Rocky tells mayors cities must lead the way on environment

WASHINGTON — The federal government is not doing nearly enough to combat climate change, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson told a group of mayors from cities around the country Thursday.

Anderson made a presentation during the U.S. Conference of Mayors Energy Committee meeting in Washington, D.C., to communicate to other cities that changes they make can make an environmental difference until the federal policies catch up.

"The action now is in the cities, frankly we are leaving the federal government in the dust on this," Anderson said. "We truly are providing the information to our businesses and individuals in our cities."

He said he wants the government to have an effort "along the lines of the Apollo project," aimed solely at energy, including reducing reliance on foreign oil and pollution from coal plants. He said the nation's security depends "in so many different ways" on a strong energy policy.

Anderson said that without action, coastal cities face big dangers. He said sea levels are rising and could submerge coastal cities, creating an "environmental refugee" population that would dwarf what the country saw last year in the Gulf Coast after the hurricanes.

"That would be like a picnic compared to what you would see worldwide in the coastal regions," Anderson said.

He also said the ski industry will be affected worldwide, which helps get the attention of people in his region.

Anderson talked about his July 2005 Sundance Summit, where 46 mayors from 28 states gathered to discuss global warming and climate-change issues. The U.S. Conference of Mayors will hold its own energy summit in Chicago in May.

Anderson said that all over the world people are paying attention to what cities, particularly Salt Lake City, are doing to reduce global warming.

He said changing traffic lights to LED lights, which use less energy, converting the city's vehicles to more fuel-efficient cars and a host of other changes helped reduce carbon emissions by 23,000 tons in two years.

"The federal government should be doing all of this and more," Anderson said. "We need a new energy policy in this country."

President Bush signed a huge energy bill last year, but Anderson said there is still more to do. He also wants to see an energy policy for the state. He said Utah has fallen behind because it does not have an energy policy. "Having no policy means relying on the status quo, meaning coal plants," Anderson said.

---

E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com