Cicilline uses conference to push green programs

In accepting a $372,500 award that will help fund a partnership between the city of Providence and the Apeiron Institute for Sustainable Living, Mayor David N. Cicilline last week said green education could soon be starting as early as eighth grade for some students in Rhode Island.
“This program will create a pathway for individuals to receive the training and skills that they need for the green jobs of the 21st century,” he added.
The partnership, which includes the Community College of Rhode Island, was just one of several green programs that Providence was pushing last week as mayors from around the United States descended on the city for the 77th annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM).
Cicilline isn’t alone is his effort to make being green a priority for his city. The other green award winners – Chicago, Milwaukee, San Francisco, St. Louis, Mo., and Long Beach, Calif. – were honored for programs ranging from recycling training for at-risk youth to an urban farm program that trains the homeless in green horticulture.
Manny Diaz, mayor of Miami and last year’s USCM president, said in his opening remarks at the June 15 Green Jobs Training awards – where Providence won in the small-city category – that more than 950 mayors have now signed a climate-protection agreement and joined the Climate Change Protection Center, launched in February 2007. The agreement they signed includes a pledge to cut carbon emissions from 1990 levels by 7 percent by 2012, according to the center.
“When we had met before, we celebrated the work of mayors on climate protection, acknowledging that too often cities have had to go it alone,” Diaz added. “Now things have changed in a short time with the conference-led Energy [Efficiency and Conservation] Block Grant program.”
And Cicilline, who has been named one of the “15 green-leaning mayors” in the United States by Grist Magazine, an online news source, last week had a chance to show off Providence’s green initiatives. They include his “Greenpoint Providence.” Launched in October, that initiative includes creating renewable energy credits and building municipal buildings certified as energy efficient under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design program.
Another, launched in February, is Cicilline’s “Operation Opportunity.” That’s an 18-month program that aims to push for green economic development by doubling the city’s recycling rates and creating a green job-training program. And while Cicilline and the rest of the USCM last week touted their local initiatives, they also sought more federal support for green cities. Of the more than 150 resolutions the USCM passed last week, about one of every 10 had the word green in the title – and others included “climate change,” “energy efficiency” and “conservation.”
Those resolutions, approved by USCM voting on June 15, now have the official support of the estimated 1,200 USCM members and become part of a policy agenda that’s forwarded to President Barack Obama and the Congress.
One of those resolutions, submitted by Cicilline and seven other mayors, including Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and Richard M. Daley of Chicago, calls for $125 million in Green Jobs Act grants and $301 million in Second Chance Act grants.
That funding would create green jobs for ex-convicts and green job training for low-income residents. The resolution notes that 67.5 percent of released convicts are arrested again within three years, but programs such as the U.S. Department of Labor’s Prisoner Reentry Initiative “have shown promising results [with] only 14 percent of those participating in the initiative” getting arrested again.
Another resolution would call for federal funding and support for local government to “implement and expand green-building production.” Cicilline and six other mayors – including San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino – submitted the resolution.
The USCM also called for support for “Greening Affordable Housing Developments.” An approved resolution urges support for federal programs, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, that assist local green-building projects.
“The greening of public housing will not only lower utility costs for low-income families, but also create healthier, more vibrant home environments that live in public housing developments,” the resolution said.
An “energy and infrastructure” resolution called for a lessening of U.S. dependency on foreign oil and the creation of national “standards requiring utilities to use wind power, solar, geothermal and other renewable power.” Another successful resolution called for a greening of the federal tax code through the creation of a Green Zone Investment Tax Credit and Green Housing Tax Credit to encourage green building. &#8226