Austin Texas is one of the "Greenest" Cities in the Country

Recently, Austin, Texas was named one of the "Top 10 Greenest Cities in America" by MSN City Guides.  This comes as no surprise to those of us who live and work in this great town.  I would like to thank Margaret Woda for bringing this to my attention. 

Serving both as headquarters for Whole Foods Market and Dell Computer and home base for Lance Armstrong (at least part of the year)and Sandra Bullock, Austin also leads the entire country in wind power and biodiesel production.  Additionally, it has built advanced plug-in hybrid vehicles into its energy strategy.  Austin Energy offers one of the "greenest" power grids in the country, and recent demand for green power was so high that they actually ran out for awhile.  There is a new "batch" in place which will be available on January 15th, 2008 according to Austin Energy's website (www.austinenergy.com).  There is a rather large contingent of environmentally protective local citizens, dating back for many years and including the locally famous "Save Our Springs" project, which was instituted to protect Barton Springs.

Austin Energy has a number of environmental initiatives in place currently:

http://www.austinenergy.com/About%20Us/Environmental%20Initiatives/index.htm

Recently, the city announced the Austin Climate Protection Plan, which will require all facilities and fleets to be carbon-neutral by 2020, and 100% of city facilities to be powered by renewable energy by 2012. 

According to the article on this topic on MSN:

There will also be CO2 caps and reduction plans for all utility emissions, something the federal government hasn't dared do. According to Roger Duncan, Austin Energy's deputy general manager, the city is ramping up to make both residential and commercial building codes the most energy-efficient in the nation,  starting by making all new single-family homes "zero net-energy capable"-meaning they could produce as much energy as they use-by 2015, and increasing energy efficiency by 75 percent in all other new construction. The Clean Energy Incubator, sparked by the National Renewable Energy Lab and managed by the University of Texas at Austin, works closely with the power utility and serves as a test bed for budding startup companies to develop green technologies ranging from solar, biofuels and wind to Internet-controlled irrigation systems.

Austin remains a terrific place to live and work, and it is filled with natural beauty.  If you are considering a move to the Austin Texas area, or if you would like more information on investing here, please feel free to call me anytime at 512-796-7653 (cell) or email me at jason@austintexashomes.com.  You can also visit our website at www.austintexashomes.com.  I look forward to assisting you!