Questions By Sierra Club – Austin Regional Group

What are the top environmental issues in your District? What are the top environmental issues for the City as a whole? Will you work with the Sierra Club’s Austin Regional Group to address these issues? Please describe your personal practices on being a good environmental steward.

The Austin City Council – as the board of directors for Austin Energy – has directed a transition to renewable energy as fast as economically possible. Among many directives on this policy, Resolution 2014-08-28-157 was specific in “reducing CO2 emissions from all city-controlled generation resources to zero by 2030,” subject to meeting the affordability guidelines. Do you support the goal of Zero Carbon by 2030 from all city-owned generation resources? YES or NO

How will you work to ensure that this goal is the baseline for future electric generation planning by Austin Energy?

One part of Austin’s Climate Protection Plan is to shut down our part of the Fayette Power Plant by the end of 2022. Do you support this? What are the challenges facing the City to accomplish this?

What will you do to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles in the city fleet? By the public at large? How would you help Austin partner and lead CapMetro and CAMPO to transition our public transportation?

What will you do to improve mobility (the ability of people to reach their destinations) in Austin?

How will you work with CAMPO for the interests of the City of Austin?

Will you push to improve energy efficiency requirements for new homes, and to increase funding for such programs (weatherization, etc.) for existing homes, especially of low-income residents? YES or NO? How?

Achieving environmental justice is an ongoing challenge in Austin. What are the most egregious examples of environmental injustice and what will you do to address them?

How do you plan to address the affordability and housing crises in Austin? Council discussions on affordability constantly use terms such as 80% or 60% MFI. Will you agree to use more specific numbers (e.g. how much do these units cost, in dollars) in public discussions?

How would you evaluate the accessibility, quality, maintenance and number of parks in your district? How will you create a permanent, ongoing and sustainable funding mechanism for public parks and aquatic facilities?

Code Next is dead. We still have a land use code that many find unsatisfactory. What instructions would you give the City Manager for developing a new Code? What should be the timeline for presenting to the public and Council? What do the terms affordability and density mean to you?

Austin is being considered as a second headquarters for Amazon. Do you support this, and why? What environmental issues do you see coming before the City Council in relation to this?

The city is working on a new plan called Water Forward. How would you evaluate the merits of this plan and the implementation timeline? How will you push for water conservation and reuse to help preserve our limited and uncertain water resources in Central Texas?

AWU reduced rates in all tiers, including commercial, this year as the drought deepened. Will you support keeping the lower rates for the lowest tier, assisting lower-income ratepayers, while increasing rates for higher volume users? YES or NO

It’s been said that Austin’s climate is drought interrupted by flooding rains. Impervious cover exacerbates these costly floods. Do you support requiring water capture and reuse in new development and redevelopment? YES or NO

Will you work to lower the trigger for requiring water capture & reuse from the currently allowed ≳8000 square feet to 5000 sf (as recommended by the Integrated Water Resource Management Task Force)? YES or NO

The Sierra Club’s Austin Regional Group supports the Watershed Protection Dept. recommendation that GSI water quality measures be required for new and re-development projects of more than 45% impervious cover. Will you support this? YES or NO

If an initiative to use water from the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer is brought before Council, how will you vote? YES or NO

Dripping Springs and private developers are proposing to dump treated sewage that will end up in Onion Creek and Barton Creek, respectively, and then in Barton Springs. How will you work with these entities to prevent degradation of water quality and develop a more environmental solution?

Do you support or oppose the Council’s recent resolution to encourage retailers and grocers to voluntarily continue to enforce the “Bag Ban”? How will you help educate citizens in your District on the importance of reusable bags and the negative impacts of plastic, and on other environmental issues in general?