[Water] Surface Water. Groundwater. What's the difference? And why does it matter for Texas? In an incredible feat of storytelling, Our Desired Future, a new multimedia educational project, is working hard to answer these questions. With entertaining radio stories, photo essays, and animations, Our Desired Future is explaining the complex intricacies of Texas water law in an easy-to-understand way. They're also raising alarm bells about the dangers of sucking up too much of our state's groundwater too fast. You can watch the videos and learn more about the project here >>

 

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[Transportation] The RideScout Route is making some changes. After running its free downtown circulator pilot for a few weeks, RideScout has listened to rider feedback and changed things up a bit. To accommodate for the hot summer weather, they've swapped out electric open-air cabs for air-conditioned buses and they've added lunchtime and evening hours. The route has also changed. It now runs all the way to Whole Foods on West 6th Street. 

Here's how to ride the new RideScout Route:

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[Transportation] If you're looking for a late night transportation option, check out Uber's recently launched uberPOOL service. It's just like Uber's on-demand taxi service, but with an added twist – you can share rides with strangers. This reduces the number of cars on the road, and in turn, carbon emissions. Plus, uberPOOL is cheaper than the regular uberX service; Within the designated service area (which runs from the Domain to downtown), all rides are $7 or less.

UberPOOL is available between 7pm and 3am on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. More info>>

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[Food/Agriculture] Spend an evening with the bees by reading AEN Blogger Timothy Boston's latest story. In this beautifully-written piece, Timothy takes readers along on a ride as he follows a local beekeeper who has dedicated himself to saving hives in the Austin area. In doing so, Timothy also shares some important lessons about these misunderstood creatures and encourages readers to give them all a bit more love and respect. You can read Timothy's story here>>

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[Food/Agriculture] This one's for all you farmers out there! Austin Community College's Sustainable Agriculture Entrepreneurship Program is offering several new courses this fall to help aspiring and small-scale farmers reap a profit from their produce. More info>>

The courses are designed to address a growing need for trained sustainable farmers in this country. Anannouncement on the ACC website cited a U.S. Department of Agriculture stat that the number of high-skilled jobs in the food, agriculture, renewable natural resources, and environment fields exceeds the number of graduates with degrees in agriculture programs by more than 20,000.
 

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[Energy] Austin Energy has lowered its solar rebate for residential customers by 10 cents, from $1.10 per watt to $1 per watt. In a press release, the utility said that the rebate was lowered to reflect a corresponding drop in the price of solar, and to ensure continued funding availability for more customers to utilize the program. Austin Energy has already seen record program participation this year, with 1,350 customers applying to participate (compared to last year's 738 customers). More info>>

As a reminder, if you're an Austin Energy customer looking to install solar on your roof, these are some of the deals and discounts available to you:

• A now $1 per watt (or $1,000 per kW) rebate from Austin Energy
• A federal tax credit for out-of-pocket costs that can reduce the price by another 30 percent
• An 11.3 cent credit from Austin Energy — known as the Value of Solar credit — for every kWh that a residential system produces

Austin Energy says that the average payback for a residential solar system in Austin is 10 to 11 years. More info>>
 

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