Listen Up Mayor, City Council

February 4, 2009

It is time to implement real change to San Antonio for a new energy future. We applaud the ambitious, innovative ideas for decentralized, renewable power and efficiency outlined in Mission Verde. And yet, Mayor Hardberger and CPS Energy continue to undermine these goals and mortgage our future on nuclear power. Southwest Workers Union, the Youth Leadership Organization and the Committee for Environmental Justice Action call on the City officials to follow through on its vision for sustainability by adopting binding commitments to implement a free low-income weatherization program, abandon its nuclear path, mandate transparency on the part of CPS Energy and the allocation of rate-payer dollars, and take immediate steps towards reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.

Weatherization: the anti-poverty, anti-pollution solution
San Antonio’s lack of energy efficiency programs has created a “low rate, high waste” economy where residential energy consumption is unusually high. At the same time, the coupling of high energy use with rising energy costs is causing a financial crisis for working families. Families eligible for federal home energy assistance spend 20% of household income on home energy bills, six times more than any other income group. Lower income households use 28% more energy per square foot than higher income households primarily because they live in older, less energy-efficient homes but are unable to afford insulation or other costly efficiency measures. Last summer, CPS Energy reaped $178 million in windfall revenue from the fuel adjustment charge, which created a $25 million surplus for the City. That windfall was borne on the back of San Antonio’s neediest families, and it’s time to give it back.

CPS Energy’s current program for low-income families consists of a subsidy towards their monthly bill (REAP). Weatherization instead assists families in permanently reducing their energy bills by making their homes more efficient, addressing the building envelope, its heating and cooling systems, its electrical system, and electric appliances. Residential retrofitting activities constitute the most cost-effective sector of potential emissions abatement, many of which could be achieved at a negative cost. They also increase consumer buying power and can create 52 community jobs for every million dollars invested. A recent update of several studies on energy savings from weatherization found an average savings of roughly 30 percent were achievable for less than $3,000 per home.

The pillars of CPS’s efficiency programs are rebates and incentives that only reward the customers who are able to make an initial investment. According to an EIA commissioned study, these programs increase disparity because high-income residents are the most likely to access them while the bottom 40% of the income bracket can seldom participate. Rebates also fail to realize the full potential for energy savings, because participants tend to occupy houses that are more energy efficient than those occupied by nonparticipants and the benefits are disproportionately received by those with higher income while it is the poor families who have the greatest opportunity for efficiency.

Existing federal weatherization programs also don’t go nearly far enough. Fewer than 2,100 homes across the state received weatherization assistance from the Department of Energy in 2006. In San Antonio alone, more than 125,000 homes would be eligible for this program based on their income.

Nuclear: still a bad idea
In spite of the concerns of both residents and elected officials, the Mayor has still endorsed a radioactive legacy. It is hard to see how this multi-billion dollar mega project fits into the Mayor and CPS’s new endorsement of a “21st century”, decentralized energy economy. With Mayor Hardberger’s blessing, San Antonio ratepayers have already sunk $266 million just to consider two nuclear reactors. At $3,000 a home, that is nearly 90,000 homes that could have been weatherized. Assuming a conservative savings of 4000 kWh per weatherized home, that’s over 40 MW in yearly energy savings that we’ve forgone just to “stay in the running” for nuclear reactors.

With price tag estimates that range from $6 to over $16 billion, the only thing we know for sure is that no one knows for sure what the reactors will cost today. Within 20 months after commencing construction, the Western world’s only current nuclear construction project by Areva in Finland is already 2 years behind schedule and is 25% over budget. Taiwan’s Lungman reactor has fallen 5 years behind schedule and China’s Taiwan project took 2 years longer than planned. While nuclear power is consistently estimated at over $0.06/kWh (and as high as $1), recent studies have priced wind energy between $0.04-0.06 and efficiency regularly comes in as low as $0.01 , . In this high stakes gamble, it is the vision for a new sustainable energy economy and San Antonio’s poor families, that will lose.

Towards an accountable and transparent CPS
The recent vigorous debate over San Antonio’s energy future has revealed a disturbing lack of accountability on the part of CPS to the City and its rate payers. Not once has CPS explained how the $266 million South Texas Nuclear Project allocation has been spent on what must surely be most expensive “feasibility study” ever conducted. CPS’s windfall profits last summer came on the heels of the first rate increase in years, and yet not one concrete re-investment has been made to put that money to work for working families. City Council members who rallied in defense of struggling families to deny CPS the full rate increase it sought have utterly failed to follow through on holding the agency accountable.

Climate change: get used to it
There is no doubt that climate change constitutes a looming catastrophe for South Texas and that federal greenhouse gas legislation is coming. With our arsenal of coal plants, San Antonio families and City revenue will be hit hard by a carbon price. When evaluating the upfront cost of weatherization and other efficiency programs, it’s important to remember that the most expensive option is to take no action.

San Antonio needs to take proactive steps towards mitigating the cost of adapting to climate change and a carbon price, starting with a greenhouse gas inventory and adopting a renewable portfolio standard at least as strict as that of the state. This standard should include a carve-out for roof top solar and other forms of distributive power to harness the benefits of producing clean power locally. Unlike nuclear reactors that won’t come online for over a decade, efficiency and localized renewable energy projects have the potential to make and immediate and lasting impact on our carbon footprint. And while contributing less carbon than fossil fuel-derived power, the lifecycle of a nuclear plant generates 7-10 times more carbon per unit of energy produced than wind or solar.

City leaders must also take the important step of decoupling CPS’s energy sales from its revenue. As long as City revenue depends on selling more energy, we will never harness the true potential of efficiency, the elusive “nega-watt” and the lowest cost option for meeting our energy needs.

The vision Mayor Hardberger has put forth in words is promising. Now is the time to put those words into action through binding mandates that will outlast his tenure. SWU, YLO and CEJA support immediate action towards binding legislation that will move this vision forward: a free low-income weatherization program, renewable portfolio standard, long-term efficiency loan program, ambitious building codes, commitment to reduce the City’s energy use, the decoupling of CPS energy sales from profit to align incentives with energy savings, and mechanisms for public disclosure of CPS information to ensure broad and informed debate.