Green Cities: Mayoral Initiatives to Reduce Global Warming Pollution

WASHINGTON (June 15, 2007) -- Citing the clear progress and political will exerted by America’s cities on the issue of global warming, Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will hold a hearing bringing mayors from large, mid-size and smaller cities to discuss the ways they have started to cut heat-trapping emissions, and their support for limits on global warming pollution.

In the absence of federal action on global warming, hundreds of cities across America have taken the lead on global warming. To date, 529 mayors representing more than 65 million Americans have signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement which supports binding limits on global warming pollution. And cities across the U.S. have served as valuable laboratories for innovative solutions to cut heat-trapping emissions and reduce energy dependence.

Worldwide, cities comprise 2 percent of land mass but account for 78 percent of all global warming emissions. While two-thirds of urban residents live in cities of less than a million people, “mega-cities” with a population of more than 10 million are increasing: in 1975 there were five, by 1995 there were 15 and by 2015 there are expected to be 26.

WHAT: “Green Cities: Mayoral Initiatives to Reduce Global Warming Pollution”

WHERE: 2247 Rayburn House Office Building and on the web at globalwarming.house.gov

WHEN: Tuesday, June 19, 2007, 2 PM ET

WHO:
Mayor Tom Potter, City of Portland, Oregon
Mayor Richard M. Daley, City of Chicago, Illinois
Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan, City of Gainesville, Florida

Click here for full hearing transcript. 

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