U.S. mayors pass multiple resolutions to support renewables
CHICAGO, Illinois, US, June 22, 2005 (Refocus Weekly)
The government of the United States should develop a comprehensive energy policy “dramatically increasing the production of energy from clean, sustainable and renewable sources,” according to the mayors of 1,139 of the country’s largest cities.
“All people have a right to clean, reliable sources of energy; and the
health of the planet, including its oceans, wildlands, rivers, air and climate,
faces increasing threats from our continued dependence on fossil fuels,” says
a resolution adopted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors at its annual conference.
The U.S. comprises 5% of the world’s population but consumes 26% of the
world’s energy, and its “overwhelming dependence on fossil fuels makes its
economy increasingly vulnerable to price spikes and shortages,” it explains.
“The full societal costs of reliance upon fossil fuels are not reflected in
retail prices for energy, due to a wide array of subsidies and long-term
environmental degradation,” while “numerous technologies for producing
abundant energy from clean renewable sources currently exist.”
“Widespread adoption and encouragement of these technologies by U.S. energy
policy could greatly reduce the need for producing energy from fossil fuels”
and numerous cities have already initiated their own policies to support
development of renewables and, in so doing, “have reduced their dependence on
fossil fuels, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, reduced energy consumption, and
have saved taxpayer dollars.”
The federal energy policy should increase production from renewables, and reduce
dependence on fossil fuels while also setting “appropriate pricing of fossil
fuels to reflect actual societal and environmental costs and to encourage
conservation.”
The mayors also unanimously approved a resolution that requires their cities to
meet or exceed emissions standards set by the Kyoto Protocol. The federal
government refused to sign the international agreement that would have required
the U.S. to reduce its GHG emissions by 7% below 1990 levels by 2012.
“We will strive to meet or exceed Kyoto Protocol targets for reducing global
warming pollution by taking actions in our own operations and communities” by
increasing the use of alternative energy by investing in green tags, advocating
for the development of renewable energy resources, recovering landfill methane
for energy production, and supporting the use of waste to energy technology, it
explains. Other measures include making energy efficiency a priority, improving
building codes, retrofitting city facilities, promoting sustainable building
practices, increasing fuel efficiency of municipal fleet vehicles, reducing the
number of vehicles, increasing recycling rates, promoting tree planting to
increase shading and to absorb CO2, adopting land-use policies which reduce
sprawl and preserve open space, and promoting transportation options such as
bicycle trails and incentives for car pooling.
Another resolution called for greater support for distributed generation as a
viable means of providing reliable energy and recognition that “energy
generation and distribution must change with the evolving power needs of the
increasingly technology-based nature of the country’s economic development.”
“Grid systems built to power industrial factories and mechanical processes do
not provide the reliability needed to retain and attract modern, electronic
enterprises and increasingly, city businesses face unacceptable risks of
periodic, acute power disruption as well as constant, chronic power quality
fluctuations,” it explains. “Technological advances now make it possible for
city businesses to access power not only from the traditional grid system of
central power plants and transmission wires, but also from distributed
resources” and the deployment of distributed resources provides “unique
benefits to power companies and customers, reducing loads on transmission and
distribution systems can postpone or eliminate infrastructure costs.”
“Many of the nation’s mayors are increasingly recognizing the value and
importance of local programs that encourage energy conservation, energy
efficiency, renewable energy, and green building practices within their
communities,” reads another resolution, and locally-based renewable energy
programs can reduce energy use, “thereby reducing local energy costs and
improving local air quality.” Renewable energy programs can provide “a host
of additional community benefits including strengthening the local economy and
creating new jobs in the areas of energy and green buildings” and the mayors
agreed to call on Congress to “recognize the economic importance to the
nation’s communities of federal programs that encourage and support energy
efficiency, energy conservation, renewable energy and green building programs at
the local level.”
The mayors want the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to promote recovery of
energy from municipal solid waste using waste-to-energy combustion and landfill
gas recovery technologies, and want the Department of Energy to support existing
operating waste-to-energy and landfill gas recovery facilities which generate
energy from waste.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors represents 1,139 cities with a population of more
than 30,000 people.
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