Climate Change > What are we doing about it around the country?

What's happening around the country?

All around the country, cities and states are taking climate change seriously and taking action to help reduce their own contributions to the problem. 

The Mayors for Climate Protection (now the ICLEI-local) in America's cities know how to help solve global warming, and they've begun. Just 8 mayors in March 2005 grew to more than 440 mayors in 43 states by December 2006. The US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement represents cities with more than 66 million Americans – and its growing fast.  These mayors see global warming as a doorway to actions that enhance prosperity, secure the energy supply, improve the health of communities, and make our cities cleaner, better places to live.

Here's how they're doing it:

• From the Northwest to the East Coast, into the deep South and everywhere in between, cities are implementing a host of climate-control strategies, adding bike paths and bus routes or light rail, planting trees to absorb CO², countering sprawl, buying hybrid vehicles for police, pushing local utilities to use more renewable energy and using energy-efficient light bulbs in street lamps, stoplights and city parking lots.
• Great Buildings- More cities are adopting green climate building designs that save energy and create more comfortable and affordable living and working spaces.
• Clean Energy - Electricity generation is responsible for nearly 40% of America's global warming pollution, mostly from the burning of coal in power plants with outdated technology.  Efforts by cities to switch to clean energy help speed the shift to a clean energy future.
• Cool Infrastructure - Cities across the country are now finding substantial savings by learning how to deliver light and water with greater energy efficiency, their cool infrastructure benefiting every resident equally.
• Smart Transport - Traffic jams waste commuters' time, add to air pollution and create vast amounts of CO2. Cities are successfully undertaking a variety of efforts to make their transportation systems a lot smarter and their cities a lot more livable.
• Less Garbage - Cities are dramatically reducing the methane gas contribution garbage makes to global warming pollution in two key ways. First, by reducing the garbage that ends up in landfills so there is simply less garbage to rot. Secondly, by harvesting the methane gas produced by garbage and burning it as fuel.

Incentives for renewable energy in the 50 states – find financial grants, loans and rebates for renewable energy Federal and state financial incentives for renewable energy

MIT survey in Oct 2006 finds Americans now rank climate change as the country's most pressing environmental problem – a dramatic shift from 3 years ago when they ranked it 6^th out of 10 environmental concerns.

Since 1993, Portland, Oregon and Multnomah County have already slashed greenhouse gas emissions by 13% per capita (beating Kyoto goals) partly by building light rail and 730 miles of regional bikeways, using renewable energy, energy efficiency, high-performance green buildings, planting trees and recycling. (Read the 2005 Global Warming Progress Report) Local Portland Actions Against Global Warming

The Port of Portland is saving water.  Property Maintenance Department received the water efficiency award for their innovative use of an irrigation system that does what the City is always asking homeowners to do—it actually checks the weather forecast, tests the moisture content of the soil, and makes a decision about how much water is actually needed. The Port is saving over a million gallons of water a year using this technology and other improvements, and the program is still in a pilot phase.  If it works for The Port, it may also be suitable for the City's and Metro's parks, as well as other industrial water customers.

• Oregon legislature approved new energy efficiency standards for 11 appliances and by 2020 this will amount to the same savings as taking 70,000 cars off the roads and will save Oregon businesses and consumers nearly $250 million on their energy bills.



• New York Governor George Pataki announced a new $10-million state program to convert 574 hybrid vehicles in the state fleet to plug-in hybrids (which can achieve significantly higher mileage with lower emissions of harmful pollutants) and for the construction of a state of the art alternative fuel research lab.



• At the first Sundance Summit in 2005, 45 mayors representing 28 states and 10 million U.S citizens, collectively agreed they can and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions with concrete actions.  Sundance Summit 2006 was held in Salt Lake City and more than 30 mayors attended to discuss and share “best practices” on the most effective, practical and innovative solutions mayors can adopt to reduce greenhouse gas emission.



• The Atlantic City, New Jersey wastewater treatment plant plans to capture energy from the sun and the Atlantic Coast winds, rather than burning fossil fuels.  The hybrid solar-wind power plant will produce enough energy to power the equivalent of approximately 3800 homes and displace the need for an estimated 24,000 barrels of oil per year.  The 8 megawatt (MW) hybrid solar-wind power plant will generate an estimated 40,800,000 kilowatt hours of clean electricity annually.  The electricity will be used by both the Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA) Wastewater Treatment Plant and delivered to the regional electric grid. Plant dedication, December 2005.



• The West Coast Governors' Global Warming Initiative is a multi-state working group formed to address: hybrid vehicle procurement, ports and highway diesel emissions, renewable energy, energy efficiency, standards for measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions, and hydrogen use.
  
  
• Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States are working to establish state-by-state ceilings for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.  Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont are participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Legislation was signed in April, 2006, that requires Maryland to become a full participant in the process by June 30, 2007. In addition, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, the Eastern Canadian Provinces, and New Brunswick are observers in the process.



• Western Public Utility Commissions Joint Action on Climate Change. Washington, Oregon, New Mexico and California Public Utilities and Transportation Commissions will cooperate to develop and use low carbon energy technologies, promote conservation and demand response programs and renewable energy resources.



• New Mexico & Arizona launched a regional Southwest Climate Change Initiative in March 2006 to collaborate on greenhouse gas reduction strategies, principally to protect their water supplies for future generations.



• State and local officials across the country are adopting ambitious policies and forming international alliances aimed at reducing greenhouse gases.  22 states and the District of Columbia have set standards demanding that utilities generate a specific amount of energy -- in some cases, as high as 33 percent -- from renewable sources by 2020. And 11 states have set goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. 



• California's Clean Car legislation mandates automakers to reduce global warming emissions from new passenger cars and light trucks beginning in 2009, and to reduce vehicle CO2 emissions 30% by 2016.   10 other states (including Washington) have committed to adopt the same standards as the law unfolds. The regulation became effective January 1, 2006. However, it faces federal and state court challenges by automakers and some California car dealers.
  
  As the fifth-largest economy in the world and a longtime national leader in environmental solutions, California is critical to controlling and reducing global warming pollution. Passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks represent the largest sources of global warming pollution in the state, and are responsible for approximately 40 percent of California's total global warming emissions.



• In August 2006, California became the first state in the nation to require industries to lower greenhouse gas emissions.  By 2020, industries will have to lower greenhouse gases by 25% and solar panels, alternative fuels and electric cars could be commonplace.  New companies developing environmentally clean technologies will create jobs in California, and many companies could save money by becoming more energy efficient.



• California mandates 1 million solar roofs by 2011.   The Million Solar Roofs bill, SB 1, contains three main policies enabling consumers to receive a credit on their electric bill for excess energy generated by their solar system, mandating all home builders, by 2011, make solar panels a standard option for homebuyers, and directing  California's municipal utilities, such as Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, to adopt their own solar rebate program totaling $800 million.



• For up to date information - Pew Center for Global Climate Change – What's being Done in Business, States and around the World.