It apparently escaped the notice of the Texas media that Mayor Ross participated in a national climate change town hall hosted by Senator Bernie Sanders on December 3, 2018 in Washington, DC.
Here is a youtube video of the event with the Mayor appearing beginning at 1:03:40 and ending at 1:19:10.Climate Change Town Hall
Notice at approximately 1:11:30 the mayor indicates that he has talked with a billionaire who has authorized the mayor to spend $50M in the city of Georgetown because he wants to reward cities with environmentally friendly policies. The mayor indicates he is working on a plan to spend that money.
Perhaps this is the way the mayor intends to keep electric rates from increasing as GUS loses money.
The following day the mayor granted an interview to CityLab in which he describes the language used in the narrative to sell the city's renewable energy program wherein the word "innovative" was used instead of the more descriptive word "progressive".
Read the entire interview as it is very revealing.
The man is a fraud and a liar. He has betrayed the people who supported him and the community as a whole. Development is not the answer and his legacy will be a huge bedroom community over run by outsiders and over taxed to the point of lunacy.
ReplyDeleteMayor Ross does not tell the complete story when touting Georgetown Utilities Systems (GUS) all renewable electric energy program.
ReplyDeleteApproximately 85 percent of Texans can choose an electric service plan that meets their needs. But not the residents of Georgetown! They get the one size fits all plan that GUS serves up.
The city council could have opened the Georgetown market to competition when the electric utility market in Texas was deregulated in 2002, but it decided not to do so. It could still do so. But it continues to prohibit competition and, most distressing, will not say why!
GUS’s customers pay up to to 29 percent more for residential electric energy than those in the central Texas communities that were opened to competition. Residents of Round Rock, for example, can shop for an electric service plan that best meets their needs. For a one year contract for 500 kWh, as an example, they can choose from 64 different plans with a variety of features, i.e. free weekends, free nights, 100 percent green, etc. But GUS has just a one size fits plan. No choice.
Last April GUS put together a comparative analysis of what its customers pay for 1,000 kWh per month compared to what like kind users outside of Georgetown pay. Of the 42 providers included in the survey, GUS' charges more for 1,000 kWh than 24 of the other providers.
GUS is heavily subsidized. It pays no taxes; it uses tax free municipal financing to expand its system; and it buys power from heavily subsidized renewable energy sources.
Electric energy cannot be segregated for transmission and distribution. Approximately 82 percent of the power flowing through GUS’s meters in 2017 was generated by coal, natural gas, and/or nuclear. The power flowing to GU's customers will be 100 percent renewable only when the Texas Grid is 100 percent renewable. And that is a long way down the road.
If the mayor and city council believe that it has implemented the optimum electric energy plan for GUS’s customers, it should have no fear in opening the Georgetown retail electric service market to competition. As soon as potential and existing customers realize what a good deal they are getting from GUS, they will shun the overtures of all comers!
If the Georgetown electric energy market were open to competition, the council would not have to disclose the terms of the wind and solar contracts. The marketplace would determine whether the council made a good decision.