Getting Started
13
Local Action Roundup
by Don Knapp Apr 12, 2009
Cities cleaning, 'greening' urban alleys (USA Today) In Tucson, AZ, Public input sought on local response to climate change (Tucson Citizen) Fort Worth, TX, streetcar system, Mansfield rail added to region's Mobility 2030 plan (Star Telegram)
Green Flies High at San Jose International Airport (GreenBiz)
Texas is wind king, but Iowa breezes past Calif. (AP)
Tucson Earth Day Spotlights Climate Adaptation
by Don Knapp Apr 12, 2009
The City of Tucson, Pima County, and the University of Arizona are tag-teaming an Earth Day event that brings alive for people how climate change will affect southern Arizona, and solicits their input on ways to adapt. Smart topic, since climate change won’t be friendly to the region. U of A expert speakers will explain some of the impacts, from longer periods of drought and more intense floods to shifts in biological diversity, and discuss how these and other changes will affect public health and disrupt the local economy. Tucson will be featured as one of the 10 Spotlight Conversation communities in the National Conversation on Climate Action, and deservedly so. What impresses me so much about the City’s event is how it addresses the local angles of climate change so compellingly, and how thoroughly well planned and strategic it is, thanks to Program Assistant Nicole Urban-Lopez.
DOE to Local Governments: Talk Amongst Yourselves
by Don Knapp Apr 12, 2009
A document called "Attachment D" has the potential to keep local government staff awake at night, and one reason is that it asks them to collaborate with their neighbors in a potentially new way. Attachment D is the section of the Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program funding application in which local governments must spell out their "Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy" for the use of funds. Question 3 is a stickler: 3. Describe how your government is taking into account the proposed implementation plans and activities for use of funds by adjacent units of local government that are grant recipients under the Program (response not mandatory for Indian Tribes). This means that local governments must meet to share their energy initiatives and discuss how each may complement the other's without redundancy, as well as discuss regional collaboration on energy efficiency. So just how, exactly, is this process going to happen smoothly and quickly, especially if neighboring jurisdictions don't normally connect around these issues, or, dare I say it, if there is friction between a city and its county?
