Approved Minutes — original pdf

Approved Minutes

Page 1 of 1 The Austin Generation Resource Planning Task Force (‘the Task Force’) convened in a meeting at Austin City Hall, Room 1029, 301 West Second Street, Austin, Texas. CALL TO ORDER – Michael Osborne called the meeting to order at 2:40 p.m. Task Force members in attendance: Carol Biedrzycki, Clay Butler, Barry Dreyling, Michael Osborne, Tom “Smitty” Smith and Michele Van Hyfte. Grace Hsieh, Cyrus Reed and Mike Sloan were absent. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. The motion to approve minutes of the June 18, 2014 meeting, by Ms. Biedrzycki and seconded by Mr. Smith, passed on a vote of 6-0. CITIZEN COMMUNICATION: GENERAL The following person addressed the Task Force: Susan Lippman – Provided an analysis of the low- and moderate-income weatherization goals. OLD BUSINESS 2. Discussion regarding the report format, content and timing – Mr. Osborne distributed copies of the draft report to Task Force members. The group discussed which sections were mostly complete and which sections required work. During the discussion of the Environmental section, Mr. Butler urged the group to recommend a goal of zero emissions by 2030 (instead of 2040 or 2050) unless it breached the 2% affordability goal. For the Equity section, members discussed revising the recommendation regarding dedicating 10% of the energy efficiency budget to low income customers. During the discussion about the price of carbon and proposed EPA rules, Mr. Osborne said everyone should work to make sure that state laws were written to protect early adopters like Austin. Regarding the Fayette Power Project, Mr. Osborne said that several attorneys had discussed with him the idea that Austin could consider buying 100% of one unit to be in a position to ramp down and ultimately close the unit. The group discussed other sections and writing assignments. Ms. Biedrzycki offered to draft the Energy Efficiency section and Mr. Smith offered to draft the Zero Energy Buildings section. 3. Discussion and possible action on recommendations included in the report – There was no action on recommendations, however, on behalf of Mr. Reed, Mr. Smith made a motion to request that Austin Energy run two additional scenarios, one based on high gas and the other on high storage. The motion died for lack of a second. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS 4. Discussion regarding future agenda items including issues raised during Citizen Communications – Mr. Osborne said that at the next meeting on July 2, the draft report would be released to the public and at the meeting on July 9, they would encourage public input. The report would be presented to the Electric Utility Commission on July 21 and to the Council Committee on Austin Energy in August. ADJOURNMENT - Mr. Osborne adjourned the meeting at 4:40 p.m. without objection. Austin Generation Resource Planning Task Force Meeting Minutes June 23, 2014