Trail of Lights Fee

Trail of Lights won't be free on weekends this winter

The Trail of Lights Foundation announced on Friday that it will implement a fee for the 2014 Trail of Lights, December 7-21.

The new fee will be $3 for individuals 12 and older and will be charged on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. The majority of the nights during Trail of Lights will still be free, including the grand opening on Sunday, December 7, thanks to funding from local sponsors.

"The Trail of Lights saw a large increase in attendance last year, welcoming more than 400,000 people in 2013," said Executive Director James Russell. "By implementing a weekend gate fee on the most highly attended nights, we expect to better disperse the crowds to ensure everyone is able to experience and enjoy the Trail of Lights in a comfortable and safe way."

The gate fee was proposed by Mayor Lee Leffingwell earlier this month to help cover the cost of additional security, clean-up efforts and staffing on the weekends. Austin City Council approved a change to the Trail of Lights Foundation’s contract with the city, allowing the foundation to implement a fee.

The fee marks a significant change to an event that has been free to the public for 50 years. However, it will help ensure that the Trail of Lights never goes dark again due to a lack of funding. The foundation also says that funds can help to add more activities and displays for holiday revelers to enjoy.

The Trail of Lights Foundation will vote each year about implementing the fee.

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Who Has the Energy?

Austin City Council approves energy plan to go coal-free by 2035

Photo by Jeremy Doddridge on Unsplash

Austin Energy drafted a plan that the Austin City Council accepted unanimously.

Many are uncertain about the world's collective energy strategy, but the City of Austin has a game plan for the next 10 years. The City Council has unanimously adopted Austin Energy’s Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan to 2035.

According to a release from the city, this plan offers "a flexible path to a clean energy future that incorporates the community’s core values of reliability, affordability, environmental sustainability and energy equity."

Members of the public can review extensive documentation, including the 72-page report, at publicinput.com.

The plan authored by Austin Energy includes a number of strategies carried over from 2020. It includes a goal of going completely carbon-free by 2035 in favor of renewable sources like wind and solar; prioritizing solutions that directly impact the customer like better demand response, efficiency programs, solar options, and customer-installed battery storage; and reaching further into exploring more advanced systems like nuclear and geothermal tech or virtual power plants.

It also addresses the need for more responsive solutions during "extreme weather events," both in the heat and cold, which it proposes implementing locally. The lead meteorologist for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has predicted an overall warmer winter for 2025, but with greater chances of experiencing extreme cold — so this may be an increasingly pressing topic on Austinites' minds.

Despite a sweeping desire to enable more renewable resources, one of the local solutions would be allowing Austin Energy to add more, higher-efficiency natural gas peakers, which would have an emissions cap and only run as an emergency measure. A graph in the report shows that 50 percent of Austin Energy's 2023 generation was renewable, compared to 41 percent of ERCOT's.

"As renewable resources continue to increase in the ERCOT system, we’re seeing new operational challenges," the report explains. "One example is curtailment for these resources when too much power is produced and the system can’t handle it. This makes that resource less valuable to our customers. Local renewable energy, energy storage, energy efficiency and demand response investments avoid these challenges and will be especially important going forward."

“A big part of this plan is readying ourselves to get out of Fayette Power Project,” said Mayor Kirk Watson in the city release. “There must be replacement power to protect customers from energy shortfalls and additional energy market risks. For those who share the goal of getting out of coal, this plan is a step forward.”

Austin Energy created the plan with input from 7,512 customers, including 6,355 residential consumers. Their greatest concern was reliability, ranked as a No. 1 value by 38 percent of participants. There were also stakeholder workshops involving groups like the University of Texas at Austin, Austin ISD, H-E-B, Sierra Club, and Habitat for Humanity.

“We are extremely grateful to Austin City Council and our many community partners and industry experts who played a vital role in shaping Austin Energy’s future,” said Austin Energy general manager Bob Kahn. “We are confident that this plan provides the flexibility Austin Energy needs to meet the challenges ahead while reflecting the priorities of our community.”

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