Source: Texas city opts for 100% renewable energy – to save cash, not the planet, by Tom Dart, The Guardian, March 29, 2015.  

Notes: To sum up this Guardian article by Tom Dart:

Georgetown is located in Williamson County, Texas, a county that voted more than 60% Republican in 2012. This city plans to receive 100% of its electricity from wind farms and solar plants by January 2017. That makes Georgetown the first city in Texas to gets all of its power from green sources.

As the mayor, city manager and many of the residents would tell you, Georgetown is switching to renewables to strictly to save money, NOT to combat global warming or save the environment.

"No, environmental zealots have not taken over our city council, and we're not trying to make a statement about fracking or climate change," Georgetown Mayor Dale Ross writes in a letter in Time. "Our move to wind and solar is chiefly a business decision based on cost and price stability."

The conservative citizens of Georgetown reacted mostly positive to the announcement because they are getting the security of keeping their utility bills flat from now and the next several decades. By switching from fossil fuels, Georgetown will keep their energy prices locked in close to its current low rate of 9.6 cents per kilowatt-hour until the year 2041, avoiding the price fluctuations associated with fossil fuels.

"I was called an Al Gore clone, a tree-hugger," interim City Manager Jim Briggs told the Guardian. "I'm probably the furthest thing from an Al Gore clone you could find. We didn't do this to save the world — We did this to get a competitive rate and reduce the risk for our consumers."

Image Source: matadornetwork.com  

Additional Notes: On May 5-7, 2015 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, The Climate Reality Project, led by former Vice-President Al Gore, gave an in depth scientific training for 350 participants, including me, on how to give climate change presentations.

During this training, Al Gore talked about Georgetown, Texas going 100% renewable. Gore then cited the quote from the City Manager, ‘I'm the furthest thing from Al Gore you could find. We’re only doing to keep electric rates low.’

Al Gore hilarious response: “Hey man, that works for me!”