In response to City Council’s discussion on adopting recommendations and long-term planning pertaining to the use of renewable energy in the Central Texas region, Mike Rollins, President of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, issued the following statement:

“We support the Electric Utility Working Group recommendations and their commitment to increasing the renewable goals. As you are aware, the Chamber is keenly focused on affordability and we believe this plan would follow the Affordability Goal agreement that was agreed to in 2011. That goal states that Austin Energy will strive to keep all customer rates in the lower 50% of benchmarked cities in the state and that “all in” customer electric bills will not increase by greater than 2% annually. Given recent PSA increase of 11% and the impact of certain classes surpassing the 2% increase in annually billing, we urge the Council to support the EUC Working Group recommendations. This plan also allows for Austin Energy to have the flexibility to take advantage of ever changing market conditions while maintaining our values on renewables. Maximizing affordability while maintaining our community commitment to renewables, energy efficiency and demand side reduction is the right equation to keep Austin green and affordable.”