Austin Mayor takes aim at 'city's biggest greenhouse gas emitter'

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said in a Friday email newsletter that he doesn't support a proposed power generation plan due to its continued reliance on a certain power plant, which he claims generates 75% of the city's greenhouse gas emissions.

The Fayette Power Plant, which has been in operation since 1979, is operated by the Lower Colorado River Authority. According to Watson, the city needs to "focus on getting us out of the Fayette Power Plant."

"There’s nothing we can do — nothing that I can do as mayor — that’s more profound or effective in combating climate change than getting us out of that plant. I want us to shut down our portion of the plant by no later than January of 2029," Watson said.

The city's proposed "2030 Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan for Austin Energy" would not change how the city uses the coal-fired power plant.

According to Watson, the plant also generates 25% of Austin's overall emissions and is "a huge consumer of our limited water supply."

"While the City Council first committed to shutting down Austin’s portion of Fayette in 2014, and subsequent councils have reinforced that commitment again and again, it hasn’t happened," Watson said. "The community and Council priority is to get out of the coal business, and Austin Energy needs to examine the next iteration of the generation plan through that prism."