By Debra DeHaney-Howard
February 1, 2010

US Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu delivered keynote remarks to the nation's mayors on the opening day of the Conference of Mayors 78th Winter Meeting. Chu praised the mayors for their leadership on energy and climate protection, stating, "Mayors will play a leadership role in the transition to a clean energy economy."

Citing the Conference's Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, where more than 1000 U.S. mayors have pledged to reduce carbon emissions seven percent below 1990 levels, Chu said, "This group of mayors has passed a climate agreement…you have urged state and federal governments to show more leadership to aggressively work to reduce the carbon emissions in the U.S.  I am happy to say that through the Recovery Act, the President and his Administration are directly supporting your efforts."

Acknowledging the importance of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which funded several energy efficiency programs, including the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program, Chu said, "We've invested $80 billion and we see this as a first down payment in order to help the U.S. transition to a clean energy economy.  This $80 billion is creating new jobs immediately but even more important than the jobs we so desperately need, it is also investing in the future."

Chu spoke directly to the EECBG program, a priority initiative of the Conference of Mayors. "The program is starting and beginning to have impact… we're moving aggressively to get the $2.7 billion out... we need to work together to turn these investments into jobs and into energy savings.  The energy savings that saved people in your cities and towns money will go directly back into your local economies and will create even more jobs."

Discussing the Administration's efforts to increase the use of clean alternative energy, he said, "There is now a 30 percent tax credit for renewable energy available when a project is placed in service and that loan guarantees are being made for the first time since the 1980s."

In comments on the deployment of new energy technology, Chu said, "I think you as mayors have made some incredible contributions in piloting some of these new technologies, for example, several cities have invested in smart grid technology that would be installed city-wide and you can test how that would actually lead to better consumer behavior, better distribution of the loading of the energy assets so that one can drive down energy bills."

Chu also spoke about the need to continue to retrofit and weatherize homes, specifically touting DOE's Retrofit Ramp-Up (R2) program, a new initiative to fund building retrofits programs that reach whole neighborhoods. "We are looking to pilot programs like that to essentially mass produce weatherization to make it also a social norm and to make it easy."

In his closing comments, Chu stressed the importance of transitioning to a clean energy economy. "There are many estimates, the cost varying. The cost of the Waxman-Markey bill is estimated to be .45 cents or less per day per family of four.  The cost of inaction is that if other countries move before us, and they are beginning to move very fast. China is investing $100 billion dollars a year now in a clean energy economy because they think a lot of their future prosperity will be tied to the fact that they can lead this second industrial revolution.  So the cost of inaction is that we will be followers, not leaders, and we will expose our children and grandchildren to unconscionable risks."