On Tuesday, April 7, 2009, the Tallahassee City Commission heard a presentation from the head of EPER (the Green Department) entitled “Carbon Footprint Reduction Plan.”
You can view the slide presentation here.
Among the facts revealed are:
- The City of Tallahassee has a Carbon Reduction Task Team that investigates the feasibility of implementing policies that reduce carbon emissions in Tallahassee.
- EPER is charged with tracking how the carbon footprint of Tallahassee compares to other municipalities.
- The City of Tallahassee ranks in the top 10 of cities in the United States with the lowest CO2 emission rates.
- The City of Tallahassee’s electric utility has the lowest carbon emissions per MegaWatt hour of power produced in the state of Florida.
The dialogue between the City Commissioners that followed was started by Mayor Marks. The Mayor commented that “Tallahassee needs community input on which direction to head on these issues.”
Commissioner Katz followed with the idea of putting out a request for proposal (RFP) for a “solar panel farm” and Commissioner Gillum continued with a view that reducing our carbon footprint was the way to go given the number of alternative energy projects that are looking for support these day.
Commissioner Lightsey had a different view. She argued that these alternative power projects will increase our already high rates. She was concerned about how higher rates would impact consumers. Mayor Marks responded by saying “this is why we need community input.”
Mayor Marks also hinted that a structure was being set by the EPER department to facilitate a community dialogue on these issues.
The Facts Behind Tallahassee's Carbon Footprint added by Staff on
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Solicit some imput from poor people who about to have their electricity turned off. See how they feel about it.
The City should know who their customers who are late paying, or have trouble making the electric payments. Ask them how good green feels.
Merry Ann
I believe the City of Tallahassee should invest more in saving customers money instead of attempts to increase it ranking in the “Green” socity. By offering incentives to customers for saving electricty in the form of solar and wind technologies subsidies or “off the grid” practices. Keeping the green in the pockets of customers is more responisble than a trophy in the Mayors office. At this point I would rather run a gasoline generator to power daily home essintials than pay higher rates to obtain a useless ranking for being a cardon lightfoot.
The City of Tallahassee ranks in the top 10 of cities in the United States with the lowest CO2 emission rates.
The City of Tallahassee’s electric utility has the lowest carbon emissions per MegaWatt hour of power produced in the state of Florida.
But spend, tax and spend… and spend some more… and we need to spend right now, even though times are tight… spend I say, spend!