One hopes that everybody in Austin knows about this already, but it's probably news to people elsewhere.
Back in February 1999 the Austin City Council adopted a resolution requiring 5 percent of
energy used by Austin-area consumers come from renewable sources.
As a result, AustinEnergy lets consumers pick from a couple of packages of renewable sources
of energy.
The idea is that it may cost more right now, but the price is fixed for ten years.
So not only do you get to help out with shifting to renewable energy starting immediately,
but also over the longterm you save because your price remains the same while the price
of petroleum-based energy goes up.
This program is quite popular, perhaps even more with businesses than with consumers.
Most of the renewable energy used in this project comes from wind, including turbines in west Texas similar to those pictured.
