High Road in the News
September 22, 2008
Former mayor
urges Reno to use Salt Lake City model for going green
By Susan Voyles
svoyles@rgj.com
Rocky
Anderson, whose eight years as Salt Lake City mayor ended this
year, said his city is exceeding its goals in meeting the Kyoto
Protocol on climate control by using a number of strategies.
Anderson,
winner of national and international awards, was the keynote
speaker for Reno's second annual Green Summit attended by about
300 residents Saturday afternoon.
He
said Salt Lake's sewer plant captures methane gas and uses it
to produce electricity. Otherwise, he said it would be using
coal-produced power, putting 13,600 tons of carbon monoxide into
the air each year.
He
issued an executive order, approved by his city council, that
new city buildings use the highest green standards. The city
changed all light bulbs to low-energy, compact fluorescent bulbs,
including traffic signals, and used the savings to buy wind power.
Police
drive gasoline/battery-driven Prius vehicles. Drivers of low-polluting
cars get a "free parking" card for parking meters on
the streets. And
his city boasts the second-largest number of service stations
selling natural gas in the country.
When
he pulls up to the pump and fills his car for 86
cents a gallon for natural gas, "there's
sort of a camaraderie, a cockiness about it," he said.
Anderson
travels across the country to talk about climate change and has
formed the High Road for Human Rights group, saying global warming
eventually could kill hundreds of millions of people by disease,
flooding and other disasters if air pollution isn't curbed.
He
has tentative plans for a Reno chapter. Anderson
said Salt Lake City officials don't just talk about urban sprawl
and smart growth.
"It's
transit first so future growth won't have to be accompanied by
more automobile congestion," he said.
Since
1999, Salt Lake City built 19 miles of light rail that stops
every few blocks and 35
to 40 miles of commuter rail. With the recent approval of a quarter-cent
sales tax in four counties, he said commuter rail will be extended
to four neighboring cities and the airport. Once people began
hopping aboard, he said, "opposition almost completely evaporated."
In
contrast, the Reno-Sparks area is struggling to provide bus service
as sales tax revenue, its major funding source, plunged. A one-eighth-cent
sales tax increase is on the Nov. 4 ballot to maintain service
and start the first rapid bus transit service on South Virginia
Street.
Without
it, bus service would be cut by 25 percent, reducing it
to the same level provided in 1990, said David Jickling, Regional
Transportation Commission public transportation director.
Riding
the bus and keeping more polluting cars off the road is the most
effective thing people can do to stop global warming and climate
change, Jickling said.
With
visionary political leaders, he said Reno could have the same
rail transit service as Salt Lake.
"It's
inspiring to see what happened there," he said. "When
we have champions at the political level, things happen."
Reno
Councilman Dave Aiazzi said the city is preparing to install
its first solar energy units at the public works building and
at the downtown events center.
He
said the city's next move could be installing a wind turbine,
locally-produced, on top of the city's Parking Galleria building.
At
the summit, people learned about Sierra Green building design
standards developed and being promoted by the Builders Association
of Northern Nevada.
Reno
Mayor Bob Cashell said that might be the quickest way to achieve
change in building rather than struggle over forcing standards.
Higher
densities and narrower streets were among incentives that participants
said the city could offer. Some people favor promoting bicycling
by eliminating parking on one side of a street on designated
bike routes in the regional 2030 plan and a new master plan for
bike routes.
Peopel
also want more plug-ins around town for electric vehicles and
reserved space on new roads for rapid transit buses or light
trains.
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