Dive Brief:

• Environmental groups, members of city council and the city's mayor have struck a deal in Austin Energy's seven-month rate case, ensuring efficiency funding, development of solar policies and finalizing a plan to pay for closing the Fayette coal-­fired power plant.
• Under the deal, Austin Energy agreed to commit $5 million to shutter its share of the facility by 2022, and mapping out an implementation plan by next year. 
• The settlement included Sierra Club and Public Citizen, which had teamed up to argue shuttering the coal plant was essential to meeting the city's environmental goals.

Dive Insight:

Environmental groups say the settlement struck with Austin Energy addresses two key issues: the development of commercial solar policies, and closure of some capacity at the Fayette coal plant following "weeks of intense negotiations." 

Cyrus Reed, conservation director of the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter,​ said in a statement "we finally have a settlement that ensures sufficient funding for solar and energy efficiency programs, keeps residential rates low, and creates a process to deal with two fundamental policy issues: how to compensate commercial solar owners and how we are going to retire the Fayette coal plant that is responsible for most of our carbon dioxide pollution. 

He and Kaiba White, a policy ad outreach specialist at Public Citizen, called for the City Council to approve the settlement.White also said shuttering the plant would be a long-term win for consumers, as "the economics of producing power from coal are looking worse all the time."

The utility had proposed doubling an Energy Efficiency Service charge paid by residential customers each month, arguing changes are necessary because commercial customers are paying more than their fair share. Efficiency advocates said the change would dissuade customers from conserving energy.