Cities seek federal aid to buck U.S. stance on Kyoto
September 1 2007
By Michael Joe, Taryn Luntz, Janet Ahn and Jonathan Weinstein
Medill News Service

WASHINGTON Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox is one of more than 650 mayors nationwide who have signed the 2005 U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Change Agreement, called the “Cool Cities” agreement, pledging to reduce emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The agreement was created in response to the U.S. government’s refusal to sign on to the international agreement. Now, as the cities struggle to meet the 2012 reduction targets, the mayors are looking to Washington for help. In Tuscaloosa, Maddox said the city is taking steps to expand its curbside recycling program and is switching the fuel for its vehicles from diesel to biodisel.

He and the other mayors and the other mayors are coming up against surging demand for higher energy, a tight market for alternative energy sources, years of planned sprawl and the absence of a comprehensive national program. With cities responsible for 75 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions — primarily from burning gasoline, coal, natural gas, diesel and oil — mayors say they can’t complete the job without support from the federal government, possibly in the form of block grants to launch local energy-saving initiatives. “A lot of cities don’t have the money to do the kinds of things that are necessary,” said Mayor Douglas Palmer of Trenton, N.J., president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. “This is just the beginning. But just like any beginning you need startup money, you need capital, an initial investment to have long-term sustainable impact.

Palmer said what’s needed is a federal-local partnership.Adopting Kyoto goalsSix years ago, Bush criticized the Kyoto accord because developing countries like China and India were exempt from the requirements. Committing the U.S. to the limits outlined in the protocol would put the country at a competitive disadvantage and cause companies to relocate up to five million U.S. jobs overseas, Bush said. That attitude was at odds with most of the rest of the world. More than 170 other nations have ratified the agreement to cut greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, the chief contributor to global warming. The U.S. alone emits roughly one quarter of the globe’s greenhouse gases, though it has just 5 percent of the world’s population.

To fill the federal gap in environmental policy, cities are taking on the task themselves.In Burlington, Vt., hotels, the city’s electrical utility, and companies like Ben & Jerry’s have signed up to reduce emissions by 10 percent. In the Washington suburb of Takoma Park, Md., city vehicles run on biodiesel and the middle class residents are encouraged use alternative energy and make environmentally aware decisions in their homes.

In Tuscaloosa, all 250 pieces of city-owned equipment now run on diesel to biodiesel fuel, a mixture of 20 percent soybean oil and 80 percent diesel. “It will reduce the amount of diesel we’re burning by 100,000 gallons,” Maddox said. That reduces carbon monoxide by 12.6 percent, hydrocarbons by 11 percent, and air toxins by 12 percent, he said. The city also has plans to expand its recycling program. Although each of the city’s fire stations has drop-off recycling bins, curbside recycling is currently limited to select neighborhoods.

“In this year’s budget, we’re recommending a new recycling truck,” Maddox said. “Once it’s delivered it will increase our recycling by 4,500 homes.” A proposed landscape ordinance would increase greenspace in the city and reduce erosion, he said. Expanding the city’s site development permitting authority to include its police jurisdiction has helped control runoff into Lake Tuscaloosa. And the city has also formed an advisory committee to preserve the natural environment at Lake Nicol and Harris Lake.

Learning from cities

While the city of Northport has yet to make the strides Tuscaloosa has, Mayor Harvey Fretwell said he’s hoping to become a greener government within the year. He said the city already has a limited recycling program, with bins set up at the Public Works Facility and two schools. But Fretwell said he also hopes to employ strategies he’s read about elsewhere. Through a city and governmental planning magazine, Fretwell and planning director Katherine Ennis learned of Keene, N.H., a city of about 23,000 about 15 miles north of the Massachusetts state line.

Fretwell said Keene had begun using biodiesel to fuel the city’s fleet, using LED lights for traffic signals relying on bicycle police “We are looking at having an adviser come in and give us some information on that,” Fretwell said. “There are some great ideas, and it’s something I think we can move into gradually.” John Bailey, a research associate at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Minneapolis, authored a study this year that examined the progress of 10 “Kyoto” cities. He said cities still need help. “The cities have committed to doing good things but they need the state or federal government to do things to help them,” he said.

Bailey found just one city, Portland, Ore., on pace to come close to the goal. Other cities in Bailey’s study included Seattle; San Francisco; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Austin; Boulder, Colo.; and Cambridge, Mass. Bailey found that the cities were counting on factors largely beyond their control, such as tighter state or federal standards for vehicle emissions and miles-per-gallon efficiency.

Federal aid obstacles

The block grant program that mayors are seeking was included in wide-ranging energy bills passed by the House and Senate aimed at alleviating climate change and relieving the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels and foreign oil. But it’s far from a done deal. The Senate and House versions still need to be negotiated, and Bush has threatened to veto the bills because they don’t increase domestic production of oil and gas. The president also opposes other major provisions sought by mayors and congressional Democrats, including mandatory caps on harmful emissions and national production targets for renewable fuels, like wind and solar power. Under the grant program, which would be administered by the Energy Department, financial awards based on population would go directly to larger cities and counties, and to states to allocate among smaller communities.

Bailey’s study, released in January, found that cities have been relying on state and federal grants and voter-approved special tax levies for green programs. Palmer said, however, that many city budgets are stretched by other priorities, such as law enforcement, recreation and senior citizen programs. And less tax revenue is likely to come in from property assessments caused by the nationwide housing slump. “The budgets are tight,” Palmer said. “We just can’t do it.”

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