At least we’ll be able to find our way to the Holly Street Power Plant. That, after weeks of staff meetings, drafts, and focus groups, is all the information Austin’s citizen-owned electric utility will make available to the public — unless City Council decides otherwise on Sept. 7.
In order to prepare for the competitive market last year’s Senate Bill 7 envisions, the Electric Utility Commission hopes to persuade council to shut off the flow of electric utility information to the public. After the commission issued a draft of its recommendations in July (“Electric Storm,” July 14), commission chair Teresa Reel set up a focus group to comment on Austin Energy‘s plan to waive the Public Records and Open Meetings Acts and close its books to the public. “Reel opened up the focus group to the public,” said Kathy Mitchell of the Central Texas ACLU. But the group was still dominated by the utility, although Public Citizen’s Tom “Smitty” Smith and freelance consumer advocate Paul Robbins joined Mitchell to form a public-interest minority of three.
Mitchell said that the focus group wouldn’t consider even the most basic changes, such as information on potential joint operating agreements. “When you think about joint operating agreements, think about the South Texas [Nuclear] Project,” Mitchell said. In other words, the public wouldn’t know if AE were quietly to go out and buy interest in Texas Utilities‘ Comanche Peak nuclear plant. That’s an unlikely possibility, considering the city’s history with the South Texas Project; but the public would never know. Nor would the public know of a more likely acquisition, such as interest in another lignite-burning plant like the one in Fayette County.
Would the public know about changes the utility would make in current plans to pay down its debt? Not hardly.
Price paid for fuel? No.
Decisions regarding choice of energy sources, such as coal vs. natural gas, or wind, or solar? Well, not exactly. At least the City Council would have the final say, so there would be some transparency and public input. But not in all cases. SB7 includes provisions that allow municipalities to pass ordinances that circumvent the state’s Open Meetings Act. (The focus group did strike the provision that keeps plant locations secret.) Smith noted that access to information and pressure from the public has made AE one of the nation’s most competitive utilities in categories such as energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Next week Smitty and the public interest types at City Hall will try to build a coalition around council members Jackie Goodman, who attended the focus group meetings; Beverly Griffith, who has closely followed the process; Daryl Slusher; and council freshman Raul Alvarez. …
It’s not your father’s ACLU. Since the late Lee Atwater hung the ACLU around Democratic presidential candidate Mike Dukakis‘ neck in 1988, the group has been in decline. But four months ago, the Central Texas chapter hired Will Harrell as its new executive director — and board members suggest the ACLU is going to be a lot more agile and aggressive. Harrell has worked for the National Lawyers Guild’s Police Accountability Project in New York, and has been involved in international human rights work in Central America. He also worked for Texas Civil Rights Project Director (and founder) Jim Harrington, who left the ACLU in 1991. Harrell, a lawyer, has a New York street sensibility and will probably be taking Talking Texan lessons before he begins to move the ACLU’s ambitious new agenda in the Legislature in January. Already, says Harrell, “we have eight bills drafted.”
This article appears in September 1 • 2000.