Austin Energy didn’t check eligibility for some in bill discount program

Audit: Austin Energy didn’t check eligibility for some in bill discount program

KXAN INVESTIGATIONS

by: David Barer, Tahera Rahman

Feb 23, 2022

A resident has filed a complaint against the city regarding homes in high-income ZIP codes who are receiving discounts.

AUSTIN (KXAN) – City auditors found Austin Energy did not ensure more than two dozen customers were eligible to receive utility discounts through the city’s Customer Assistance Program, which is meant to serve low-income residents, according to a recently released special report.

Robbins, a local environmental activist and city utility critic, has been critical of the CAP program for years and has written reports about what he describes as flawed eligibility criteria.

“I’m very disappointed in Austin Energy and the way they are running the program,” Robbins said. “Their business model is how much money can you give away, not how much money can you give away to people that are deserving of the assistance.”

“There could be 1000s of people that are undeserving that make over 200% of poverty that are getting poor people’s money.”

Removing Toxic Building Materials

On February 15, a live presentation was delivered to Austin’s Resource Management Commission about toxics in building materials.  The presentation advocating the incorporation of standards to discourage or mandate elimination of these toxic materials in Austin Energy Green Building programs for Single Family and Multifamily dwellings.

The link to the televised presentation is below.  Cue at 2:20.

A copy of the PowerPoint presentation is linked here.