By Lina Garcia
October 13, 2008

During a press conference, Conference President Miami Mayor Manny Diaz joined with two dozen mayors who were participating in the ’08 Mayors Forum on Environment and Energy in Miami to praise the leadership of mayors on energy and climate protection issues and called upon the next President and Congressional leaders to take action on the critical energy and climate challenges before the nation.

“Mayors have been at the forefront of this issue, not only to protect our environment but also as a national security issue,” said Diaz. “We need a green bailout in America, we need to start producing again, and there is no better way to do this than through a brand new green industry that will grow and expand.”

Summarizing key findings of a new Green Jobs Report by the Conference’s Mayors Climate Protection Center, Diaz said that this “…creates the first index of its kind to measure how many direct and indirect jobs are in the new and emerging U.S. green economy.”

“This report is a new and first attempt to quantify what the opportunities are by moving a green economy, one that’s based on conspicuous conservation rather than conspicuous consumption,” said Conference Vice President Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, who authored The U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

Nickels stated that according to the report, by 2030, Seattle will be able to add the equivalent of another Microsoft to the local economy and help expand employment opportunities for young people. The report, prepared by Global Insight, estimates that the U.S. economy currently generates over 750,000 green jobs—a number that is projected to grow five-fold to 4.2 million jobs over the next thirty years (see: http://www.usmayors.org/GreenJobsReport).

Diaz and other mayors called on the federal government to join them as an active partner to help solve the country’s climate crisis. Citing the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, Nickels indicated that 884 mayors have already signed the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, representing nearly 85 million Americans, which is roughly the population of Germany. “The support by mayors through this Agreement proves that mayors have walked the walk. Now it’s time for the federal government to join us as an active partner and not a problem in terms of keeping that promise and going well beyond it as I know will be necessary if we’re going to give our children and grandchildren a livable climate,” he said.

Nickels also added that under our current federal transportation rules, funding is fragmented among highway, transit and rail programs. He urged federal leaders to dismantle funding silos and adopt a transportation plan that will focus on the movement of people, goods and services, while reducing impacts on the environment.

Mayors reiterated their call on Congress to keep their promise to fully fund the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, noting that funding has not been enacted by Congress.

Mayors also called on the federal government to support clean and energy efficient energy sources, smarter electrical grids, and transmission facilities to help transfer wind power from cities in the Midwest to the rest of the country. New federal incentives, such as federal tax credits, to help reduce energy consumption were identified as a priority as well as federal cap and trade legislation to place a price on carbon and a cap on greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, Chair of the Conference’s Environment Committee, stressed the importance of lowering energy consumption in America. “This cannot only be done, but it has been done before in many other places. We can reduce our carbon footprint while at the same time save the consumer money,” he said.

Acknowledging that cities and metro areas are the engines of the U.S. economy, the mayors pointed out that they are also responsible for most of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. They noted that cities are not the problem; rather, they can be the solution, calling on Congress to keep their promise to invest more in energy efficiency programs.