Executive Director's Column

Forty years ago on April 22, 1970, we witnessed the largest human public demonstration in the history of America when 20 million people stood up on Earth Day and created a grassroots political movement that changed, at that time, the way federal political and governmental system views and treats our nation’s environment.
Some say this movement was sparked even earlier by a shy Pennsylvania woman scientist, Rachel Carson, who wrote her book Silent Spring. There was controversy when she raised serious questions about the destructive and biological harm caused by the way chemicals were used on our farmland and in our high density populated cities. Her book caused an uproar. The industries came out strong attempting to discredit her. At a White House press conference when asked his thoughts on Carson and her book, President Kennedy supported her. She testified before Kennedy’s Science Advisory Committee and the 1963 Kennedy report largely backed up and supported Carson’s claims. Due to her writings and her advocacy, the current national policy of handling pesticides was reversed. The spark was lit and the environment was strengthened as we moved to the 1970s after her death in 1964. She has to be given notice and credit before we get to Earth Day 1970. And President Kennedy too. He believed in science and he knew she was right and he, along with his Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, one of the greatest environmentalists of our political history, stood together in those historical days.
Earth Day 1970Forty years ago, after the grass roots movements of civil rights and opposition to the Vietnam War, there emerged the environmental movement and we saw a young student leader and environmental activist named Denis Hayes join up with a Senator from Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson. It was Hayes who had the vision to place the environmental issue into the body politic. And it was Nelson who had thoughts of how to implement the vision with teach-ins in all our schools. Senator Nelson reached out to Republican Environmentalist Congressman Pete McCloskey of California and they co-chaired this great event.
Three million American citizens turned out for Earth Day 1970 and it was a shocker to the political world. In New York City, Mayor John Lindsay closed Fifth Avenue. He along with mayors and I, shoulder to shoulder, with thousands marched down Fifth Avenue. It was a great experience. Mayor Lindsay was chair of our Legislative Action Committee. Part of our urban and national agenda was to push for passage of air and water anti-pollution environmental laws that we lobbied along with other national, state and local groups, to push them through Congress and to President Nixon’s desk for signature and enactment.
Earth Day 1970 was a serious political event. It wasn’t just placards, t'shirts, chants, and screams. It was a political movement. Washington felt the pressure and rose to the occasion. There was not inertia as it is today. In a strong bi-partisan manner, Washington acted.
After the demonstrations were over, the movement turned toward elective politics. The movement, led by Hayes, came up with a list of the most anti-environmental members of the House and the dubbed twelve Congressmen as “The Dirty Dozen.” Grassroots efforts were strong against the Dirty Dozen. Seven of the twelve Congressmen were defeated, including a powerful chairman. When Congress returned that year, Speaker Albert and Congressional leaders knew that Earth Day ‘70 had been transformed into a more political machine geared toward elective and legislative politics. Senator Ed Muskie championed the Clean Water Act. The Environmental Protection Agency was created. Federal laws were passed right and left and Nixon signed them all. Many people still do not accept how President Nixon supported and signed such historic environmental laws during his first term before Watergate hit him.
President Carter’s environmental record is probably as strong as any other President since Teddy Roosevelt. Many political observers feel President Carter’s style and the way he asked people to give up something, to deprive themselves in order to save the planet did not motivate enough. Americans wanted alternatives. They didn’t want to sacrifice. Inflation was high, gas lines were long, American hostages were locked up and blindfolded in Iran. The body politic was in a bad mood. But Carter persevered he gave the nation his MEOW speech, moral equivalent of war, for energy and environment.
He put solar panels on the White House and turned off the night lights at the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials to conserve energy. President Reagan came in, turned the night lights on, removed the solar panels and thus opulence was in.
Through the years we find President Clinton and Vice President Gore doing more for the environment after they left office.
Today it could be better. The Cap and Trade Legislation is dead in the water and an alternative energy bill is being introduced by Senators Kerry of Massachusetts, Lieberman of Connecticut and Graham of South Carolina. The details will evolve and change in order to get enough Senate votes.
The big meeting in Copenhagen last December was a bust for national governments.
The fact is that the cities of America are leading the nation on the whole question of climate protection. We have 1036 cities signed on to the United States Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. And in other nations, mayors are leading their nations. Conference President Elizabeth Kautz took our message to Brussels and Stockholm last fall. European mayors have joined with USA mayors, and are pushing their central governments to be more active on climate issues.
We fought hard to get the energy block grants into the stimulus package passed by Congress and signed by President Obama last year. The stimulus money is just now hitting our cities and mayors will continue to lead the way. These funds that we fought so hard to get will be seed money mayors and cities need as we continue to leverage, create jobs, and make a difference throughout America.
Recently Conference President Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth Kautz led a group to meet with Energy Secretary Chu and we believe this is a new beginning with the mayors of America working with the Energy Department as we did when HUD was created with our big push in 1965. Our goal is to work with The Energy Department. We seek a partnership with our federal government and President Kautz is leading the way. We have optimism and hope as we follow up with DOE to strengthen our partnership.
Today, in Washington while there is inertia in some places and confusion in other places, mayors and cities are leading the way using every tool that we have to get things done.
Every day I hear and see of another mayor out there with a new idea backed up by actions. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a mayor that makes the founders of earth day proud.
Currently Mayor Bloomberg is trying to reduce the carbon footprint of his city by turning the 13,237 yellow taxi cabs “green” with a rule requiring taxi cab owners to buy hybrid or other fuel efficient cars whenever they retire their current vehicles. The current taxi fleet is responsible for 580,000 metric tons of carbon emissions – the same amount as an entire town of 30,000 people according to Mayor Bloomberg. The rule would save 34 million of gallons of gasoline a year, reduce New York City’s carbon footprint, and our dependence on foreign oil. A federal judge struck down the rule finding that the federal laws cited prohibits cities and states from setting their own fuel efficiency standards. Mayor Bloomberg wrote in the Washington Post, “Only in Washington could a Clean Air Act prevent efforts to create clean air!” He goes further and says, “The Federal impulse to standardize must be balanced by the local need to customize.” Mayor Bloomberg says that since taxis are regulated locally, cities should have the authority to set emission standards for them.
Mayor Bloomberg is urging mayors and local governments to support the Green Taxis Act, supported by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Representative Jerrod Nadler
Today the nation’s mayors, The United States Conference of Mayors, support Mayor Bloomberg on this legislation. It would allow local governments to take a local step that would give us the opportunity to make sound decisions for our cities and expand the market of hybrid and fuel efficient vehicles.
Mayor Bloomberg and New York City’s green taxi initiative is another example of a smart climate change policy that pushes a smart economic policy.
Yes, cities are leading the nation on these efforts and Congress must support us and not stop us from doing the smart thing when it comes to climate change as we go forward.
Earth Day 1970 to Earth Day 2010 - it’s not the same political atmosphere for national action but there’s one thing for sure, cities have not stopped leading the way for smarter transportation, housing, energy, and health policies that affect our planet and our people. Together we will continue to push the federal government for a national consensus in Washington that will produce smarter climate centered, job producing measures and incentives. Meantime, we follow Mayor Bloomberg’s lead. We’ll do it one step at a time. Mayors are not waiting for Washington to act. The taxi cab issue, the fleet issue, not exactly global, but with thousands of green fleets - it will be worth it until there is a consensus like we had following the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970 - forty years ago. We have made progress since then. We must find the consensus today we had back then, and if any group is leading the way toward a consensus, it’s the mayors like Bloomberg and others who are out there every day finding consensus and getting it done on the streets and in the neighborhoods of the cities of America.