If you weren’t already convinced that Austin would be misguided to hand over governance and oversight of our municipal electric utility, Austin Energy, to an unelected board, CPS Energy’s unelected board just provided a great example of what we can expect under such a regime.
CPS Energy on Tuesday proposed cutting the amount it pays for solar power generated from residential customers roughly in half, angering clean-energy activists and system installers who say the cuts would cripple the local solar industry.
“There was zero consultation with the solar industry in the development of this proposal,” said Lanny Sinkin, executive director of the advocacy group Solar San Antonio, who was made aware of the plan Monday night. “They’re going to kill the solar industry.”
Two important things to note:
- This is a bad, anti-environmental, anti-consumer policy change.
- No public input was sought prior to announcing this very significant change to CPS policy.
In Austin, we have come to expect that the public will be consulted on changes to our community. An unelected board doesn’t fear political blow-back and will therefore be beholden not to the ratepayers (that’s you and me), but to special interests. I don’t know who was behind this proposal at CPS, but it wasn’t the people of San Antonio.
Please, stop by City Hall and register against item #11 on today’s City Council agenda. If you have time to say a few words on behalf of democracy, arrive by 4pm if you can. Council doesn’t always run on time though, so even if you can’t get there until 5:00 or after, you might still get a chance to speak.
