How Renewable Subsidies Work!

Growth of School Administrators

The growth of non-teaching staff across the state has been phenomenal!

Notice what could have been done if the increase in non-teaching staff had been limited to the same growth rate as students!

DHS Says Utilities are Being Hacked

Hackers working for Russia claimed “hundreds of victims” last year in a giant and long-running campaign that put them inside the control rooms of U.S. electric utilities where they could have caused blackouts, federal officials said. They said the campaign likely is continuing.

The Russian hackers, who worked for a shadowy state-sponsored group previously identified as Dragonfly or Energetic Bear, broke into supposedly secure, “air-gapped” or isolated networks owned by utilities with relative ease by first penetrating the networks of key vendors who had trusted relationships with the power companies, said officials at the Department of Homeland Security.

“They got to the point where they could have thrown switches” and disrupted power flows, said Jonathan Homer, chief of industrial-control-system analysis for DHS

Mr. Homer said the cyber-attack, which surfaced in the U.S. in the spring of 2016 and continued throughout 2017, exploited relationships that utilities have with vendors who have special access to update software, run diagnostics on equipment and perform other services that are needed to keep millions of pieces of gear in working order.

Read the entire article here.

Is Georgetown prepared to defend against hackers?

School A-F Ranking System

Want to find out about the new A-F ranking system for Texas schools? Here is your opportunity.

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Texas Aspire Foundation

Attention ESD #8 Taxpayers; Budget Tidbit (2)

Evidently the city has decided that there are extra $ available in ESD #8 and they have figured out a creative way to extract more $ from ESD #8 and into the City fire budget.

Remember, ESD #8 has its own property taxing authority and the ESD board sets the tax rates based on the needs of the district.

ESD #8 is building a new fire station on Williams Drive near FM3405 and they will turn the finished building over to Georgetown who will staff and operate the station. This will be known as Georgetown Fire Station #7.

Georgetown historically has provided fire service coverage to ESD #8, which surrounds the City of Georgetown, by charging ESD #8 on the basis of the number of calls responded to in the ESD #8 district.

The new methodology the City is using for budget year 2019 is shown on the following slide.

It is unclear to this observer how the number of properties served, assessed valuation and the population are predictors and surrogates for the cost of providing firemen and equipment for ESD #8. But they are used to increase the revenue from ESD #8 into the city coffers!

In fact, ESD #8 will increase its payment to Georgetown by 42.7% due to this change in methodology. ESD #8s annual payment will increase from $1,611,608 to $2,300,000. That's a whopping $688,392 increase. It is extremely doubtful that the taxpayers of ESD #8 will experience an increase in level of service commensurate with that amount. Increased service only comes with decreased response times which means more fire stations and crews, which this methodology does not provide.

PS: Here is a map of ESD #8

Tidbits From Georgetown Budget Presentations (1)

The Police Department is requesting a School Resource Officer(SRO) for Wagner Middle School. This request is in support of the plan initiated with GISD to place an SRO at each Middle School and two at each High School. Currently, the SRO Supervisor is stationed at Wagner Middle School and has limited time to supervise the other campuses due to increase demands of serving as an SRO at Wagner. This request will place a new SRO at Wagner Middle School and move the sergeant to GHS where they will backfill absences and supervise. GISD funds half of the one-time and on-going costs. Proposed Cost: $172,597. This costs includes salary and a vehicle plus all the related equipment for the vehicle and officer.

The City and the ISD seems to be taking a "smart" approach to school security by having qualified police officers serve at the schools with all the support that the police department can provide. This is in contrast to the Round Rock ISD which is creating their own school police force from scratch which undoubtedly will cost more that sharing the cost of dedicated Round Rock officers or Sheriff Deputies.

Kudos to the City and ISD!

Administrators & Some Teachers Well Paid in Texas

Auditors at OpenTheBooks.com found 7,327 Texas public school administrators, athletic directors, teachers, and other employees pulled down six-figure salaries costing taxpayers nearly $1 billion. In fiscal year 2017, superintendents earned as much as $450,000; “executive directors for assessment and compliance” received up to $302,820; and principals made as much as $313,870.

Here are the results for Georgetown ISD that also includes the Superintendent of Orenda Charter School. Eighteen employees made more than $100K/yr in 2017.

Forbes has a lengthy article analyzing school pay in Texas.

Another Record for Electricity Demand

Electricity demand established another record Wednesday, July 18, 2018. The peak of 72,192MW ocurred at 5pm. Here is the demand chart from ERCOT.

Renewable energy sources are a long ways from meeting the demand for electricity in Texas. Here is the chart for wind and solar generated electricity for the same day.

As can be observed, wind and solar combined only produce about 5.7% of the electricity demanded at 5pm in the afternoon.

It is highly unlikely that Texas residents will allow 5 times as many wind and solar farms to be built to meet current peak demand. They negatively impact the quality of life for residents living nearby. Natural gas will be the fuel of choice as long as it is abundant and inexpensive.

Where is the Wind Generated Electricity?

Yesterday was a record day in Texas for electricity demand. At 5pm, consumers used 70,693MW of electricity. Here is a graph showing the demand on an hourly basis for July, 17, 2018.

It is expected that as we continue to experience 100+ degree days, this record will also be broken.

So at 5pm when the maximum demand is experienced, how much electricity are the windmills generating? Here is the graph for the wind generated electricity for July 17, 2018.

Notice that the wind generated electricity peaks at about 5am, when the total demand is minimum! And when total demand is at peak, wind provides about 3750MW of the total 70,963MW demand. That is barely 5% of the demand is being met by wind generated electricity.

Clearly, Texas is going to rely on fossil fuel generated electricity for the foreseeable future. The rate payers in Texas will have to pay for the wind generators as well as the fossil fuel generators to meet demand reliably and consistently.

Another Example of Taxpayer Supported Lobbying

A local blogger from Austin, Adam Cahn has recently discovered another example of taxpayer supported lobbying against Texas conservatives. He found that the Texas Association of Counties advertises in the liberal Democratic Austin publication that seeks to influence the Texas Legislature.

Here is the money quote: "Quorum report is a corrupt, low-circulation, publication that serves as a propaganda outlet for the good ol' boy, pro-status quo, crowd at the Capitol. It specializes in gaslighting. It's the number 1 purveyor of the toxic Capitol culture."

100% Renewable Energy is a Disaster

According to an article in the New York Post achieving even 50% reliable, consistent renewable energy is not feasible.

Last year, an all-star group of scientists thoroughly debunked the work of Mark Jacobson, the Stanford engineering professor who for years has been claiming the US can run solely on renewables.

In a paper last June in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists — including Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution, Dan Kammen of the University of California, Berkeley, former EPA Science Advisory Board chairman Granger Morgan and Jane Long of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — concluded that Jacobson’s all-renewable scheme used “invalid modeling tools, contained modeling errors, and made implausible and inadequately supported assumptions.”

There is "real world data" that demonstrates the cost of renewables to consumers.

Consider Germany, which is pushing to have 80 percent of its electricity coming from renewables by 2050. According to a recent report by Agora Energiewende, a think tank that focuses on Germany’s energy sector, between 2007 and 2018, residential electricity prices in Germany jumped by 50 percent.

German residential customers now have some of the highest-priced electricity in Europe: about $0.37 per kilowatt-hour. That’s nearly three times the price of residential electricity in the US.

The high cost of renewables can also be seen in California, which has mandated 50 percent of the state’s electricity be sourced from renewables by 2030. In February, Mark Nelson and Michael Shellenberger of the Berkeley-based think tank Environmental Progress reported California’s electricity rates rose at more than five times the rate of electricity prices in the rest of the US between 2011 and 2017.

When the subsidies are included, the true costs of renewable energy skyrockets! 

Georgetown Property Tax Hike?

Is there a property tax hike looming in Georgetown's near future? Check out this slide to be presented to the City Council in the budget workshop tomorrow, July, 17, 2018.

It looks like the staff is saying that the debt payments are more than the city operations budget and that is "bad" policy. It would be helpful if there were proof offered that when debt and operations costs are about equal, that is a sign of "good" fiscal health.

The debt payments will be increasing as previously voter approved bonds are sold to fund several capital improvements. What is not mentioned is the significant number of Certificates of Obligations, non-voter approved, that are planned.

This is potentially happening at a time when the property tax revenue is increasing at a 8.42% annual rate and the sales tax revenue is increasing at a 7.76% annual rate as shown in the following charts.

At the same time, according to City published population numbers, the population is growing at a 3.56% annual rate over the last 10 years.

It would seem that the city has ample revenue to fund ongoing operations without resorting to debt.

For instance, in the 2018 Budget, $35.2M in bond proceeds were to be used to operate the City, of which $8.75M, or 25%, were Certificates of Obligation.

The City needs to reexamine its debt in comparison to population growth and needs before they impose more debt on the taxpayers of Georgetown.

What is Driving GISD Budget Growth?

Recall that the GISD budget is growing at a rate of 8.71% annually.

Yet, the number of enrolled students is only growing at an annual rate of 2.1%.

Lets look at the total staff growth.

The staff is growing at about the same rate as the enrolled students.

Lets look at the debt service.

Whoa! We may have identified one of the main drivers of the budget growth. Debt service is growing at an annual rate of 10.71%, even as the debt is being paid down.

It would appear that Georgetown ISD taxpayers should be very wary of approving more bond debt until the current debt is paid down substantially.

GISD Spending Out-of-Control!

Georgetown ISD, like the City of Georgetown, uses the rhetoric that growth is driving the budget to ever greater heights. But, lets look at the numbers that are important to GISD, the number of enrolled students.

Over the last 5 years, total enrollment in all the GISD schools has been increasing at an annual rate of 2.1%. Hardly an earth shattering growth rate!

Now lets examine the growth in the GISD budget.

The budget has been increasing at a 8.71% annual rate over the past 5 years. This is more than 4 times the rate of student enrollment.

Its time to ask the school board hard questions about the rate of spending increases. Teachers tell us that growth rate is not reflected in their salaries! So, where is the money going? Clearly budget growth rates in excess of 4 times enrollment growth rates are not required to accommodate "growth".

PS: This data is available from the GISD website or the Texas Education Agency TEA.

Georgetown ISD Needs A Better Negotiator

In the fiscal year ending June, 30, 2018, GISD paid $2.1M for electricity purchased from the City of Georgetown. That is $.112082/KwHr. 

The City charges itself $.0606/KwHr, which is likely the cost the City incurs to purchase and distribute electricity. Just think, a shrewed negotiator could save the school district $1m/yr if they paid the same rate that the City charges itself!

The district could give each of the 781 teachers a raise of over $1200/yr with that $1M savings.

Transportation Project FYI

TxDOT is planning to make Leander Road, aka RM2243, a controlled access highway between Toll road 183A in Leander and I-35 in Georgetown. The total cost is estimated to be $158M with $8.9M allocated to Williamson Country in 2019 for the initial design required for environmental clearance.

Georgetown is requesting $4.5M in 2021 to construct 4 lanes on Leander Road from the SW Bypass eastward to Norcross.

More info available at CAMPO.

Climate Change and Renewables

The climate change advocates that blame mankind for emitting CO2 and thus causing the planet to warm are spewing their disinformation again as evidenced by letters and articles in the Wilco Sun.

A well known climate scientist of 40 years, Dr. Roy Spencer debunks the claim that mankind has caused most or all the temperature changes in the last 2,000 years. In his latest blog post he observes the following:

Am I claiming that there is no such thing as human-caused warming? No. I’m claiming that it is overblown. The Public Citizen memo makes much of recent record warm years clustering together, which sounds alarming — if one doesn’t mention the small fractions of a degree involved. If there was no natural year-to-year variability, and the temperature was increasing at 0.01 or 0.02 deg. F every year, then every successive year would be a record warm year…but who would care? The rate of ‘global warming’ is too weak for any one person to notice in their lifetime.

Furthermore, we already know the climate models (which are the basis for proposed changes in energy policy to get us away from fossil fuels) are producing generally twice as much warming of the atmosphere-ocean system as has been observed. The most recent energy budget analysis of surface and deep-ocean warming suggests that the climate system is only half as sensitive to our CO2 emissions as you are being told…. maybe 1.5 deg. C of eventual warming from a doubling of atmospheric CO2. At 410 ppm, We are currently half way to doubling.

Finally, the Public Citizen memo claims that today’s technology would already allow 80% to 100% of our energy to come from renewable sources. This is patently false. Solar and wind are relatively diffuse (and thus expensive) sources of energy which are intermittent, requiring fossil fuel (or nuclear) backup. It would be exceedingly expensive to get even 50% of our energy from such sources. Maybe someday we will have such technologies, but until that day arrives, the massive amount of money that would be required to achieve such a goal would worsen poverty, which historically has been the leading cause of premature death in the world.

Dr Spencer is the co-inventor of the satellite based temperature measurements of the global lower atmosphere and he collects and archives that data for all to use.

Peruse his website and educate yourself. The site has real scientific data and analysis of global temperature that laymen can understand and appreciate. 

Water Rates are Also Increasing in Georgetown

The typical Georgetown resident who uses 20,000 gallons of potable per month will see their combined water and sewage monthly bill increase from $95.15 to $126.10 in 5 years. That is a 5.8% annual growth rate.

According to City documents, the city population is growing at either 3.6% or 4.8% annually. So why are the water rates increasing at a higher rate? Is the City trying to make up funds that should have been funded by developers of the new homes? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Get involved! Attend your City Council Workshops and Meetings and ask questions!

PS: Do you remember the City telling you that the water services are also a "profit" center that takes in more money than it costs to operate. In 2018 the water services are scheduled to turn over $2.7M to the General Fund to be spent as the City sees fit.

School Accountability is Coming to Texas

In August 2018 – for the first time - each school district will get a fair, transparent, and easy-to-understand A through F letter grade that measures how well the district is serving its students. School Accountability

Georgetown to Increase Electric Rates

Councilman Fought has alerted citizens in his council district, via his subscription newsletter, that utility rates are going to increase in the near future.

We have been told over the last two years that our electric rates would not increase because of the long-term contracts for solar and wind generated electricity. This turns out to not be absolutely true.

The current argument is that the electric company cash reserve has been used to fund projects to accommodate the growth and needs to be replenished, even though it has been city policy that growth is to pay for itself.

So, the first question to ask is why haven't the new customers paid to expand the electric system to meet their needs? What happened? Why should existing rate payers fund the replenishment of the cash reserve?

The analysis presented by Councilman Fought focuses on increasing the fixed rate customer charge as the solution and the only options considered related to how quickly the customer charge is increased. There is another option to be discussed below.

Here are the current residential rates from the Georgetown website.

Councilman Foughts analysis selected a monthly usage of 1000 Kwhrs for a typical residential customer. At the current rate, the cost per Kwhr excluding sales tax would be 12.08 cents/Kwhr. Looking at a typical usage for April or May of 239/Kwhrs, the cost per Kwhr increases to 18.7 cents/Kwhr. This 50% increase is entirely due to the fixed charge of $20/month. Just keep in mind the large impact the fixed charge can have on your cost per Kwhr!

Now does anyone remember the City telling you that the electric company is a "profit center" for the City? In 2018 the electric company is scheduled to turn over $5.5M, that is excess to their operating costs, to the City General Fund to be used for whatever the City decides to spend it on.

The question is: Why doesn't the City use some of that "profit" to replenish the electric company cash reserve?

PS: The comparison of tax rates, water rates or electric rates to surrounding jurisdictions is completely superfluous. The only metric that matters is how much it costs the individual Georgetown tax or rate payer.

PPS: At the June 26 Workshop, the City said they are "really really" going to make the developers pay for all necessary upgrades in the future.

A Classical Education Provides Superior Results

A  school report demonstrates that students that receive a classical education as opposed to an education based on common core, soar to the top achievement levels.

A school in Florida that dumped the Common Core program in favor of traditional teaching methods has soared to the number one position in the State’s top schools list, according to government statistics.

Thanks to the classical approach of phonics, an impressive 90 percent of the third-grade students at Mason Classical Academy (MCA) were proficient in English Language Arts, compared to just 58 percent in the county overall, most of whom rely on Common Core. In fact, the MCA third-graders were in Florida’s top two percent, while fifth graders from the academy ranked in the state’s top one percent.

To observe the operation of a school using the classical approach, visit Founders Classical Academy in Leander. Both the Mason and Founders schools use the classical teaching techniques and curricula developed by Hillsdale College.

Buckthorn Solar has been Sold by NRG

What are the implications for Georgetown's contract with NRG for the electricity produced by the Buckthorn solar farm? 

Again, no transparency from the City of Georgetown on any impact of the ownership change at Buckthorn. The citizens have to gather this information on their own.

This news release was posted in February 2018. Further analysis was reported yesterday as to why NRG was selling their renewable energy business.

The company has also struggled with balance sheet problems over the past few years. In short, the company is over-leveraged relative to its income. This should not really come as a surprise due to the damage that the aforementioned rate war inflicted upon all of the companies in the space. These financial problems persisted even after the company managed to shed nearly $3 billion in debt via the 2017 bankruptcy of GenOn.

More information GIP: 

NRG Yield, Inc. (NYSE: NYLD, NYLD.A) today announces that Global Infrastructure Partners (“GIP”), a leading global independent infrastructure investor, has entered into a binding agreement (the “Transaction”) to acquire NRG Energy Inc.’s (NRG) full ownership interest in NRG Yield and NRG’s renewable development and operations platform. With over $45 billion in assets under management and approximately $9 billion of equity invested or committed in the renewable energy sector, GIP provides NRG Yield with a leading sponsor with substantial financial resources to accelerate development of the next generation of drop down projects. GIP has deep experience as a sponsor of publicly traded vehicles in the energy and power sectors and has the unique ability to enhance NRG Yield’s long-term growth opportunities and access to capital. Furthermore, GIP’s demonstrated commitment to the expansion of renewables globally aligns its economic interests with those of NRG Yield’s public shareholders.

NRG and NRG Yield entered into Purchase and Sale Agreements for NRG Yield to purchase NRG’s interest in the following ROFO pipeline assets: 527 MW Carlsbad Energy Center and 154 MW Buckthorn Solar for additional cash proceeds of $407 million, subject to certain adjustments.

 Do we know the health of NRG Yield and Global Infrastructure Partners, or, will we find out later they are just like Sun Edison? Over leveraged and under cash flowed with bankruptcy in the future! Time will tell and you can be sure the City will not tell us!!

City Claims of "100% Renewable Energy" are 99% Misleading

The executive director of the Energy and Environment Initiative at Rice University says: "Let’s not get carried away. Although activists herald these pledges as major environmental accomplishments, they’re more of a marketing gimmick. Use my home state of Texas as an example. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas oversees 90% of the state’s electricity generation and distribution. 

Texas generates more wind and solar power than any other state. Yet more than 71% of the council’s total electricity still comes from coal and natural gas.The trick is that there’s no method to designate electrons on the grid as originating from one source or another. Power generated by fossil fuels and wind turbines travels together over poles and underground wires before reaching cities, homes and businesses. No customer can use power from wind and solar farms exclusively." WSJ

So how do cities make this 100% renewable claim while still receiving regular electricity from the grid? They pay to generate extra renewable energy that they then sell on the market. If they underwrite enough, they can claim to have offset whatever carbon-generated electricity they use. The proceeds from the sale go back to the city and are put toward its electric bill. 

In essence, these cities are buying a “renewable” label to put on the regular power they’re using. 

When the sun is shinning and the wind is blowing in West Texas, the generating plants under contract to Georgetown generate more electricity than Georgetown can use and so that electricity is used by other Texans connected to the grid. When the sun is not shinning and the wind is not blowing, Georgetown's electricity comes from the coal, nuclear and gas fired plants, just like everyone else in Texas.

So recognize the marketing propaganda when you hear it! 

Misguided City Priorities

As Sun City has grown, so has the traffic. In the area around the intersection of Del Webb and Sun City Boulevard, the safety of pedestrians has been comprised because of the increased traffic. The City conducted a traffic analysis and concluded several actions could be taken to mitigate the risk to pedestrians and these actions include: lowering the speed limit to 30mph, tree trimming and installing motion activated flashing lights at three pedestrian crosswalks.

Alas, the city has decided that it cannot afford to install the flashing lights because they are too expensive!

Consider this statement of the Georgetown 2018 final budget on page 1 of the General Fund Summary: "The projected available fund balance after accounting for contingency, economic stability reserve, and the benefit payout reserve totals $1.9 million."

It is unlikely that three motion-activated flashing lights would cost in excess of $1.9M. If public safety is not the number 1 responsibility of the City, then what is a higher priority?

Texas Sales Tax Revenue Up

Presumably the sales tax revenue for the City of Georgetown will increase a like amount. More money for the Council to spend! 

(AUSTIN) — Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar today said state sales tax revenue totaled $2.77 billion in June, 13.7 percent more than in June 2017."Sales tax revenue increased for almost all major economic sectors," Hegar said. "The strong revenue growth was led by collections from the mining and manufacturing sectors. The construction, wholesale and retail trade sectors also saw strong gains."Total sales tax revenue for the three months ending in June 2018 was up 12.4 percent compared to the same period a year ago. Sales tax revenue is the largest source of state funding for the state budget, accounting for 58 percent of all tax collections.