Washington, DC
February 6, 2006

President George W. Bush broadly outlined a new energy policy in the State of The Union speech this week. His speech marked a departure from his previous energy policy statements. Since taking office he has pushed the nation toward increases in domestic oil and gas production. The speech this week was different in that President Bush said, the USA should “move beyond a petroleum-based economy.”

We have heard this from Presidents before. President Nixon in 1971 said he would lead us to self-sufficiency in energy by 1980. Many of us will never forget President Carter’s 1979 energy address when he told us we would “never again use more foreign oil than we did in 1977.” Then President Carter ordered all the lights turned off in front of the Washington monuments and government office thermostats were ordered up. It was unusually dark at night and hot or cold in the day. When President Reagan came in the lights were turned back on and we could see our beautiful national monuments again alit in our beautiful city.

For over 35 years we have heard the speeches, bold statements and promises. And in 2006, USA dependency on foreign oil is at a record level due to the depletion of our own oil fields and the vast increased use of SUVs, vans and pickup trucks.

There is something though that is different in 2006 than in 1971 and 1979. There is a group of mayors emerging within The United States Conference of Mayors who are leading the way from the bottom up to build constituencies in every region for a self sufficient energy policy within our nation. If you are old enough to have heard all the rhetoric for over three decades you may be cynical. But if Washington in 2006 would just listen to our mayors on the energy possibilities then Washington may have the guts and common sense to understand what the public, our citizens, are demanding across the nation.

Conference President Beverly O’Neill has put together a mayoral team that is emerging with new thoughts and technology, best practices and above all --- leadership in changing the behavior of the American consumers. You can talk about using electricity, converting corn into ethanol or even turning chicken manure into fuel but someone has to change the American psyche, change the mind of the body politic, to lead --- and to say that this is the way to go.

Certainly being energy self sufficient and not depending on Mid-eastern oil has a “red, white and blue” patriotic ring to it. Americans have responded to support these initiatives in times of crisis with very popular Presidents. In addition to patriotism, there is the pocketbook factor. Filling your tank three or four times a month is costly when gas is running at almost three dollars a gallon. Maybe a tank a month would be better.

But again missing somewhere are the cars. And once you design, manufacture and produce the cars, you have to convince Americans to buy the new car and abandon the gas guzzlers. President Bush, Speaker Hastert, Dr. Frist, Congresswoman Pelosi and Senator Reid will not be able to convince the American voter and consumer to abandon the American gasoline-driven car. It's got to come from the bottom up. Mayors can change human behavior if clean, safe, efficient technology is there. Mayors can play the lead role along with maybe a few movie, TV and rock stars and sharp trustworthy CEOs. We could lead the way. It is an opportunity for us and it was happening right here at our Winter Meeting this past week.

Austin Mayor Will Wynn, Chair of our United States Conference of Mayors Standing Committee on Energy is leading the way for a plug-in technology using electricity to power automobiles. Austin is leading the way and he is bringing the Austin message of this new technology within our organization as we gather new strategies and new opportunities that will indeed make us free from Mid-east oil. We must listen to him.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickles continues to lead the way with over 200 USA mayors raising the environmental issue and global warming. He is citing polling information showing that the American people wanting new technologies are high in the 70 per cent plus area.

Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic, who led the way in converting Akron from a rubber industry to a polymer industry-based city, is now chairing the U.S. Conference of Mayors new “Mayors Energy Council.” Within our Council we are looking at all sectors of energy including alternatives to gas, ethanol, hydrogen, electricity, solar and nuclear.

And we are taking all of this energy, excuse the pun, of all this local leadership as we sponsor our Cities for a Strong America Energy Summit to Chicago on May 10 hosted by Chicago Mayor Rich Daley. Mayor Daley’s energy initiatives is making his city one of the “greenest” on earth. Best practices around the energy and environment issues abound in Chicago as witnessed by all mayors who visited and attended our sessions during our Annual Meeting there last June.

We urge all mayors to join with us in Chicago. This meeting is part of Conference President Beverly O’Neill’s “Strong Cities for a Strong America” action agenda she has led since becoming our USCM President.

President Bush’s statements and new initiatives, the USCM leadership on this issue and the willingness of the American people to listen and act now provides us an opportunity along with President Bush, the business community, the energy and the environment non profit to change behaviors and truly, finally do something about this. Mayors are leading the way. The political, economic and patriotic stars are lined up. We will do what we must do, as we always do to force Washington to see what is happening across America. Let's hope they will join us. Mayor O’Neill needs your help. Come to Chicago, and remember mayors can make a difference. For information on the energy meeting in Chicago, contact Debra DeHaney Howard at (202) 861-6702 or email: ddehaney@usmayors.org.

As we develop a new action agenda for energy we are confronting another old issue in 2006 — poverty in America. Conference President O’Neill asked Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to chair the new Task Force on Poverty and Opportunity.

It was in 1964 that President Johnson created the Office of Economic Opportunity and asked Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver to head up the agency and Shriver waged a “War on Poverty.” Bold goals were announced calling on America to erase poverty in America by 1976. The Vietnam War and Nixon election changed the Johnson/Shriver goals and today, 42 years later we still have poverty in America.

Certainly Katrina and the television brought images of New Orleans and media-types as well as others seemed astonished to discover there is poverty in America in 2006.

During the Reagan years, opulence was “in”, poverty was “out”. We argued with federal officials that ketchup was not a vegetable as we started to conduct our annual surveys on hunger and homelessness. We have continued the surveys for over 20 years; and just this December along with our partner Sodexho, Inc., we released our 2005 Hunger and Homelessness Survey in San Francisco.

During the Clinton years, President Clinton grabbed Welfare Reform away from the Republican challenger, Senator Bob Dole, and while Clinton did emote the “I feel your pain” message, there was a language of how to talk about poverty without talking about poverty. Code words and phrases were used such as “aid to working families” and “investing in our youth.” No one wanted to use the word “poverty;” welfare reform was adopted. And we commend President Clinton for trying. But now, years later we still have poverty in America. We aren’t there yet.

Mayor Villaraigosa, Mayor O’Neill and Mayor Daley have all stated that we first need a new definition of poverty. Many do not agree with the way our federal government is defining poverty in America. Mayors on the Villaraigosa task force will come forth with new definitions and new solutions that will challenge the federal and state governments and the business community to join with mayors as we bring a new agenda to millions of economically-challenged Americans who want no more but to be productive citizens with decent jobs with adequate wages.

Mayor Villaraigosa invites mayors to join us on March 30 in Los Angeles as we work toward the Conference of Mayors action agenda to eradicate poverty and provide opportunity to all Americans. For information on the March 30 Task Force meeting in Los Angeles, contact Crystal Swann, Assistant Executive Director at 202-861-6707.

As U.S.Mayor goes to press, we have learned that Mrs. Coretta Scott King has died. As I watch former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin announce her passing, Ambassador Young is telling old stories about her life with her husband, Martin Luther King. As I reflect on what happened to her and us after we all lost him.

While much has been said and much has been written about her support of her husband and the movement during his lifetime, we must look at her life and what she did with her life after we lost Dr. King. And it was in those efforts after his death to continue his goals that she moved with magnificent leadership and tenacity. We had been there with them in the civil rights fights and the poor people’s march in Washington when he died. And we were there when the King Center was opened and throughout her life of work since 1968. She could have removed herself from the public image and everyone would have accepted it. But we are thankful she didn’t. She was majestic at his funeral that day when we all marched to the University and heard the eulogy. We didn’t know what she would do. Within days she was back out there marching with us. And there she went as hard as she could go to keep civil rights and human rights and peace alive here in our own nation and abroad.

And now she leaves behind a life spent trying to make it better for all of us. We are thankful for her life and we were most fortunate to have been in a position to join with her in so many joint efforts.

As we launch our new task force on poverty and other issues confronting racism and violence, we do so because we have lived and listened with the icons like Coretta Scott King. As we continue the struggle today, we remember the words and reflect on her life as an example of having a dream, waking up and acting on the dream and never giving up by doing something every day to make the dream of removing poverty, racism and violence from the world – come true.