Monday, January 28, 2008
Lawrence city commissioners are taking positive steps toward lowering greenhouse gas emissions in the city.
Mayor Sue Hack will meet with Vice Mayor Michael Dever today to put together a Climate Protection Task Force, which will be responsible for creating a plan to lower greenhouse gas emissions in Lawrence by 7 percent.
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What we’re trying to figure out is, ‘How do we balance the desire to be green with the economic costs that go along with that responsibility?'
—Sue Hack, Mayor of Lawrence
Daniel Poull, chairman of the Lawrence Sustainability Advisory Board that proposed the idea, said he wanted the task force to include either a science professor or a high-ranking administrator from the University of Kansas.
“I’m assuming since KU teaches an environmental course that there will be participation,” Poull said. “We’re hoping the University will submit some ideas for the task force.”
Potential members of the 12- to 15-member board also include individuals from many other stakeholders including Westar Energy, World Company, the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, Haskell Indian Nations University, the Lawrence City Commission and the Sustainability Advisory Board.
Hack said she and Dever will meet to go over recommended members, the timeline for putting the task force together and the compensation needed to afford the program.
“What we’re trying to figure out is, ‘How do we balance the desire to be green with the economic costs that go along with that responsibility?’” Hack said.
Conversations about the project have indicated that it will take about a year to put together, Hack said.
The central focus of the Climate Protection Task Force is to comply with the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement that the city signed on March 7, 2006.
The resolution requires participating cities to, by the year 2012, lower greenhouse gas emission levels by 7 percent from what they were in 1990.
The agreement was created in response to President Bush’s refusal to submit the Kyoto Protocol to the U.S. Congress for ratification. The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement among developed countries to reduce greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
In the two years since Lawrence agreed to the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, not much has been done to accomplish the resolution’s goals, Poull said.
Only four of about 30 commitments listed on the city’s Web site have been completed. In the two years since making these commitments, the city has signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, purchased green tags to off-set 3 percent of the city’s power usage to wind power, implemented the green tag program and signed an agreement to purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles as soon as they’re mass-produced.
This checklist can be misleading, said Tammy Bennett, assistant public works director, because many of these commitments are immeasurable. “These aren’t just items you can check off a list,” Bennett said. “These are items that require a long-term commitment to identify and address on a continual basis.”
Promoting energy efficiency is one of these examples. The city commission has taken steps toward this goal, such as adopting a new environmentally friendly energy code last year, but it’s impossible to check it off as accomplished because promoting energy efficiency is an ongoing process with no clear end, Bennett said.
Hack said she would announce plans for the Climate Protection Task Force at tomorrow’s city commission meeting.
— Edited by Jessica Sain-Baird
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