This article discusses the influence of a natural gas company, Texas Gas Service, on Austin's climate planning process. In 2019, the Austin Office of Sustainability began recruiting community members to volunteer in the community climate plan revision. This revision had two primary goals: 1) to update and strengthen the city's community-wide energy transition goals, 2) to recenter the climate plan around equity.
After nearly a year of meeting with their volunteers and generating a community driven, aggressive, and ethically nuanced climate plan, the city opened up their final draft for public comment. This is when Texas Gas got wind of the plan and attempted to reshape it according to their own ideas sustainability and equity.
The two sections of the plan that caught the gas industry's eye were the section on green buildings and the electrification of transportation. The former section included a goal to have all new buildings completely electrified by 2030 (i.e. with no natural gas hookups), and all existing buildings were to be retrofitted to be gas free by 2040. In the electrification of transportation section, Texas Gas argued against the investment in EV infrastructure and incentives for EV purchases. As natural gas is a cheap and plentiful fuel, and compressed natural gas vehicles are cleaner than gasoline or diesel, they argued for investment of compressed natural gas vehicles and infrastructure to serve as a bridge to carbon-free transportation.
Texas Gas then gave their own line edits to the plan, shifting language from "electrification" or "electric vehicles" to "de-carbonization" or "alternative fuel vehicles," therein paving the way for natural gas to serve as a transitional resource on the way to carbon free. The climate planning steering committee was deeply upset and disturbed by the way this fossil fuel company came in this late in the game and still had such a significant impact on what was otherwise a community driven plan. They have rallied to push back against these changes and have received support from the City Council. However, this city-battle has since been largely superceded by the state.
Beyond the scope of Austin, the lobbying group, American Gas Association, is working towards preempting cities from curbing natural gas consumption by backing state-level legislation against city's ability to discriminate against certain fuel resources. Four states have already passed legislation that prohibits city-wide gas bans and twelve others have it on the table, including Texas. One of these bills, the Texas House Bill 17, has now passed the Texas House and is on its way to the Senate.
Emily Holden, Amal Ahmed and Brendan Gibbonns, "A Texas city had a bold new climate plan – until a gas company got involved", contributed by James Adams, The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 5 April 2021, accessed 29 April 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/texas-city-had-bold-new-climate-plan-–-until-gas-company-got-involved
Critical Commentary
This article discusses the influence of a natural gas company, Texas Gas Service, on Austin's climate planning process. In 2019, the Austin Office of Sustainability began recruiting community members to volunteer in the community climate plan revision. This revision had two primary goals: 1) to update and strengthen the city's community-wide energy transition goals, 2) to recenter the climate plan around equity.
After nearly a year of meeting with their volunteers and generating a community driven, aggressive, and ethically nuanced climate plan, the city opened up their final draft for public comment. This is when Texas Gas got wind of the plan and attempted to reshape it according to their own ideas sustainability and equity.
The two sections of the plan that caught the gas industry's eye were the section on green buildings and the electrification of transportation. The former section included a goal to have all new buildings completely electrified by 2030 (i.e. with no natural gas hookups), and all existing buildings were to be retrofitted to be gas free by 2040. In the electrification of transportation section, Texas Gas argued against the investment in EV infrastructure and incentives for EV purchases. As natural gas is a cheap and plentiful fuel, and compressed natural gas vehicles are cleaner than gasoline or diesel, they argued for investment of compressed natural gas vehicles and infrastructure to serve as a bridge to carbon-free transportation.
Texas Gas then gave their own line edits to the plan, shifting language from "electrification" or "electric vehicles" to "de-carbonization" or "alternative fuel vehicles," therein paving the way for natural gas to serve as a transitional resource on the way to carbon free. The climate planning steering committee was deeply upset and disturbed by the way this fossil fuel company came in this late in the game and still had such a significant impact on what was otherwise a community driven plan. They have rallied to push back against these changes and have received support from the City Council. However, this city-battle has since been largely superceded by the state.
Beyond the scope of Austin, the lobbying group, American Gas Association, is working towards preempting cities from curbing natural gas consumption by backing state-level legislation against city's ability to discriminate against certain fuel resources. Four states have already passed legislation that prohibits city-wide gas bans and twelve others have it on the table, including Texas. One of these bills, the Texas House Bill 17, has now passed the Texas House and is on its way to the Senate.