Our climate is changing because of human activity. Most scientists, including Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist who studies climate change, agree with that statement, although some do not. Hayhoe, a professor and director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University, was one of several speakers at Monday’s City Council briefing on resilience. After Hayhoe’s […]
Environment
Posted inEnergy, Texas State Legislature
Adler suggests changes to AE business model
Mayor Steve Adler says City Council members are open to shifting how Austin Energy makes its transfers to the city, a move that may quiet talk in the Texas Legislature of deregulating the municipal energy company. “There is some support of us to looking at a CPS (Energy) model where they handle their transfers in […]
Posted inEnergy
Austin Energy bad debt increases (corrected)
Austin Energy’s customer debt is skyrocketinghas risen. From September 2014 to the end of March, the electric utility’sAustin Energy’s bad debt — or bills unlikely to ever be collected — increased more than 300 percent, from $20.8 million to more than $85 million. The rapid increase is due to a policy, put in place two […]
Posted inEnvironment, Transportation, Travis County
County asks for ‘loop’ road project studies
Travis County is asking the area’s transportation authorities to step back and take a look at the big picture. In a controversial 2-1 vote, the Travis County Commissioners Court is asking the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority to institute broader studies. The studies would look at the effects of proposed State Highway 45 Southwest and its […]
Posted inDevelopment, Transportation, Water
Shoal Creek Conservancy partners with city
The Shoal Creek Conservancy announced Tuesday that it has signed a collaborative agreement with the city. The agreement comes out of a May 2014 City Council resolution that directed the city manager to explore a public-private partnership in order to create a plan for the area. Under the agreement, the conservancy will be working with […]
Posted inResources, Water
New water tap rule causes cost, consternation
In the midst of what almost everyone agrees is a housing affordability crisis in Austin, planners and residential contractors have discovered a new rule that significantly increases the cost of retrofitting garages into apartments and building new granny flats. Longtime Austin architect Girard Kinney said that the Austin Water Utility’s decision to require that new […]
Posted inPreservation, Resources, Water
Downward oxygen trend a risk for salamanders
Barton Springs is the only known home to the endangered and federally protected Barton Springs and Austin Blind salamanders. Unfortunately, for these unique creatures, the level of life-sustaining dissolved oxygen in their ecosystem has dropped on average over the past 35 years. Watershed Protection Department engineer Abel Porras brought the issue to the Wednesday meeting […]
Posted inBicycles, Parks, Preservation
Urban Forestry Board critical of USA Cycling report
Members of the Urban Forestry Board are highly critical of the methods used in a report by USA Cycling that claims the city, not the cycling organization, caused most of the damage done to 57 trees in Zilker Park during a Cyclocross event in January. USA Cycling said in January it had budgeted funds to […]
Posted inEnergy, Texas State Legislature
Austin Energy deregulation bill sent to Senate
A bill that could have major implications for Austin Energy and the city budget passed its first hurdle in the Texas House on Tuesday and now goes to the Senate floor. It could give certain Austin Energy customers the ability to break away from the utility and buy energy on the deregulated market. The Senate […]
Posted inResources, Water
Aquifer district ends six-year dispute with Kyle
Board members with the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District wrapped up a six-year dispute with the City of Kyle on Thursday night at their regular meeting, pending a few issues. “This means we can move on,” said John Dupnik, general manager with the district. He commented that everyone had spent “entirely too long on the matter” anyway. The […]
Posted inCity Council, Development, Parks
May vote possible on Decker Golf proposal
City Council Member Ellen Troxclair, chair of the Council Economic Opportunity Committee, said she intends for her committee to vote on the Decker Lake Golf proposal at its next meeting May 11. Troxclair outlined some options for her colleagues at Monday’s committee meeting following nearly two hours of presentations and discussion. Troxclair said they could […]
Posted inCity Hall, Environment
Mayor talks climate change with health experts
Though climate change poses a major threat to the environment, it is also a danger to the public, both worldwide and in Central Texas. That’s the point Mayor Steve Adler made Tuesday when he sat down in his office at City Hall with Christy Goldfuss, managing director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, […]