Cities lead in climate change preparation  

Cities lead in climate change preparation

A growing number of cities are racing ahead of the federal government in setting carbon emission targets and developing concrete strategies to deal with climate change.

It is a direct consequence, municipal officials and analysts say, of the growing perception inside city halls that the Bush administration has largely ignored an issue that has reached a tipping point in American culture.

"Because of what many see as a policy failure on this issue in Washington, you see state and city governments stepping up and taking the lead on global warming, " said Daniel Esty, director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. "You've got people in Europe saying that America is doing nothing on global warming, but that's not true. You are seeing real action. But it's happening in a local way."

What started in 2005 with the frustrations of one mayor - Seattle's Greg Nickels - over the Bush administration's resistance to the Kyoto Protocol has since grown to become a major nationwide movement. Nickel's "U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement" now includes 522 mayors representing 65-million Americans who have pledged to meet the Kyoto Protocol's standard of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

Austin, Texas, has adopted a policy that by 2015, all new single family homes must use 60 percent less energy than today's standards. Homeowners are being encouraged to use solar panels to make their homes energy self-sufficient.

Boulder, Colo., introduced in November what environmentalists are calling the nation's first "carbon tax." Homeowners there are facing average increases of $16 and businesses $48 annually on electricity bills to cover a "climate action plan" designed to make the city more energy-efficient and fund a switch to alternative fuels.

Chicago is experimenting with waterless urinals and has planted thousands of trees to cool down "heat islands" - patches of heavy asphalt and black roofs that absorb heat and raise the city's temperature. It is distributing compact fluorescent light bulbs, more than 500, 000 so far. Businesses are receiving grants for solar panels.

Keene, N.H., has imposed a non-idling policy for cars when parents drop off and pick up their children from school.

In Portland, where carbon emissions have been reduced to 1990 levels, the water that flows through the city's drinking system is being used to generate hydroelectricity.

Analysts call the plan unveiled by New York's Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg last April among the most comprehensive. In addition to the greening of New York's famous yellow cabs, the so-called PlaNYC calls for 127 new projects.
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