Seven cities in the San Diego region signed on to the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, but some didn't do much more than sign it.
I imagine it wouldn't be difficult to find other MCPA participants for whom signing was little more than an empty gesture. That should come as no surprise: it's a voluntary treaty with no mechanism for enforcement or even monitoring, asking politically difficult feats of more than 750 mayors. One should have realistic expectations.
The promise of the MCPA has never been that all 750 mayors will muster the ingenuity and sheer cussedness to crank the city bureaucracy into motion and make the cuts. The promise is that some will. People in the U.S. need to see success stories on a relatable scale. Every city that really does put in the LED traffic lights or capture methane from its landfill or build new downtown rail transit -- and profits from it -- makes the case that much stronger for the next mayor. The stuff needs to go viral.
Washington Republican helps swing climate bill vote
Seattle, utility to help pay for home energy audits
Seattle’s transit-supporting sales-tax hike goes into effect
Comments
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amazingdrx Posted 1:42 am
13 Jan 2008
They did a survey of suitable roof sites in the county. This is at the typical 12% efficiency of older solar PV. Newer cells and systems can get up to 3 times that much power from the same roof space.
Leaving enough kwhs left over, after powering the county, to charge plugin hybrid batteries for the county's residents. Get on that mayors.
Maybe attract some solar PV companies to put up plants in your area by hatching a 100% solar rollout plan over 10 years? Might be good. Big orders for city and county buildings would be a good cash infusion to start.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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amazingdrx Posted 1:48 am
13 Jan 2008
The study..studied.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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randino Posted 1:59 am
13 Jan 2008
We are still rolling around with them on that decision, with no odds given on a chance of success. They say they have to have it to guarantee a base line power source and are in a death struggle with the local private utility for customers. We think the city council got rolled by the muni power company, and want them to take another look and have suggested the Rocky Mountain Institute take a look.
Every city is different and a lot depends on local politics, local finances, and what city halls think they can and cannot afford. There is a vast difference between what relatively affluent cities feel they can do, and what cities like Cleveland, that are impoverished and ever on the brink of disaster think they can do.
Randy Cunningham
Randy Cunningham
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Arjuna Posted 3:46 pm
13 Jan 2008
This is "in the trenches" work but things are happening!
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Delay And Deny Posted 3:48 pm
13 Jan 2008
One of them is that if someone asks you to do something, wait as long as possible. There's always a good chance that the person will forget what they asked for...or even better, that they will get promoted, relocate, retire, or perhaps even die.
My guess is that rational (and budget) minded local politicians hope the whole AGW fiasco blows over in a year or two and they can get back to worrying about potholes and property taxes.
My Log
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iglo47 Posted 4:06 am
14 Jan 2008
One way to get more of these mayors involved is to urge them to participate in the National Conversation on Climate Action (NCCA), which is sponsored by the U.S. chapter of ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability), the Yale School of Forestry and the Environment, and the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC). As part of this initiative last October local officials organized gatherings so that the could engage in a debate with their constituents about how their communities should address climate change. While not every city's event involved the mayor, many did in addition More than 70 cities participated in 2007; currently we are in the planning stages for this year and expect even more cities to join in.
If people are serious about getting their communities to address the problem, then they should urge their local officials to participate in the NCCA (climateconversation.org). It allows for an open dialog between policymakers and citizens and can help move those mayors who have endorsed the treaty from non-action to action, just as those citizens in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties have.
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