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BG Reads 3.14.2024

BG Reads 3.14.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - March 14, 2024

March 14, 2024

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Bingham Group Reads

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March 14, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Austin Energy pauses to analyze path forward for climate plan

🟣 Austin Police Association president weighs in on issues around contract negotiations

🟣 Waymo to launch driverless ride-sharing services in Austin later this year

🟣 How TikTok was blindsided by U.S. bill that could ban it

Read on!

[BINGHAM GROUP]

✅ BG Blog - City of Austin org chart red line (as of 2/9/2024)

[AUSTIN CITY HALL]

From the City of Austin Council Message Board:

RE: City Manager Search Events—March 25th and 26th

Council Members:This is to give an update on the activities in the City Manager search for March 25th and 26th.On the 25th, two candidates—T.C. Broadnax of Dallas and Sara Hensley of Denton—will meet with City of Austin personnel in the morning. That evening, the public will have an opportunity to attend a “Meet the Candidates” event.The event will be held at the Permitting and Development Center located at 6310 Wilhelmina Delco Dr, Austin, TX 78752. It will begin at 6:00 PM and run until 7:30 PM.Judy Maggio has agreed to serve as our facilitator for the evening event and will begin with each prospect giving an opening statement to introduce themselves to the public. The candidates will also have an opportunity to give a brief closing statements.The City of Austin press release provides additional information regarding the “Meet the Candidates” event which includes a mechanism for Austinites to submit questions in advance that Judy will ask each candidate.http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 153619.pdfThe event will be televised live on ATXN. It will also be re-run.After the interviews, both candidates will be available for a meet and greet with the public.On March 26th, we will interview the candidates. The Council will convene at 8:30 AM. We will go into Executive Session and interview the two candidates. Media availability with each candidate will occur directly after their closed-session interview with us.Depending on the interviews, and as indicated previously, we may invite one or both prospects back for activity/interviews on April 1st and/or 2nd. We will have posted Council action for the April 4th meeting. The posted action will be to direct our search firm to negotiate a contract with the specific person. I previously wrote that we might do this on April 2nd. But that would make it difficult to allow the required public comment on a council action item if, in fact, we bring someone back for more interviews. And waiting two days for a regular meeting is less rushed and just makes sense. We don’t have to take action on April 4th, but we will be posted and in a position to do so, if we want.Thanks.KirkOn behalf of Mayor Watson

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Austin Energy pauses to analyze path forward for climate plan (Austin Monitor)

Austin Energy General Manager Bob Kahn has informed the mayor and City Council that the utility is pausing the current process of amending its resource, generation and climate protection plan. The utility had been working to provide proposed changes to that plan this month.

In 2022, Council directed Austin Energy to work with the Electric Utility Commission and present any changes they would recommend in the 2030 plan for reaching a carbon-free future.

Kahn noted in a memo that the utility would be working with the community, the commission and city leaders “to analyze and share the key risks and benefits of various scenarios.”

Mayor Kirk Watson has recently pushed the idea that Austin should get out of the coal-fired Fayette Power Project, which it jointly owns with the Lower Colorado River Authority. Although they worked on reaching an agreement, Austin Energy announced in late 2021 that it had not been able to negotiate a plan with the LCRA to shutter Austin’s part of the plant.

LCRA has recently said that it has no intention of closing the Fayette plant, making Austin’s position difficult. The agency has also revealed plans to build a new natural gas-fired “peaker” plant in Caldwell County.

At the same time, environmentalists have urged Council to push the utility to move faster to become carbon-neutral… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

SXSW is accused of cozying up to 'war profiteers.' Musicians are boycotting. (KUT)

Austin percussionist Thor Harris has been playing South by Southwest since the ramshackle days, when the festival was a platform for up-and-coming musicians hoping to be discovered by music industry insiders.

This year, it’s different.

"I’ve played hundreds of other music festivals and never heard of any of the other ones having war profiteers as sponsors," Harris said.

Harris is one of more than 60 artists who dropped out of the festival after learning the U.S. Army and defense contractor RTX, formerly Raytheon, are sponsors. They argue SXSW has cozied up to the defense industry and specifically, RTX, a massive corporation that’s supplied weapons to Israel in the war in Gaza. Its subsidiary, Collins Aerospace, is also a SXSW partner.

The boycott started earlier this month, but it’s gained steam after social efforts from activists went viral... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin Police Association president weighs in on issues around contract negotiations (CBS Austin)

Negotiations for a new police contract are underway between city leaders and the police union, a year after the last contract expired. Since then, police supporters have been vocal about the impact the lack of a contract has had on morale, recruitment, and retention. But critics of the force say more oversight needs to be a part of the contract.

As representatives from the City of Austin and the Austin Police Association sat down to talk about a new police contract, old issues very much remained a part of new negotiations.

“A big part of it is that Austin is obviously an expensive city to live in. And so, for us to recruit new people to come here and to keep current officers here, we have to keep up with current demands and market needs,” said Michael Bullock, the president of the Austin Police Association.

“I think there are differences that we’re going to have to work through. Like you heard today, we’re not here to impede Prop A, we’re not trying to block to city from doing anything, Prop A was voted on.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Autonomous operator is expanding ride-booking to Austin, according to SXSW announcement (Austin American-Statesman)

Autonomous vehicle company Waymo will begin offering ride-booking in Austin through its Waymo One service later this year, as the company continues to step up its testing in Central Texas.

Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana offered more details on the timeline for its Austin ride-hailing program during a South by Southwest session Wednesday when she explored the company's road map for multicity autonomous vehicle service. Waymo One works similarly to apps such as Uber and Lyft.

During the session, Mawakana also announced that Waymo would begin offering rides to the general public in Los Angeles through Waymo One. Waymo has previously said that Los Angeles and Austin would be the third and fourth cities, respectively, to gain Waymo's ride-hailing service, but the announcement brought clearer timelines on the service's availability in both cities.

Waymo is one of several autonomous vehicle companies that has tested the technology in Austin in recent years. The company started as a project of Google before becoming a Google subsidiary in 2016.

The company already operates 24/7 ride-hailing services in San Francisco and Phoenix, and it has been operating an invitation-only program in Los Angeles since last year with plans to expand to the general public… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

How TikTok was blindsided by U.S. bill that could ban it (Wall Street Journal)

Two weeks ago, executives from TikTok’s U.S. operations flew to their company’s international headquarters in Singapore with good news. They told bosses that after years of battling over its fate in the U.S., the popular video app wasn’t in imminent danger of being banned in its most important market, according to people familiar with the meetings.

Among the positive signs: President Biden’s election campaign had just joined the app, on Super Bowl Sunday. Days after returning to the U.S., they learned they had miscalculated. Behind the scenes in Washington, a bipartisan group of lawmakers and Biden administration officials had been quietly planning new legislation to ban TikTok or force its sale to a non-Chinese owner.

The legislation was a culmination of a more than yearlong effort to curb TikTok by a coalition of China hawks in Washington and Silicon Valley, and it had gained new momentum in part because of anger over TikTok videos about the Israel-Hamas conflict. When lawmakers went public last week with their plans, the broad support for the bill caught TikTok by surprise.

“This process was intentionally conducted in secret because the bill authors knew it was the only way they could move it forward,” a TikTok spokeswoman said. Now TikTok faces the most serious threat yet to its existence in America. The House is set to vote Wednesday on the new bill, which could effectively ban one of the world’s most popular apps in the U.S., with more than 170 million users. Approval is widely expected.

The legislation faces a steeper path in the Senate. Biden has said he would sign it if it reaches his desk. Inside TikTok, some leaders were aware that lawmakers were working on legislation, but they didn’t expect it to win so much support so quickly, some of the people familiar with the matter said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Shale boom sends US oil production to new world record (Houston Chronicle)

The U.S. produced more crude oil last year than any nation ever has, setting new records for total annual production and average monthly production, according to data released Monday by the Energy Department. The nation’s oil production reached an average of 12.9 million barrels per day in 2023, up from the previous global record of 12.3 million barrels per day set by the U.S. in 2019. The monthly average in December — 13.3 million barrels per day — was high enough to set a new monthly record.

The U.S. has become a global energy superpower in the 16 years since the Texas shale boom began reshaping the global energy industry. The Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico is the largest oil-producing region in the country, accounting for roughly 40% of all U.S. crude oil production, and among the largest in the world.

The U.S. has outpaced global oil powerhouses Russia and Saudi Arabia every year since 2018, the Energy Department’s data showed. Russia produced 10 million barrels per day in 2023; Saudi Arabia produced 9.7 million barrels per day. Before hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling unleashed the shale boom, U.S. oil production had peaked at 9.6 million barrels per day in 1970 and fell to a low of 5 million barrels per day in 2008. Production has increased steadily since 2009, when the so-called shale revolution reversed the trend… (LINK TO FULL STORY)