By Kevin McCarty
July 4, 2011

Carmel (IN) Mayor Jim Brainard and Bridgeport (CT) Mayor Bill Finch convened members of the Mayors Climate Protection Task Force to review key climate and energy issues at a June 17 session during the Conference’s 79th Annual Meeting in Baltimore.

As the panel’s co-chair, Brainard talked about the political environment and the climate debate during his opening remarks, noting that climate protection is being led by mayors with “bottom up change from cities.” He also explained that, “Climate protection is all about local actions, not about ideology and not about federal dictates.”

Brainard also praised cities for their effective use of energy block grant funds, reminding his colleagues that “we need to work harder to promote the program (EECBG) with Congress so we can have additional funding. We need to talk about local control, and how tax dollars are being used in partnership with the federal government.”

“This is a big fight and a long fight. You have to be in it for the long haul,” said Finch, co-chair of the task force. “Mayors have given national leadership and global leadership to this issue.” He also expressed the view that he, like others, had hoped for more leadership at the national level, indicating that, “We all want to see more leadership from Washington.”

White House Council on Environmental Quality Associate Deputy Director Cathleen Kelly updated panel members on the Administration’s continuing efforts to support local and state government leaders in taking action to adapt to climate change. Kelly noted that a special Interagency Task Force that was started in 2009 had engaged more than 20 federal departments and agencies in this work, with particular emphasis on disaster preparedness and improving resilience of the nation’s infrastructure. Task Force leaders pledged to work with her office and Administration leaders to ensure that local government needs continue to be addressed.

In his remarks, New Jersey Institute of Technology Center for Building Knowledge Executive Director Deane Evans discussed the work of the Building America Retrofit Alliance, which is a national partnership, led by the DuPont Company and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, that is developing, deploying and promoting cost-effective measures to substantially improve the energy performance of housing. “Once we find out what works, we will push it out to others,” Evans said before outlining some ways that the Alliance and the Conference of Mayors can work together to advance this knowledge.

The final presenters were Siemens-Americas Sustainability Vice President Alison Taylor and Susan Hlady, Associate Director of GlobeScan Incorporated, who joined the panel to summarize the findings of a new survey, Clean Energy Solutions for America’s Cities, which was released by the Conference that morning.

In her remarks, Taylor emphasized that the findings “tell us this (clean energy) is a priority.” She noted that LED/other efficient lighting, low-energy buildings and solar systems to generate electricity were identified by mayors as the top three most promising technologies. Hlady echoed these comments and reviewed the survey’s findings in more detail, noting strong indications from cities about the value of energy block grant (EECBG) funds in deploying energy technologies and the need for additional funds to aid in further deployments.