City Council Energy Rules afflict Austin Homeowners

People are waking up to the terrible and unnecessary burden the Austin City Council is placing on home-owners and home-sellers with their draconian energy-saving rules. This is based on the nutty and false idea that cutting energy use in Austin will help the climate (it won't; the impact will be miniscule to nonexistent - even if all Austin adopted huge changes, it would impact average global temperature by mere millionths of a degree). Like with their water-use restrictions, this is nanny-statist eco-extremism run amok. The large pocket-book pain ain't worth the fly-speck gain environment-wise.

Carl Tepper, President of the Small Business Group of Austin, sent this note:

The below ran on KXAN the other night as a follow-up to an earlier story about the same issue: KXAN News Video: "Realtors target new green remodeling idea"

Good for the public that they're calling City Hall demanding that their elected officials answer for this crazy idea. The "Task Force" should be ceased immediately and it's insulting that it was started in the first place.

In the story it's amazing that the elected officials would lie blatantly about their pet project. We put up with so much "weird" and creepy stuff from the City of Austin elected officials already, but this is directed straight at our homes. We have to ask ourselves where we draw the line.

This is a concept that WILL cost you thousands of dollars when you sell your home or business (yes, commercial property is included). They say that the "BUYER" will pay. But we all know that an appraiser will determine these costs and the BUYER will require the SELLER to pay in the end by a reduction of value. This is also a direct attack on the elderly, many of whom have much of their personal wealth attached to their homes.

The Austin Board of Realtors is right-on here. They deserve a commendation for sounding the warning about this ridiculous effort. THANK YOU Austin Board of Realtors.

The website Keep Austin Affordable has the latest on the impact of these rules and the effort to stop them.