Crotty wants Orange to be a little greener
David Damron
Orlando Sentinel
August 16, 2007

Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty has become the latest Republican leader to declare himself green.Next month Crotty plans to hold Central Florida's first regional summit on climate change, where he also likely will pledge to sharply reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and encourage other governments, businesses and residents to do the same. Just weeks after Florida Gov. Charlie Crist gathered leaders in Miami to battle pollution statewide, Crotty is taking the fight to Central Florida.

Political experts and those cheering him on say it's a bold move for the largely pro-growth mayor. But what Crotty does next -- and more critically, how much he's willing to spend doing it -- will be his true test, they say. "That's where you find out when people are really green," said University of Central Florida political-science professor Aubrey Jewett, pointing to higher costs for energy-efficient vehicle fleets and buildings. "And even then, is it a light green or dark green?"

This crush of political actors to the environmental stage flows from an extreme and sudden interest in global warming.Melting polar ice caps, scientists and popular documentaries such as Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth make the argument that people are causing unnatural climate change by burning too many fossil fuels. Some conservative critics say global warming is a hoax. Even so, it largely has been Republican politicians who have been making news lately by battling global warming. For example, GOP California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger joined fellow Republican Crist at July's summit.

There the Florida governor, among other measures, issued a new rule requiring state employees to stay only at eco-friendly lodgings. Crist touted that measure Wednesday at a Hilton near Downtown Disney.Now Crotty is about to make his own headlines."I want to be in a position to lead by example," Crotty said. The specific plans for Crotty's event still are being made, but details on the Sept. 25 local summit should come soon. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg declined to be a keynote speaker, but Roger Ballantine -- former President Clinton's chief negotiator on the Kyoto Protocol agreement on climate change -- might sign on, officials say.

Meanwhile, Crotty's environmental team is deciding whether the mayor should pledge to reduce Orange County government's greenhouse-gas emissions by 15 percent in five years. Crotty said he started down this path in 2005, with his pledge to reduce the county's consumption of gasoline and diesel by 20 percent in five years. County-government fuel use has stayed static since then, at about 2.5 million gallons annually. But the county's car and truck fleet has grown, and it's about to open an ethanol fueling station and use more biodiesel. The goal is still reachable, county staffers said.Other communities such as San Francisco and New York have adopted bolder strategies, such as requiring cabs to switch to alternative fuels. Crotty said he's not considering a push to do that locally.

For now, Crotty will mostly tout a lineup of conservative goals and proposals, focusing mainly on raising awareness of global warming, officials say. For instance, Crotty recently signed an order requiring county buildings to meet certain eco-friendly standards, but he will not pay to have them independently certified. A summit likely won't change that.Crotty also declined to sign on to the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement or enlist in the Sierra Club's "Cool Counties" program, both of which require signatories to aim for dramatic pollution reductions. Instead, Crotty is focusing his early efforts on working with ICLEI -- Local Governments for Sustainability, a group that walks leaders through the basics of pollution reduction.

For starters, the group is helping Orange measure the greenhouse gases its government operations produce and hire staff to monitor the issue. The next step is to help Orange develop a plan to reach its pollution-reduction goal, possibly by 15 percent within five years. Environmental lobbyist Susan Glickman said she and other advocates will watch "for concrete action and commitment." For now, she agrees, just talking about climate change is good. Crotty said he plans to make pledges at the summit, but he will mostly be there to learn. "I've got a real focus on this," said Crotty, who plans to attend a global-warming round table in Washington next week. "This is about our next generation."