Neat Job Opening

UNC is hiring for a specialist to come in and figure out how they can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions with the goal of reaching carbon neutrality by the middle of the century.

It's a noble and ambitious goal and it's great to see them willing to put some serious money into getting the expertise to reach it.

The posting is here.

An easier way to use Renewable Energy

Guest Post by Les Tayrose, Capital Group member:

Last spring, I came across a company that has a goal of making renewable energy cost competitive with today’s electricity rates. The Citizenrē REnU program is the first to give residential customers the chance to use green energy in their home without the usual dilemma. A photovoltaic (“PV”) array, inverters, and an exchange point (“XP”) are prepackaged to deliver energy to the customer or the utility from power generated at the home.

I believe in Citizenre because it offers a way for any interested homeowner to do more than worry. Today, I have the opportunity to take action by promoting a wonderful product that will make a significant change to the United States' emissions. Citizenre's REnU product will allow homeowners to upgrade their home, at no more than they are already paying for electricity, from coal-based electricity to the cleanest form: solar!

Usually, a PV system for a home costs a small fortune, and that has been a barrier for many, including me. The rental program replaces the purchase cost with the equivalent of an electric bill. Now, for the first time, users of the PV system will actually save money as electric rates continue to climb. The new program takes care of all the usual headaches: it provides hassle free installation, operation, and maintenance.

This program allows every homeowner to become a renewable energy pioneer!
By helping people put panels on their roofs, I help preserve the current climate that we enjoy today. With our goal of 25% of electricity generation by 2025, we will prevent almost 1 billion tons of CO2 (or 11% of all of the U.S. carbon pollution) in 2025, alone and 3.4 billion tons from 2008 - 2025!

Les Tayrose
919-818-5097
www.ecosunpower.com

Support the Jordan Lake rules

You can express your support for the Jordan Lake rules through our easy to use action alert system here.

For more information about Jordan Lake go here.

More of what Greensboro is doing to be cool

Here are some more of the initiatives, beyond what I wrote yesterday about the Greensboro Coliseum, that the city is undertaking as part of its Cool Cities commitment:

-In recent years, the City has increased its funding for public transit to make it usable by all City residents and visitors. In the past year alone, the Greensboro Transit Authority (GTA) transported nearly 3 million riders to their destinations.

-The City has been an active participant in the creation and sponsorship of the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation (PART). PART enhances the quality of all forms of transportation for every citizen through efficient use and protection of Greensboro’s natural, economic and human resources.

-In order to cut down on the amount of greenhouse gases produced by the City of Greensboro, methane gas produced as a byproduct of waste at the City’s landfills is sold and then converted to “green energy.”

-The City is working to provide City buildings with more efficient lighting and HVAC systems to conserve energy. Other efforts include installation of motion-sensitive lighting, programmable lights and thermostats, more efficient lights and ballasts and the use of Energy Star equipment and appliances.

-The City uses sustainable building practices to reduce the strain on the environment. All new fire department facilities are constructed using sustainability techniques. In addition, the City’s Kathleen Clay Edwards Family Branch Library supports the City’s stance on the environment by carrying the theme of environmental awareness and education throughout the interior of the library through books and activities.

Greensboro Coliseum Retrofits

I promised last week that I would spend some time discussing what Greensboro's doing as it works toward its Cool Cities goals and I'll start today by showcasing what is quite frankly my favorite project in the state.

Other than going to Cool Cities meetings, the main thing I go to Greensboro for is basketball games at the Greensboro Coliseum. I imagine that's true for a number of people across the state. That's why I think it is absolutely awesome that the city is using retrofits to make the Coliseum a model of sustainability.

It is receiving energy-efficient lighting system retrofits, water conserving plumbing fixtures and major upgrades to its HVAC system.

These measures are expected to reduce electricity consumption by a quarter and cut natural gas use in half. The city estimates that these changes will cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 1,700 tons a year.

The cost of these changes is four million dollars, which will be paid for by the net energy savings of the facility.

Way to go Greensboro! More on what the city is doing later this week.

Black Mountain Cool Cities Event Scheduled

We now have our Black Mountain Cool Cities event scheduled! It will be next Wednesday, September 5th at 2 PM at Town Hall. Two of the programs featured in our pending Cool Cities Best Practices Guide come out of Black Mountain, so it is a town taking its commitment very seriously and I am happy to have the opportunity to honor them.

As previously noticed, the Clyde Cool Cities ceremony will be on Thursday, September 6th at 9 AM at their Town Hall.

Please join us in Western North Carolina next week as we honor these Cool Cities!

Eastern North Carolina Cool Cities Action Alerts

We have set up action alerts for residents to contact their elected officials about Cool Cities in Pine Knoll Shores, Bethel, Ayden, Farmville, Kinston, Oriental, Swansboro, Warsaw, and Washington. If you live in one of those cities click the link to e-mail your local leaders and tell them you want your community to join in with the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

I'll put up ones for communities in Carteret County in the next week or so too.

More conservative angst about Cool Cities

The Rhino Times, a weekly right wing rag published in Greensboro, has been hammering on the Cool Cities program week after week for almost a month now. 'Hammering' is a bit of a pun as the guy doing it has been Editor John Hammer is his weekly screed.

He started with the July 26th column, 'How to save Planet Earth.'

On August 9th, two days after a large mass of citizens came out to show their support for the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and the Council agreed to discuss it on the 21st, Hammer wrote:

City Councilmember and mayoral candidate Yvonne Johnson said she had received over 100 emails and insisted that the item be placed on the agenda. It is an election year and Yvonne Johnson wants to be mayor. The lesson to citizens is if you want the city to do anything and have 100 friends who will send emails, or if you have access to 100 email accounts, you can get it done between now and Nov. 6.

Those darn elected officials listening to public input! You can read the column here.

After the City Council unanimously authorized the Mayor to sign onto the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, it appears Hammer went into denial:

One key point was that the resolution passed by the City Council states, "the City of Greensboro will support the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement." It doesn't say endorse. What the city actually agreed to do is much of what it is already doing – trying to reduce air pollution and figure out what the greenhouse gas emissions were in 1990 in order to come up with a plan to reduce that level by 7 percent.

Mayor Keith Holliday signed the agreement right in front of the assembled crowd...you can't do much more of an endorsement than that! You can read the rest of that column here.

When it's making them mad, you know that it's working...

Daily Tar Heel covers Cool Cities

The Daily Tar Heel, named last week as the best college newspaper in the country by the Princeton Review, did a great feature this morning taking a statewide look at the Cool Cities program. You can read it here.

Congratulations Chuck McGrady!

Our friend, Chuck McGrady, former national Sierra Club President, current Henderson County Commissioner and all around good guy, is the new co-chair of the Envrionmental Steering Committee for the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners.

An excerpt from today's Hendersonville Times-News story on the subject:

McGrady said he wants to use the chairmanship to keep environmental policy away from state and federal governments.

"I think so many of the environmental issues we have need to be dealt with at the local level," McGrady said.

He cited Henderson County's recent adoption of rules on soil and sedimentation as an example. The state was not doing enough to regulate runoff, so the county took control.

"In that case, Henderson County came forward and adopted an ordinance," McGrady said.

McGrady calls himself a conservative, but does not back down on environmental issues. He said he will continue to be a strong advocate for progressive environmental policy as chair of the committee.

"I came to the table with no apologizes as an environmental leader,"McGrady said.

The Legislature made progress on environmental issues last session, McGrady said, and he wants to continue to push it forward. The Legislature passed a solid waste bill and increased incentives for renewable energy.

"The counties need to make themselves heard with the Legislature," McGrady said.

You can read the full story in the Times-News here.

Wake Forest becomes 22nd NC Cool City!

Back in May I went to speak to a class at East Millbrook Magnet Middle School on the second day of a series of guests they were having to come present things about the environment.

One of the guests the previous day had been the environmentally oriented Mayor of Wake Forest, Vivian Jones. I suggested to the students in speaking about Cool Cities that they contact Mayor Jones and ask her to make Wake Forest a Cool City.

Well she and the town's Board of Commissioners did Tuesday night by passing the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement!

We look forward to honoring the city and hopefully making the middle school students a part of it sometime in the near future.

Congratulations to Wake Forest and thank you to its leadership!

WNC Cool Cities Update

We are going to be having an event to honor Clyde as a Cool City at Town Hall on Thursday, September 6th at 9 AM. It will be a great opportunity to showcase some of the good work Clyde is doing, particularly in the area of public education about what citizens can do in their daily lives.

We'll likely have an event to honor Black Mountain's good leadership that week as well.

We're not done in Western North Carolina though! I wrote this guest column that appeared in the Cherokee Sentinel today. If Murphy signs on we'll have to work on Manteo too so that we can have Cool Cities from Murphy to Manteo!

JLF complaining already

One thing I forgot to mention about Greensboro signing on to Cool Cities were the great comments by Council member Florence Gatten. Greensboro is aiming to do its inventory and set more specific year by year reduction goals by next May.

Gatten pointed out that is perfect timing- right as the budget is being prepared so that the city can put its money where its mouth is in terms of reaching its goals.

That didn't sit very well with our buddies over at the John Locke Foundation.

'SamH' of JLF complains that tonight's action is:

Concrete justification to spend more on public transportation, open space, bicycle paths, smart growth initiatives, LEED-certified buildings, you name it, as if the city isn’t spending enough.

You can read the full post here.

We're so sorry!

Greensboro=Cool City

Greensboro Mayor Keith Holliday signed the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement tonight. Literally.

There was some ambiguity about whether the resolution Greensboro was considering actually joined the city in with the rest of the Cool Cities across North Carolina and the rest of the country. So in her closing comments to the Council, Kim Yarbray came right out and asked Holliday to sign the USMCPA right there in front of the packed chamber if the Council passed the resolution before it.

The 75+ Cool Cities supporters in attendance applauded loudly while the Council and city staff chuckled.

But after the Greensboro Council unanimously passed the agreement, Holliday got up from his chair, walked over to the speaker's podium and signed it before a cheering crowd.

I have thoroughly enjoyed every single one of our groups' Cool Cities campaign but the Piedmont Plateau Group took it to another level with this one. Multiple meetings a month for almost a year for the Cool Cities team. 50% + plus Action Alert response rates. Huge turnouts at Council meetings. Meaningful community partnerships. They deserved the joy that tonight produced.

Thank you also to the Greensboro City Council and City Manager Mitchell Johnson for their work on this issue and patience with us over the months! Every Council Member has received over 200 e-mails and a slew of phone calls on this issue and we appreciate their vigilance.

Mr. Johnson gave a great list of things Greensboro is doing and hopes to improve upon to meet its goals and I will showcase some of those things here over the rest of the week.

Congratulations to PPG and Greensboro, North Carolina's 21st Cool City!

Greensboro City Council Update: Tomorrow's meeting

The agenda for Tuesday's City Council meeting is out and Cool Cities is on it!

Again, we need you to call or e-mail City Council members before the meeting AND to show up at the meeting!

The U.S. Mayors Climate Agreement is listed toward the end of the agenda as a Business Item, so we will again be speaking during the Speakers from the Floor segment of the City Council meeting.

Over 60 of you came out in support of Greensboro becoming a Cool City; we need you again!

During the Speakers from the Floor period, we will all be asked to stand in support of having our Mayor and City Council sign onto the U.S Mayors Climate Protection Agreement in order to protect the environment, conserve energy, and save tax dollars. This will take place between 5:30-6:30, so please plan to be there for that hour. The Agreement will get a vote during the Business Items part of the Agenda, which happens later that evening. If you are unable to stay for the vote, we will send an update to let you know the outcome.

The City Council meeting begins at 5:30 in the Council chambers at the Melvin Municipal Office Building, 300 West Washington Street. Free parking is available in the Greene Street parking deck across from the Melvin Municipal Building. Please bring friends and neighbors who also care about the issues. Our elected officials need to know that their votes matter to us.

Tying up some loose ends on last week's Cool Cities

The Charlotte Observer covers Gastonia becoming a Cool City. The Gaston Gazette has pictures.

The Salisbury Post thinks Cool Cities is a good thing.

I think more cities in Eastern North Carolina should be signing on, and the Oriental Harbor gave me the chance to say why.

Allen Joines is speaking to the League of Women Voters about what Winston-Salem is doing to reach its Cool Cities goals.

Cool Cities rolling in New Bern

Last month we were excited to honor Greenville as the first Cool City in eastern North Carolina.

New Bern might be next!

Cypress Group leader Robert Scull has been doing a great job assembling a broad coalition of support for Craven County communities to join in with Cool Cities.

The New Bern Sun-Journal chronicled one of his efforts earlier this week.

Thank you to Robert and the New Bern Cool Cities team for the good work they're doing, and good luck!

An environmentally friendly golf course?

There's been a lot of press this week about how Tiger Woods is going to be designing his first American golf course in Western North Carolina.

Today's Asheville Citizen-Times reports that the Cliffs, which will be doing the development, does its business in a pretty green friendly manner:

You won’t often hear folks who have to enforce erosion control ordinances singing the praises of a developer. But County Planner Jim Coman can’t say enough good things about The Cliffs developer Jim Anthony’s operation.

“They have been a poster child for erosion control and every other regulation we have,” Coman says. “It’s so rare to work with somebody who does it right the first time. They really do a first-rate job. He’s the best there is.”

You can read the full story here.

Golf courses do not tend to be viewed as a good thing for the environment, so it's nice to see the Cliffs doing things the right way with this venture. Hopefully it'll all work out well.

Lisa Renstrom Offers Greetings from Harvard Square

Molly visited Lisa while in Boston attending the National Conference of State Legislators. Lisa is former national president of Sierra Club and currently serves on the board of directors. Lisa is attending classes in Boston but resides in Charlotte.

Foothills Film Festival Sunday

The Foothills Group is hosting a film festival at the Blessings Project Foundation, 823 Reynolda Rd. in Winston-Salem, from 1-7 PM.

In addition to films on topics ranging from global warming to mountain top removal to alternative energy possibilities to the true cost of food, there will also be a discussion with Winston-Salem Assistant City Manager Martha Wheelock about what the city is doing to help meet the goals it set by becoming a Cool City. Dr. Tom Mann of Parkway United Church of Christ will speak on the Moral & Ethical Implications of Climate Change as well.

You can view the full schedule for the day's events here.

If you're in the Triad, join the Foothills Group on Sunday!

Greensboro Cool Cities back at City Council Tuesday night!

The Greensboro City Council will be taking up the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement again at its meeting next Tuesday the 21st. This is in so small part thanks to the many of you who attended the last meeting and have written the Council on this issue. Thank you for your support!

There are two things you can do to help make Greensboro a Cool City: write the City Council an e-mail showing your support and come to the City Council meeting.

You can edit a sample message and write the Council through the Sierra Club's easy to use action alert system.

The agenda is not out for Tuesday's meeting yet. I will post more complete details Friday once we have them. We do know that it will be at 5:30 in the Council chambers at the Melvin Municipal Office Building, 300 West Washington Street. Please put the meeting on your calendar! We'll have a better estimate of when in the evening the issue might come up later this week.

Winston-Salem Cool Cities tv story

WGHP-TV did a great story last month about the work Winston-Salem is doing to meet the goals it agreed to when it became a Cool City. I wish the story had given the Sierra Club some love but it is worth a watch nonetheless. You can view it here.

The city sure has an outstanding mayor in Allen Joines!

What Gastonia is doing to be cool

Gastonia Mayor Pro Tem John Howren gave a great presentation at the event yesterday about some of the things Gastonia is doing to reach the goals in its Cool City pledge. There are too many things to list here, but here are some of the highlights:

1. Our KEEP GASTONIA BEAUTIFUL organization, through 120,000 volunteers contributing over 1 million volunteer hours to Keep Gastonia Beautiful have made tremendous efforts, such as:

• Planting over 5,000 trees since the year 2000

• Used “TWIGGY” the Talking Tree and “LOUIE” the Litterbug Puppet to reach over 6,000 students on environmental education.

• Providing “In-House” Recycling at 23 City locations, as well as recycling 23,000 phone books

• Providing 1,450 Beautification & Environmental Education School Booklets to area teachers

2. Gastonia’s Wastewater Treatment Division has achieved ISO 14001 EMS certification. This is voluntary environmental management system that once you commit to it, requires you to evaluate and manage your environmental impacts and to make a commitment to prevent pollution, continually improve, and comply with all laws and regulations. Both the Water Supply and the Wastewater Treatment Division are certified. The Wastewater Treatment Division was the 1st in the State and 3rd in the Nation to accomplish such as a public wastewater treatment entity. The City continues to work at achieving ISO certification in other areas of our City as well.

3. The City also promotes a “No Idling” policy in operations of our City vehicles. Recently, we have re-emphasized to our workforce our no-idling procedures and overall fuel conservation measures, originally stressed when gasoline prices started skyrocketing and fuel shortages were looming (several years ago). We reminded all employees utilizing City equipment of these general procedures and the importance of such to air quality, cost savings, and overall efficiency of our operations. These fuel conservation recommendations include:

• Not allowing vehicles to idle unless they are "working". An exception would be in cars containing police dogs.

• Try to keep vehicle speeds 5 mph below posted limits.

• Consolidating trips, inspections, and using car-pooling when possible.

• Insuring that our vehicles receive regular tune-ups and their tires are properly inflated.

• Using trailers to deliver our equipment to job sites instead of driving equipment to sites when feasible.

• Utilize smaller vehicles whenever possible.

• Not overtopping fuel tanks and avoiding spillage and overfills.

• Notifying our garage if the equipment is not functioning properly.

4. In our overall vehicle operations:

• We have 12 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles and 1 bus.

• We’ve recently downsized ten (10) police patrol vehicles from an 8 cylinder engine to 6 cylinders; promoting better efficiency, fuel economy and cleaner air.

• We will be purchasing at least one hybrid gas/electric vehicle as a pilot program in lieu of a gasoline vehicle.

• Currently applying for grant funds under the Clean Fuels Advanced Technology Program (CFAT) to reduce harmful emissions on some of the City’s existing diesel trucks.

Gastonia Event

More than 75 people came to the Gastonia Cool Cities Event! Photos by Chatham Olive.
Yesterday's Gastonia Cool Cities event was very successful with more than 75 people in attendance! Media coverage was provided by News 14 Carolina and the Gastonia Gazette, although I don't have links.

One of the highlights of the morning was a group of preschool children, looking 'cool' in their sunglasses, giving a poem they 'wrote' about why Gastonia is a Cool City. You can see pictures of them here on the City of Gastonia's website.


Local Sierra Club member Carol Klein made the formal presentation of the Cool Cities plaque to Mayor Jennie Stultz.

It was also a pleasure to meet Mayor Jennie Stultz. She is one of the most friendly and committed Mayors I have met through the Cool Cities program. Gastonia is lucky to have her leadership!

Salisbury Cool City Event

Salisbury Mayor Susan Kluttz, former Sierra Club President Chuck McGrady, and DENR Secretary Bill Ross at the head table at last night's Salisbury Cool Cities celebration. Photo by Chatham Olive.

The city of Salisbury and a variety of partners put on a great event last night for the community to accept the 'Cool City' honor from the Sierra Club. Former national Sierra Club President and current Henderson County Commissioner Chuck McGrady eloquently explained why the Cool Cities program was created and how Salisbury fits into it.

Mayor Susan Kluttz graciously accepted the honor and outlined many of the things the city is doing to help work toward the goals it signed onto in the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Part of her comments were excerpted in the Salisbury Post:

Kluttz told audience members about some of the things the city is doing to help save the environment.

The city has hybrid and electric cars in its fleet as well as vehicles running on bio-diesel fuel. The city also received a grant recently to implement a program offering free bus rides.

Residents can ride the bus free of charge on days when ozone levels are code orange or red. "We are amazed at the increase in ridership we're seeing," she said.

There were two articles about the event in the Post, here and here.

The Road Show goes to Salisbury and Gastonia Monday

On Monday Chatham Olive and I will be going to ceremonies to honor Gastonia and Salisbury as Cool Cities.

In Gastonia Mayor Jennie Stultz informs me that they will be presenting the 'top 20 reasons why Gastonia is cool,' in addition to a presentation from school children about 'why their city is cool.' I am certainly looking forward to that!

The ceremony is at 11 AM at the City Hall. Here is last week's Gaston Gazette coverage about the city coming on.

In the evening we will be honoring Salisbury at the community's 'Green Dinner.' Former national Sierra Club President and current Henderson County Commissioner Chuck McGrady will be present to give the city its honor!

That event will be at 6:30 PM. Coverage in the Salisbury Post from when the city originally signed on is here.

Congratulations to Gastonia and Salisbury! We hope your leadership will provide a model for the rest of the Charlotte/Mecklenburg region.

Taking the Cool Cities message to conservative talk radio

Tuesday I had one of my more interesting experiences in this job when I spent an hour taking live calls about global warming on conservative talk radio.

It was on the Bill LuMaye show on WPTF 680 AM. This show is on the schedule in between Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

The show was being guest hosted Tuesday by Bob Langford who is actually a pretty moderate guy.

The folks who called in, however, were not!

I took about a dozen calls, all from men. Certainly giving validity to this previous post about how women believe in global warming and men don't.

I think my favorite question came from the guy who thought the RPS bill that just passed would 'destroy the American way of life.' I told him that last I checked the General Assembly did not seem to me to be filled with a bunch of liberals who would recklessly 'destroy the American way of life' and that the bill had been painstakingly vetted but he replied that actually the GA was full of crazy liberals...

All about perspective I guess...

I also had a bunch of people call and tell me about how this or that scientist didn't believe in global warming and that meant it was hooey. Finally I just said that 'if a couple scientists who got their PhD's from the University of Doug don't believe in global warming that's not much of a counter balance to the 98% of scientists who do.'

Anyway it must have gone well enough because I was asked to come on WPTF sometime again in the near future. It's the highest rated AM radio station in the Triangle so even if it was a pretty unusual outlet for spreading the word about Cool Cities an hour on live afternoon drive radio is a pretty good deal.

We'll just keep spreading the message wherever we can!

Moving forward on Cool Cities in Raleigh

Guest Post by Marvin Woll:

The Raleigh City Council should be commended for endorsing the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement. In addition the city has initiated several other energy saving measures. It has begun installing energy saving lighting in city garages. The city is also switching to compact flourescent light bulbs and replacing some police vehicles with better mileage hybrid vehicles.

Now the city must take some other actions in order to implement the Climate Protection Agreement. Without these actions the Agreement will be worth nothing more than the paper it is printed on.

A logical first step would be to establish an Office of Energy Conservation Services. This person will be needed to manage the ICLEI agreement which was also endorsed by the city council. The office would also help with initiating other energy saving measures and keeping track of those measures that are already in place. Initially this office could be directed by one person with a strong background in environmental sciences. The director's salary would be paid for from the previously mentioned energy saving measures.

As the state capital Raleigh should lead North Carolina toward greater energy efficiency. Its leaders have taken some positive steps in that direction.

Feeling the love once again from the John Locke Foundation

I've blogged a couple times before about how the John Locke Foundation does not like the Cool Cities program.

They're at it again this week!

They describe Raleigh becoming a Cool City as 'a major victory of the global warming alarmists' in this post.

We'll certainly wear that as a badge of honor!

And the Triad JLF guy is whining about the possibility of Greensboro becoming a Cool City.

Thanks JLF! Your opposition helps our cause.

New Orleans in Boston, and time to go

As my final activity here in Boston at the National Conference of State Legislators, I am at a lunch sponsored by the city of New Oreleans, which will host next year's conference. Along with great food, there are floats, beads, festive gift umbrellas, and a New Orleans styled parade making its way through the tables. It's a little hard to talk over the brass horns and drums. At my table, we decided we are just going to pretend that this is a celebration of the climate change vote this morning! It's all a little overwhelming but fun.

And so ends this year's conference for this North Carolinian.

Legislators vote "yes" on climate change policy!

Okay, my faith in state legislatures is restored. The National Conference of State Legisators just voted to adopt an amendment to a policy on climate change, reversing an action earlier in the week.

The small group of states, lead by Georgia, that has blocked action for two years on this issue were shown to be a very small minority indeed. The vote to support the climate change amendment passed 40-8.

I am proud to say that the North Carolina legislators in attendance voted "yes". I could't see everyone, but Reps. Martha Alexander, Lucy Allen and Phil Haire were among them.

The amendment was offered by Rep. Dennis Ozment (Minnesota) and seconded by Jim O'Rourke (Conn.).

The states who voted for no NCSL action on climate change were Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Kim Yarbray on Cool Cities as an Organizing Tool

Guest post by Kim Yarbray:

It really was an AMAZING meeting...to see so many of my fellow citizens at a City Council meeting and to hear that Council members received over 100 e-mails this week on this issue...WOW! But what made it happen is the amazingly COOL team of people that comprise the Greensboro Coolsters: Joel Landau who is running for City Council, Gay Cheney a long time educator who spoke last night, Hazel Landers who knows how to put pizazz into a message, Dick Mearns whose ability to think critically always moves the team to a better place, Diane Davis who has been on the political scene in Greensboro for a LONG time...as a Republican no less (a reason to never lose hope because of a label)...and so many others who support and participate from the periphery.

The most interesting thing to me has been how much of an organizing tool the Cool Cities campaign can really be. Getting sign on is good, but organizing people around the issues BEFORE getting sign on, i think, is better. It is so human for people to want to feel themselves to be part of something larger...last night people did. When the 60+ people stood at one time, there was an energy, there were goosebumps (and not just on my arms - i looked!), there were eyes meeting eyes as so many of the people who stood up looked at each other a little shocked that WE were so many. This is the power, i think, of Cool Cities, or really of any campaign that gives normal folks a platform to imagine a better world to which they are uniquely qualified to contribute. It's so important to get our local governments to take charge and commit to an agreement that reduces green houses gases, but at this time, it is even MORE important that people feel they have a place in the great scheme of change where there is not only a space for them, but also a real need. What an amazing learning experience getting COOL has been!

Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Boston

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House, is addressing thousands of state legislators at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Boston. About climate change, she said: "state legislators know consequences of global warming...it is as local as neighborhoods and as global a the planet." Pelosi talked about addressing global warming as an economic, environmental and moral issue and spoke with pride about energy legislation moving through Congress.

Pelosi's comments on global warming drew much applause, I wonder if she knows that earlier this week that this body failed to adopt a climate change policy for the second year in a row...

Wrapping up some loose ends in Greensboro

The News&Record was so taken by the turnout of folks urging Greensboro to be a Cool City at Monday night's City Council meeting that they wrote an article about it! Check it out here.

Also, the video of Mayor Keith Holliday's amusing verbal mishap is available online. Check it out here. The amusing moment comes at about the 4:36 mark on the video.

Going backwards on climate change in Boston

While North Carolina is moving foward in taking action on climate change with yet another cool city (congratulations, Raleigh!), there has been a pretty big setback here at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Boston.

It turns out that NCSL doesn't have a policy on climate change, so their lobbyists are not active on this issue in Congress.

Yesterday, a key committee took up a modest policy statement on climate change. There was a lot of support-- 24 states voted to adopt the policy. But 12 states, lead by Georgia, voted first to table (kill) the measure and then to oppose it. This was the second year in a row that a climate change policy statement failed, although climate change workshops have dominated the conference.

You would think that 24 states would trump 12 states, but it turns out that policy votes require a 3/4 majority.

I was proud that North Carolina, repesented by committee member Rep. Pricey Harrison, of Guilford County, supported the resolution.

Here are the states who voted no: Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Wyoming, Georgia, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

In case you are wondering, yes, there is a lot of lobbying by industry groups going on.

Raleigh becomes a Cool City!

More details later, but the Raleigh City Council passed the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement this afternoon 7-1, becoming the largest Cool City in North Carolina.

Congratulations to Raleigh and the Capital Group! Over 100 people e-mailed the City Council to show their support.

Speaker Joe Hackney Honored in Boston

I am still in Boston for the National Association of State Legislatures. This morning was pretty exciting. Speaker Joe Hackney was presented with the Association's highest award for honoring the integrity of state legislatures as intended by the Founding Fathers. In accepting the award, Hackney talked about the crisis that North Carolina aced as a state whose decades-old reputation for good government was in danger. He thanked many people, but especially Reps. Deborah Ross and Julia Howard, as well as Sens. Clodfelter and Rand, for their determination to come together to address the ethical concerns that have been raised and to change the culture of the legislature.

WPTF this afternoon

I will be appearing on WPTF, 680 AM, this afternoon roughly from 4-4:30 PM in Raleigh talking about global warming. It's a pretty conservative station and I'm taking live calls so wish me luck!

Greensboro City Council Tonight: Cool Cities success and Keith Holliday brings the house down

I enjoyed tonight's Greensboro City Council meeting more than any other governing board meeting I've ever been to. And I've been to way too many.

There were two reasons:

1) Meagan Honnold kindly designed some stickers for folks to wear to the meeting to show their support for Greensboro becoming a Cool City. When she asked me how many I thought would be needed for tonight, I said 32 and that's probably more than we need.

Never underestimate the organizational power of Kim Yarbray.

More than 60 people came to the City Council meeting tonight to stand up for Greensboro to sign the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement! And the Council noticed, considerably expediting the pace at which it looked like the process would travel. They will likely make a decision at their August 21st meeting.

Congrats to the Piedmont Plateau Group on an awesome turnout!

2) Then there was the more PG-13 enjoyable aspect of the meeting. Greensboro Mayor Keith Holliday is a pretty straight laced guy. But at the beginning tonight he asked that everyone in the audience who has 'cell phones or vibrators in their pocket' please turn them off.

That brought down the house for a good three or four minutes and turned Holliday's face bright red. It was certainly the funniest faux pas I've ever heard an elected official speak.

The next item on the agenda was to honor some Boy Scouts, and Holliday exhorted them to ignore everything that had just happened, which resulted in everyone bursting out in laughter again.

Good times in Greensboro. Stay tuned for more information on how to help in the next two weeks.

Boston, legislators and climate change

Here I am in Boston, for the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL). Something like 7000 people are expected to attend, held this year in the new Boston convention center on the waterfront.

I told Tom that I would make my debut live blogging from this event, so here is my first post.

I came to Boston to get a better sense of where states are on action on climate change. This issue is dominating the conference--lots of speakers, workshops etc. The first session this morning is packed, standing room only.

I may be in Boston, but it feels a little bit like home. The first person I ran into was Speaker Joe Hackney, who in addition to his leadership role in the NC House, is the incoming president of NCSL. And this morning, on the way to this workshop, I ran into Gov. Jim Hunt, who is presenting at a big education session later this morning.

A great argument for Greensboro to become a Cool City

UNC-Greensboro Professor Jay Lennartson does an outstanding job in today's News&Record explaining why Greensboro should become a Cool City. This is really 'must read' material. Check it out here.

Show your support for Greensboro to be a Cool City!

Come to the Monday, August 6th City Council meeting from 5:30 - 6:30 so that you can stand up and be counted as a citizen that wants to see Greensboro's leadership commit to the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement!

During the Speakers from the Floor section, at the beginning of the meeting, a speaker will ask us all to stand and be recognized by the City Council as some of the citizens who care about curbing greenhouse gases, conserving energy, and saving money.

The Council meeting will take place in Council chambers located in the Melvin Municipal Office Building, 300 West Washington Street. Free parking is available in the Greene Street parking deck across from the Melvin Municipal Building. Feel free to bring friends and neighbors who also care about the issues.

Great Slogan!

Four months ago I had tickets to a Hurricanes game that happened to be the same night as the start of the NCAA tournament. I couldn't resist the temptation to stay home and watch Duke lose in the first round to Old Dominion so I gave the tickets to Veronica Butcher from the North Carolina Conservation Network and Amy McDonald from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

At our event in Raleigh Tuesday night, Amy informed me that when they went to the Hockey game, they didn't stop working. They quickly put together a sign that said 'Save Hockey, stop Global Warming' that they put up for all to see at the game!

I thought that was a great way of combining work and play.

Gaston Gazette on Gastonia Cool Cities

There's a nice story in the Gaston Gazette today about Gastonia becoming a Cool City.

Mayor Jennie Stultz is a winner:

Stultz said the city would be looking for ways to conserve energy and cut air pollution. Gastonia already has a track record of promoting environmental protection, she said.

“We were cool before being cool was cool,” Stultz said. “I’ve been an environmental advocate for more than 20 years. So, I wasn’t a hard sell.

“But this isn’t just about pounding our chests and saying, ‘Look what we’ve done.’ We’re also asking, ‘What else can we do?’” she said.

The city already has a no-idling policy, which requires staff to turn vehicles off when they park, even if they are only making a quick service call, Stultz said. New initiatives to lower emissions might include use of vehicles that run on hybrid gas-electric power or alternative fuels, Stultz said.

We hope to see everyone out at City Hall at 11 AM on the 13th.

Great news about Raleigh Cool Cities!

Our Raleigh Cool Cities event last night was a great success! Over 100 people came to show their support of Raleigh signing the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

Earlier in the day came even better news. After several months of discussion, the city's Environmental Advisory Board made a favorable recommendation on Cool Cities to the City Council.

The issue will be up at the 1 PM City Council meeting next Tuesday. Here are some ways you can help:

1) Contact the City Council by phone, e-mail, or any other way you might want:

-You can go here to send a message to the City Council through our easy to use Action Alert system. The link provides background on the issue as well as a target message that you can either edit or send as is to the members of the City Council. If you sign up you will also receive future messages about how you can help on environmental issues in North Carolina (usually fewer than 2 e-mails per month.)

-If you don’t want to sign up for the Action Alert system you can send a message directly to Council members. Contact info is available here.

2) Attend the City Council meeting on Tuesday to show your support. The agenda is not out yet but the City Manager’s office says this will be discussed at the 1 PM meeting on Tuesday, August 7th. City Council meetings are held at the Avery C. Upchurch Government Complex, 222 W. Hargett St. We will have stickers for folks there looking to show their support of the Cool Cities program!