Posted on 09/19/2019 11:14:50 AM PDT by JeepersFreepers
Austin Mayor Steve Adler recently announced the city’s taxpayers will be paying a whopping $460 million to buy a biomass power plant in East Texas, a plant Austinites had already coughed up $128 million to build and were paying $54 million every year to operate.
Even after all that cash over the span of six years, the plant produced energy for only two months.
The story began in 2008, when Roger Duncan, then-Austin Energy’s general manager, sketched out a plan to help achieve Austin City Council’s renewable energy goals. He wanted local citizens to pony up the cash to build the Nacogdoches Generating Facility, then pay for all of the energy produced at the biomass plant.
His plan required a 20-year, $2.3 billion contract.
The idea immediately received backlash from wide sectors of the public. Environmentalists, businesses, and good government advocates all complained about a slew of problems: The deal was done behind closed doors, there wasn’t careful study or analysis of the details (especially for a long-term contract with citizens’ money), costs would likely overrun, and there wasn’t public input. Several experts warned the archaic, inefficient wood-burning plant proposal may totally bust due to advances in the rest of the energy market.
Despite all of that, Duncan pressured the council to approve his deal just a month after it became public. They did, unanimously.
And over the following months and years, a catastrophe unfolded.
After city council spent $128 million to build the plant, it was barely used because it was so expensive to operate. Though Austinites weren’t getting any power in return, they were still on the hook for $54 million every year for the plant’s manager, Southern Power, per Duncan’s contract.
“They can’t say they couldn’t know [the risk they were taking],” said Trey Salinas with Coalition for Clean Affordable Renewable Energy, “because they were told.”
Finally, with roughly 10 years left to endure the black hole of a contract, Austin City Council recently decided to “get out” of it by just purchasing the entire power plant outright for a princely sum of $460 million. They pitched the plan as a “cheaper” alternative to just throwing away the rest of the money they owed on the deal. Now, the plant will likely just collect dust or simply be torn down.
Mayor Adler called their buyout plan a “great result.”
“We play the hand we’re dealt … we’ve been working since I got into office to get a better financial deal around the biomass plant,” he said. Adler was elected after the contract was already signed.
Unfortunately, the worst part of this tale of foolish waste is that Austin City Council keeps retelling it. For example, take the $140 million they overspent on a bad tunnel, the $450,000 blown on two public toilets, the $115,000 tossed to clean one public toilet, or the millions they literally gave away to citizens who emailed asking for cash.
In fact, city council blows so much money that they spend over $4,000 per man, woman, and child in Austin. That’s about twice as much as is spent in cities like Dallas or Houston.
Wasting $140 million here and $460 million there may seem like arbitrary numbers, but those decisions have created a harsh reality for Austinites.
The average homeowner is now forced to pay 80 percent more to city council than they did just 10 years ago. For many Austinites, that crushing tax bill is forcing them out of their homes—they can no longer scrape together enough cash to feed their government’s ravenous appetite for their hard-earned money.
When citizens struggle to pay their city council, then watch the council foolishly toss that cash out the window over and over again, the question then becomes, “How long will Austinites tolerate it?”
Austin’s $2 billion biomass boondoggle is a pathetic, yet accurate, description of Austin City Council as a whole and their history handling citizens’ money. But will anything change, or will Austinites continue letting city council tax them out of their homes just to waste their money?
Only Austinites can determine the answer to that.
"Last week, the Austin City Council passed their new budget for the next fiscal year, one that includes raising taxes by 8 percent. That means the council will take roughly $100 more from the median homeowner next year.But here’s the shocking part: Compared to just 11 years ago, the city council is now taking 100 percent more cash from the median homeowner. That’s right. Double." (Source)
This article is dated but I considered it important enough to post anyway. I could not find it previously posted on Free Republic.
Butt, butt, butt they said...... How about we build a power plant that runs on black mold? No doubt it would be safe right.
Cui Bono.
I don’t feel sorry for liberal nose-in-the-air Austinites. For conservatives who have to be there for a job, or long-time residents who have seen their area invaded, I have some sympathy.
Fortunately for Adler, Asstown’s carpetbagger Lefty mayor, the voters are stoned a goodly part of the time and don’t seem to mind being ripped off by scammers of all stripes.
Adler and the Silly Council are too busy turning the Texas capital into a stinking replica of San Fran to care about a mere half billion boondoggle that has netted 60 days of energy in six years.
They’re prop tax goes up and when the expense falls away the tax will be raised again for a new nothing.
That’s the tax racket folks.
Lord hep’us all - If this state turns blue in 2020 get ready to see red statewide on the bottom line. I miss T. Boone Pickens voice of reason already.
Fortunately for Adler, Asstown’s carpetbagger Lefty mayor, the voters are stoned a goodly part of the time and don’t seem to mind being ripped off by scammers of all stripes.
Adler and the Silly Council are too busy turning the Texas capital into a stinking replica of San Fran to care about a mere half billion boondoggle that has netted 60 days of energy in six years.
Apologies for double posting. This iPhone is a Democrat.
Living in a tent on the sidewalk is suddenly more attractive...
But where do I plug in to get my free wood-fired electricity?
It's Bizzaro World...
I use biomass to help heat my home in the winter. The technology is called “a fireplace.”
I guarantee that I obtain more usable energy from my fireplace than Austin will ever obtain from this billion dollar boondoggle.
LOL it’s not just liberals who love government waste.
Scratch a boondoggle and you’ll find a crime.
Austin deserves anything they get.
It’s a free election and the citizens vote these people into office.
You haven’t even mentioned the money going from Austin tax payers to the homeless...it’s really quite funny...
Now I’m that they’ve bought everyone off, they should have no trouble getting re-elected.
“...those decisions have created a harsh reality for Austinites.”
A reality which they themselves created when they voted, and from which they have learned absolutely nothing.
People get the government they deserve.
They need to build a plant that runs on liberals sense of self-superiority and self-satisfaction, we’d have surplus endless energy forever.
And misguided intentions too. Plenty of excess energy there.
Thats not misguided intentions, they know what they are doing, the surprise when it doesnt work is the act, they expect you to believe their plausible deniability.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.