A growing number of towns are inundated with chronically vacant big-box stores and shopping centers. Here’s how to prevent big-box blight in your community. Continue reading
In May 2004, San Francisco adopted an Energy Independence Ordinance using California’s Community Choice Aggregation law (Laws of California 2002 Chapter 838) as a purchasing and ratesetting authority, and will issue revenue bonds, called H Bonds, to finance a 360 MW public works project. The energy projects would be equivalent to more than a third of the city’s electrical capacity needs and on average would supply about 14 percent of the city’s electric consumption (MWhs) without arate increase. Continue reading
Because customer-owned utilities are democratic and locally controlled, and service rather than profit oriented, we should encourage their formation. In today’s topsy-turvy electricity world, states should encourage the formation not only of customer-owned distribution utilities, but public transmission utilities and generation utilities as well.
With aims to inspire renewable energy generation at the local level, in October 2003, Merton became the first local authority in the United Kingdom (UK) to adopt a policy requiring new non-residential developments to generate a portion of their energy needs from on-site renewables. Continue reading
This resolution is targeted specifically at those communities that have signed on to the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement. It will require that construction projects in a community funded with municipal bonds will result in no net increases in global warming pollutants within the community. The resolution can be modified to suit the needs of other communities and could be the basis for state legislation. Continue reading
In 2000, Aspen and Pitkin County in Colorado launched the Renewable Energy Mitigation Program (REMP). The program charges new homeowners one fee if their homes exceed 5,000 sq. ft. and another fee up to$100,000 if they exceed the "energy budget" allotted to their property by the local building code. As of Fall 2002, REMP has raised more than$2 million for local energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. REMP’s goal is to keep three tons of carbon out of the air for every excess ton of carbon put into the air. Continue reading
The passage (60 percent in favor) of a city-wide referendum in November 2006, establishes a charge on electricity users based on how much energy they use. The money will go to support Boulder’s Climate Action Plan to reduce global warming pollution. The passage marked the first time in the nation that a municipal government will impose an energy tax on its residents to directly combat climate change. Continue reading
In July 2001, Seattle Mayor Paul Schell and four members of the City Council announced support for the Kyoto Protocol and called on other local governments to adopt policies to combat global warming. TheSeattle City Council voted on resolutions supporting the goals of the Kyoto Protocol and committing Seattle City Light — the city’s public electric utility — to a policy of zero net greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading
TheAct requires all long-term corporate sponsorships to be approved by the Board of Education. It also prohibits teachers from using corporate sponsored educational materials, including Channel One and ZapMe.
CorpusChristi did not set out to create a citywide wireless network. Theproject arose as a logical extension of the upgrade to wirelessautomated meter reading for the city’s gas and water utilities.
In2002, the City was facing a large investment in updating its meterreading capabilities, and was actively considering privatizing itsmunicipal utilities. It was still utilizing meter readers who walkeddoor to door, a risky job with high turnover. If they couldn’t get intoa yard for any reason, they would skip the house, which was the sourceof inaccuracies. Also, the once-monthly monitoring meant system leakswere not quickly recognized and repaired.
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