BG Reads 12.10.2024

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December 10, 2024  

➡️ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Austin power-generation plan, with a new gas plant, heads to City Council (KUT)

🟪 Kirk Watson, Ryan Alter propose competing amendments to Austin Energy plan (Austin Monitor)

🟪 After delays, Congressman Lloyd Doggett urges FAA to fix staffing issues at Austin's airport (KVUE)

🟪 Under Trump, an 'all of the above' energy policy is poised for a comeback (NPR)

Read On!

🟪 LINK TO THIS WEEK’S CITY OF AUSTIN HEARINGS + AGENDA

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🟪 The Austin Council meets for its Work Session today at 9AM:

• Agenda Link

• Live Streak Link

🟪 The Austin Council has one (1) regular meeting left in 2024:

• December 12 @10AM - Austin Council Agenda Link

  • 💡 Item 2: Approve adoption of Austin Energy’s Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan to 2035.

  • 💡 Item 38: Approve a resolution adopting the City’s State Legislative Agenda for the 89th Texas Legislative Session.

  • 💡 Item 39: Approve a resolution adopting the City’s Federal Legislative Agenda for the 119th Congress.

  • 💡 Item 138: Approve a resolution directing the City Manager to propose options and make recommendations to create programs for and allow digital transit-oriented and bikeshare signage along transit lines and corridors; to modify relocation requirements for nonconforming signs, including non-conforming off-premise commercial advertising signs; and to allow for off-premise commercial advertising in the City’s public right-of-way.

🟪 MEMO: City of Austin Executive Leadership Team and Organizational Announced (Effective November 4, 2024)

In an October 30 memo, City Manager T.C. Broadnax announced several key additions to the city leadership team, effective November 4.

You can view the memo here: CITY OF AUSTIN MEMO: Executive Leadership Team and Organizational Announcements. An org chart is included on page 3.

We particularly wanted to flag the creation of a Grants Division within the Intergovernmental Relations Office to focus on creating a centralized grant funding strategy and governance for the City that advances City Council’s strategic priorities, leverages local resources, and targets investments for Austin. 

The memo notes “the City lacks a centralized grants function causing us to potentially leave federal and state funding on the table. Staff from across the organization are currently being identified for potential reassignment to the Grants Division.”

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

➡️ Austin power-generation plan, with a new gas plant, heads to City Council (KUT)

Austin City Council will vote Thursday on a plan to generate electricity into the future that includes building a new natural gas power plant. The city’s electric utility said the proposal will provide low cost, reliable energy, but some environmental groups call it an abandonment of Austin’s ambitious climate goals. Several City Council members also want the plan amended.

In 2021, Austin City Council adopted a Climate Equity Plan, with the goal of making the Austin a "net-zero" emission city by 2040 through dramatically reducing regional greenhouse gas emissions, and canceling the impacts of what emissions remain through the use of carbon offsets and other environmental policies.

A big part of meeting those goals assumed Austin Energy would continue to transition to emission-free renewable energy and shut down the Fayette coal power plant which the city owns in partnership with the Lower Colorado River Authority.

But the energy demands of a growing city – and the costs of importing power from often distant wind and solar farms – have created a need to generate more power closer to where it’s consumed.

That prompted the utility to propose a “peaker” plant as part of its power generation plan, the Austin Energy Resource, Generation, and Climate Protection Plan to 2030. These plants typically operate in times of peak energy demand. The utility says the plant would run only in times of high energy costs and high demand, and is necessary to keep electricity affordable and reliable... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Kirk Watson, Ryan Alter propose competing amendments to Austin Energy plan (Austin Monitor)

Gearing up for a vote Thursday on Austin Energy’s Resource Generation Plan, Mayor Kirk Watson and Council Member Ryan Alter have each proposed amendments to a plan that has gone through a variety of iterations and gained the endorsement of the Electric Utility Commission and the Resource Management Commission. Both groups suggested changes that do not radically change the plan. Watson said City Council would discuss the options at today’s Council work session.

The mayor posted on the City Council Message Board: “My top priorities in this process are to divest from the Fayette Power Project and ensure reliable and affordable power for our community.”

Fayette remains far and away the most polluting of Austin Energy’s power plants. Austin Energy had a plan to shut down the plant in 2022 but that did not work out.

Watson also proposed an amendment to the Resource Generation Plan introducing a new Carbon Intensity Standard.

“By using this metric, we ensure that any future generation investments Austin Energy makes will have the effect of reducing emissions from where they are today. This metric includes CO2, NOx, and other greenhouse gases. It is worth noting that NOx standards are required as part of the permitting process for any new generation.” (NOx is an important chemical in creation of smog.)… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️  After delays, Congressman Lloyd Doggett urges FAA to fix staffing issues at Austin's airport (KVUE)

Unnecessary hurdles at the airport is what Congressman Lloyd Doggett fears travelers will face after the FAA ordered another ground delay at Austin Bergstrom-International Airport on Sunday.

"Someone who was picking up a passenger from the Austin airport might have had to wait two-and-a-half hours because of ground delays from the FAA. This is a direct result of staffing shortages at the tower," Congressman Doggett said. 

Doggett said the tower is struggling to keep staffing at half the level recommended by the FAA. 

"Austin is probably in the top four or five airports in the entire country in terms of the shortage of controllers and lacking a margin of safety that I think we need," Congressman Doggett said. 

Carson Pearce is a retired aviation educator who said the lack of air traffic controllers stems back to a program the FAA is bringing back called Collegiate Training Initiative, or CTI, which trains future controllers at the college level. 

"Now, of course, it's going to take some time for them to go through either the two-year degree program or four-year degree program, depending on which institution you go to, in order to plug those holes," Pearce said… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Longer construction hours pitched for downtown Austin Convention Center (KXAN)

Ahead of the Austin City Council meeting happening Thursday, a city memo from the deputy director of the Austin Convention Center redevelopment project is asking for council to approve extended hours for construction. The extended work hours will get the demolition phase of the project done in less time, according to the memo.

In October 2023, city council approved contracts for the redevelopment project, with the convention center scheduled to close on April 1, 2025.

Then, the demolition of the building is set to begin May 1, 2025, with construction completion anticipated for December 2028, according to the city of Austin. According to the city, the new convention center will open in 2029… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Developer aims to flip the script and bring big Hays Commons project within Austin's city limits (Austin Business Journal)

Developers behind the 498-acre Hays Commons project — something of a poster child for a controversial new law allowing deannexation as a means of sidestepping municipal regulatory authority — aim to do the opposite by annexing it into the city of Austin, a maneuver intended to allay longstanding environmental concerns.

The effort comes more than a year after Austin-based MileStone Community Builders LLC formally removed the project from the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Hays, a small city of about 250 people that straddles the Travis and Hays county lines, and after two decades of debate that failed to reach a resolution to push the project forward. The developers deployed the new law, known as Senate Bill 2038, to get out of Hays' regulatory reach.

Over the last several months, however, representatives of MileStone have been going through the process of getting the $496 million project annexed into Austin, and the plan has been heard by various city boards and commissions and could head to the City Council early next year. The project calls for 700 single-family homes, about 75,000 square feet of commercial space, 160 acres of conservation area and 260 acres of parks and open space.

The annexation process would involve multiple caveats. MileStone and the city would need to sign a municipal utility district consent agreement that would support the establishment of a MUD in the city's ETJ using Austin's water and wastewater services. Developers would start with a limited-purpose annexation and then fully move the project into Austin's city limits once infrastructure bonds are paid… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Bastrop County approves incentives for billion-dollar data center campus (Austin Business Journal)

A Virginia-based data center operator has secured the go-ahead from the Bastrop County Commissioners Court for a property tax abatement to build what could be a billion-dollar data center campus east of Austin.

EdgeConneX Inc., a subsidiary of Swedish global investment firm EQT AB, on Dec. 9 was unanimously approved by the court for an abatement for two parcels totaling about 112 acres at the northeast corner of Farm to Market Road 535 and Wolf Lane in Cedar Creek.

Specific details of the abatement, which was made with Viriginia-based EdgeConnex subsidiary DFW33220N LLC, have not been released, and the Austin Business Journal has filed a records request for a copy.

The ABJ first reported this summer that EdgeConneX was eyeing the project based on a public hearing notice. It described the project as a "four-building data center campus facility" with costs of improvements estimated at $1.4 billion.

Todd Workman, an advisor who represented EdgeConneX, said during the Dec. 9 meeting that the campus would total about 2.8 million square feet across three 800,000-square-foot buildings and one 400,000-square-foot building. The campus will be built in phases over the next five to eight years.

He added that EdgeConneX is building the project for an unidentified single-end user customer. EdgeConneX plans to create 60 jobs that have an average salary of $100,000, along with 400 construction jobs while the project is being built… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Georgetown council members consider future of nonprofit grant program (Community Impact)

Georgetown City Council members are deciding between revamping a nonprofit grant program or eliminating it entirely.

At a Nov. 26 City Council meeting, officials evaluated the city’s ability to continue its strategic partnerships program, which distributes grants to local nonprofits, Assistant to the City Manager Jessica Clarke said during a presentation.“This is a popular program, so over the last five years, we’ve had over 20 nonprofits apply,” Clarke said. “We continue to have a lot of interest in this program, as it allows our local nonprofits to serve more residents than they normally would.”The program’s available funding for fiscal year 2024-25 is $400,049, but the city has been facing budget constraints, Clarke said. Some council members expressed being in favor of cutting the program, while others preferred to refine it… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

➡️ No more social media for kids? Texas lawmakers discuss restricting students' digital spaces (Austin American-Statesman)

Texas policymakers are thinking increasingly about children’s use of digital tools and presence on social media, a topic that’s likely to become a point of conversation in the upcoming legislative session this spring. A bill from state Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, would significantly restrict a child’s ability to have a social media account.

The bill comes as schools across Texas are grappling with how to handle the increasing presence in the classroom of devices such as cellphones, which teachers say cause distractions and some experts worry could create mental health issues.

The conversations are coalescing at a time when lawmakers and educators are increasingly discussing the safest and most responsible ways for students to interact with technology in digital spaces, particularly at school. Patterson’s House Bill 186 would restrict social media companies from opening accounts for minors, require age verification for new members and give parents the ability to remove their child’s account from a social media platform.

“Heavily addictive social media platforms are destroying the lives of children in Texas,” Patterson said in a statement.

“Record increases in anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide have coincided with the rapid rise in social media use by minors.” During a meeting of the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs last month, senators expressed concern about potentially harmful content children could encounter online.

More and more, child sexual abuse cases have some sort of technology component, whether the abuse occurs online or offline, said Christina Green, chief advancement and external relations officer for the Children's Advocacy Centers of Texas.

It's essential that parents, children and school personnel get education about online risk, but learning the right questions to ask and making the conversation normal can be difficult, she said. "It needs to become commonplace, and the more that we equip parents to do that, the better suited that we will be as a community to shift our behavior, but we have to all be doing that at the same time," Green said.

Instead of talking about cutting children off from digital spaces entirely, lawmakers should be talking about how to help students be better digital citizens, said Da’Taeveyon Daniels, deputy executive director of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas.

“Banning minors from social media will not effectively keep them safe,” Daniels said. “It doesn't necessarily hold big tech accountable. It just deprives minors of their civil rights.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

➡️ Under Trump, an 'all of the above' energy policy is poised for a comeback (NPR)

President-elect Donald Trump talks a lot about "unleashing American energy" — specifically oil, which he likes to call "liquid gold." And based on his nominees for key energy posts, there's every indication that a Trump administration 2.0 will actively promote oil and natural gas. But another phrase is popping up a lot right now in Republican circles: "All of the above."

Trump's pick for "energy czar," who has a history of supporting both oil and renewables, has been described as an "all-of-the-above energy governor." A key Republican in Congress hopes that Chris Wright, Trump's choice to be the new secretary of energy and a believer in fracking, nuclear and geothermal energy, will support "an all-of-the-above energy policy." Statement after statement, story after story. Even the summer before the election, the phrase was reportedly the talk of the Republican National Convention.

It's shorthand for a set of policies that support oil and natural gas — and simultaneously, every other form of domestic energy, including solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear. The phrase has been around for decades. It appears to have been first promoted by the fossil fuel lobby before being embraced by a Democratic president, Barack Obama. For Obama, the phrase meant supporting natural gas and pursuing cheap gasoline while also investing in renewable power. Today, it's a mainstream Republican position on energy.

President Biden, some argue, also supported "all of the above" in practice — although he didn't use the phrase. But he only supported it in the near term. For the long term, he promoted green energy instead of fossil fuels, talking about a "clean energy transformation" that would remake the economy and address the climate crisis by gradually phasing out oil. In contrast, the version of "all of the above" being talked about in conservative circles today asserts that oil is here to stay — but it leaves room for cleaner energy, too. Trump has promised to "drill, baby, drill," but presidents in the U.S. don't dictate oil production. They can try to influence it, but market forces still dominate companies' decision-making.

Case in point: Biden tried to accelerate the shift from fossil fuels, but under his administration U.S. oil production hit new record highs. The American Petroleum Institute has presented Trump with a policy wish list for the industry, including many things that the president-elect has promised to do, like rolling back incentives for producing and buying electric vehicles, restarting permitting for liquid natural gas exports, opening up more land for drilling for oil, and repealing or relaxing environmental regulations… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing charged with murder in New York, court records show (Associated Press)

After UnitedHealthcare’s CEO was gunned down on a New York sidewalk, police searched for the masked gunman with dogs, drones and scuba divers. Officers used the city’s muscular surveillance system. Investigators analyzed DNA samples, fingerprints and internet addresses. Police went door-to-door looking for witnesses.

When an arrest came five days later, those sprawling investigative efforts shared credit with an alert civilian’s instincts.

A Pennsylvania McDonald’s customer noticed another patron who resembled the man in the oblique security-camera photos that New York police had publicized.

Luigi Nicholas Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family, was arrested Monday in the killing of Brian Thompson, who headed one of the United States’ largest medical insurance companies... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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