America's First Renewable-Run City

In marking the 20th anniversary of Austin, Texas' green building program, the Texas capital is now the first local government in the United States to run completely on renewable energy. The town runs primarily on wind powered energy. The costs will average about $8.5 million this year, but will decline to only $3 million by 2012. Mayor Lee Leffingwell see's this as a necessary cost: "I agree with the scientific community; global warming is a reality, and we will continue to lead American cities by maintaining our community vision."
In 2008 Austin's utility arranged to begin buying their energy from a wind farm in west Texas. The city then urged it's citizens to begin buying the energy as well. Only about 25% bought the wind powered energy, but Austin hopes to make up for it by buying the wind power for itself.
Austin plans to keep investing in nuclear and coal energy to power the city when the wind's not blowing, but all additional money spent on non-renewables will begin being spent on renewable energy.

http://www.governing.com/topics/energy-env/austin-goes-100-percent-renewable.html