A bad idea

A mandatory program to dictate energy efficiency is simply a bad idea for Austin – for a few reasons.

1. Austinites don’t support it – We oppose a mandatory program for energy efficiency because it will decrease the affordability of homeownership in Austin. However, we wanted to know what Austinites think about it, so we commissioned a poll of Austin consumers to discover their thoughts about the best way to pursue energy efficiency in Austin. We found:

• Based on their knowledge of the City of Austin’s proposal to make homes more energy efficient, 58% of Austinites oppose it; and
• After learning more about the specifics of the plan proposed by the Energy Efficiency and Retrofit Task Force, 73% of Austinites opposed it.

Rarely does our citizenry agree on anything this wholeheartedly and we need to listen.

2. It will hurt the economy – It’s not hard to deduce that increasing the cost of owning a home through expensive mandatory energy upgrades will hurt homeownership in Austin, but we wanted to know more. An economic impact study we commissioned evaluated the city’s proposal and revealed that:

• This proposal would decrease the number of Austinites able to buy homes by 5.12% (577 households per year); and
• Depending on the spending caps adopted (between .5% and 1.5% of the value of a home), this program would cost the Austin economy between $40 million and $116 million per year and result in 100 lost jobs every year.

We can’t let unsupported mandatory programs have this impact on our local economy. We must look at alternatives to promoting energy efficiency in Austin.

3. Voluntary programs work – In the same poll that showed us Austinites oppose mandatory energy efficiency programs, we also learned a whopping 77% of our citizenry supports a truly voluntary program promoted with education and incentives. Our residents are demanding it and we know it works, so let’s support energy efficiency the right way in Austin!