJ.
However, those property owners who request disannexation before the election have the right to request that the city add their property to the city’s ETJ once again.
According to a memo from city staff, “In June of 2024, a resident landowner filed a petition for an election to remove approximately 100 acres from the City’s ETJ pursuant to Texas Local Government Code (LGC) Chapter 42, Subchapter E.” The properties are on Menchaca Road and Old Manchaca Road.
In December, Council heard from three property owners who wanted their property taken into the ETJ again after disannexation… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Bastrop County-based fuel supplier to swap trucks for pipeline to fuel Austin airport (Community Impact)
The largest transportation fuel supplier for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, or ABIA, is gearing up to switch its fuel delivery system from more than 100 daily tankers driving a 40-mile round trip—each carrying 8,000 gallons of fuel—to a 10-inch, constantly flowing, underground pipeline.
The Flint Hills Resources team is in the final preconstruction stage for the proposed pipeline that would run along SH 71 from the Jet-A Fuel terminal in Cedar Creek to ABIA in Austin.Andy Saenz, public affairs regional manager, said the current truck-based fuel delivery system operates under a “just in time” approach, which causes delays for airport passengers and Bastrop drivers. Those delays can range from traffic congestion to bad weather, not having enough drivers, and more; however, the pipeline would eliminate or reduce all of those concerns, he said.
The need for a more reliable fuel source comes alongside ABIA’s record-breaking growth over the past few years.“ABIA’s expansion plans led us to start working on this about two years ago,” Saenz said. “Not to mention that most modern airports have dedicated pipelines with a constant supply of fuel, so it just makes sense.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Austin shelters house 340 people as city braces for continued low temperatures (CBS Austin)
More than 340 people sought refuge in Austin's cold weather shelters Wednesday night as the city braces for continued low temperatures.
The Austin-Travis County Emergency Operations Center remains activated as CBS Austin Meteorologist Avery Tomasco predicts precipitation and falling temperatures Thursday, followed by a hd freeze Friday night.
City officials announced shelter operations will continue through Friday morning and resume Friday evening… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ CapMetro bringing tap-to-pay to Austin's buses and trains by March (KUT)
Hopping on a Capital Metro bus or train should soon be as easy as tapping a credit or debit card. In March, the regional transit agency will part ways with its unreliable QR code-based fare system and switch to tap-to-pay technology.
The new system will let riders pay with their phones using Apple Pay or Google Pay. Under CapMetro's fare-capping model, tap-to-pay users won't be charged more than $2.50 a day.
"Anything that we can do to remove any barriers to riding transit is a good thing," said Sam Baez, a CapMetro executive vice president who oversees rider satisfaction and outreach.
As part of the transition, CapMetro will retire its branded app and move entirely to the Transit app. To avoid paying more than a seven-day pass in a week or a 31-day pass in a month, riders must use Cubic's Umo app... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Austin 3D-printing company Icon to lay off more than 100 employees (Austin American-Statesman)
Icon, a 3D-printing construction technology company, is laying off more than 100 employees, according to a WARN notice posted this week.
The Austin startup is laying off 114 employees, realigning its team and will continue development of its new robotic printing system, called Phoenix. The employees' final day will be March 8.
An Icon spokesperson wrote that the team realignment is to "focus on our highest priorities," which they said will accelerate the development of its new robotic printing system, called Phoenix.
"While our mission remains to develop these intelligent machines to build humanity’s future, we will continue to design and build a selection of key projects across residential, hospitality, social/affordable and those within the Department of Defense with a more streamlined team," the spokesperson wrote… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
➡️ Gov. Greg Abbott said to be exploring deal to send Houston water to West Texas (Houston Chronicle)
Gov. Greg Abbott is said to be exploring a plan to buy water from Houston and send it to West Texas — a potentially contentious idea that comes as he has teased “totally transformative” measures in the upcoming legislative session aimed at keeping the state from going dry.
Mayor John Whitmire told the Houston Chronicle that the governor called him to discuss the state purchasing “excess” water from the city — an idea Whitmire said he is open to if it means Houston can get much-needed infrastructure funding. “He called me and said, ‘Would you consider selling your excess water to the state that we then sell to West Texas?’” Whitmire said in an interview. “We get monies for our infrastructure. They get their water. It would be a win-win.”
Conversations between the city and state began sometime in the fall, said Greg Eyerly, director of Houston Water. Houston produces 183 billion gallons annually and supplies it to millions of Southeast Texas residents, as well as infrastructure critical to the state like the ship channel and refineries. Communities and businesses that operate in the Permian Basin have been clamoring for access to more water as their aquifers run low after decades of largely unrestricted drilling.
And data centers for AI and cryptocurrency that are cropping up around the state need vast supplies of water to cool their servers. But the idea of moving water across the state has long faced pushback from some state lawmakers, including advocates in East Texas who worry about draining the region's lakes and reservoirs. And according to a recent State Water Plan, the 15-county region that includes Houston could face a water shortage for municipal needs by 2030.
The governor’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the conversation. Whitmire did not elaborate on it, and he did not respond to a request for more information about his discussions with the governor... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Texas tops US states for renewable energy and battery capacity (Reuters)
Texas is dominating the development of renewable energy generation and battery capacity within the United States, and is estimated to have installed nearly 80% more combined solar, wind and battery capacity than the next largest state.
The Lone Star state has 42,000 megawatts (MW) of wind power, 22,000 MW of solar farms and 6,500 MW of utility-scale battery capacity in place as of the end of 2024, data from Cleanview and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows. California has the next largest network of renewable generation and battery capacity, while Florida, Arizona and Colorado round out the top 5 list of U.S. states that are deploying renewables and batteries to boost power supplies.
California has the next largest network of renewable generation and battery capacity, while Florida, Arizona and Colorado round out the top 5 list of U.S. states that are deploying renewables and batteries to boost power supplies. Since 2019, Texas power firms have boosted solar generation capacity by 800%, wind capacity by 50% and battery storage capacity by an eye-popping 5,500%, according to energy data portal Cleanview, using EIA and state-level data.
In absolute terms, Texas has installed around 19,000 MW of solar, 14,000 MW of wind and 6,200 MW of battery capacity within the past five years. Those installations have resulted in wind and solar farms generating roughly 30% of the state's electricity in 2024, according to Ember, which is up from a combined solar and wind share of around 18% in 2019… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US and World News]
➡️ California was already in a home-insurance crisis before the Los Angeles infernos (Wall Street Journal)
Nick Ramirez hunched over a screen in his Los Angeles insurance agency, watching a map tracking the raging wildfires engulfing clients’ properties. “Hayley—gone. Oliver, his home also went down,” he said, pointing to small dots in a fast-expanding sea of red.
“I’ve been in the insurance business almost 10 years and this is the worst that I’ve ever seen it,” said Ramirez, an agent with Goosehead Insurance. “We are in uncharted territory.”
The economic toll of the deadly California fires, which have already destroyed or damaged over 2,000 structures, could prove a serious blow to a home-insurance market already mired in a deep crisis. Insurance industry officials warned of widespread economic damage on par with some of the biggest fire disasters in recent memory, potentially eclipsing the devastation of the 2023 Maui inferno.
The destruction of high-value homes in the path of the rapidly burning Palisades fire, some of the most expensive in America, will “likely result in one of the top five costliest wildfires in U.S. history,” with a multibillion-dollar loss for insurers, broker Aon said.
California is the biggest home-insurance market in the U.S. but also one of the toughest for companies to navigate. The state accounted for eight of the 10 costliest U.S. wildfires through last year, after adjusting for inflation, according to Aon.
Despite those risks, its consumer-friendly laws for decades kept home-insurance rates relatively low, compared with the national average, industry data show. Leading insurers have pulled back from the state, leaving many in the path of the fires with only bare-bones insurance provided by a state-sponsored insurer of last resort—or worse, no insurance at all.
Even before the fires were sparked, millions of homeowners in the Golden State, especially those in the path of the L.A. infernos, faced double-digit insurance-rate hikes, non-renewals or a dearth of any available private coverage. Leading insurers, including State Farm and Allstate, have stopped selling new home-insurance policies in the state, saying rate increases approved by regulators were insufficient to cover their losses, including from the devastating wildfires of 2017 and 2018… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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