 signed the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement. They've pledged to lead their cities to meet or beat Kyoto Protocol goals by 2012 by reducing carbon-dioxide emissions 7 percent below 1990 levels. Kleinberg signed the pledged in January.
Seattle, Wash. and Portland, Ore. are frequently cited as leaders in the anti-warming crusade. Seattle City Light — the city's utilities division — became the only utility in the country to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions in November, by investing in wind and hydroelectric power, divesting in coal-fired energy and embarking on an aggressive conservation program, according to Steve Nicholas, director of Seattle's Office of Sustainability and Environment. The aggressive use of environmentally friendly (so-called "green") building methods, mass transit, recycling and sustainable forest programs has reduced carbon-dioxide emissions.
Portland became the first U.S. city to adopt a sustainable-development plan in 1993, according to Michael Armstrong, Portland's Office of Sustainable Development conservation-program manager.
Carbon-dioxide emissions there have fallen 12.5 percent per capita despite rapid population and economic growth — an achievement likely unequalled in any other major U.S. city, according to a 2005 city progress report.
The addition of two major light-rail lines and the Portland Streetcar have boosted public-transit ridership 75 percent since 1990, Armstrong said. More than 750,000 trees and shrubs have been planted since 1996 to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The city also is close to finalizing an agreement to supply 100 percent wind power near the end of 2007, he added.
And yet, Armstrong said: "It's not enough."
Global warming and sustainability have been priorities for Kleinberg for many years, she said, but seeing the images of glaciers crashing into warming Arctic seas in an HBO television special, and reading former Vice President Al Gore's book, "An Inconvenient Truth," made it imperative to her that Palo Alto become a model of climate protection, she said.
Council member Dena Mossar, who recently returned from a Cambridge, Mass. conference on cities and energy, agrees Palo Alto needs to urgently address the issue.
"I came away fundamentally understanding there is clearly a problem. We have 10 years to solve it, or we've hit a tipping point. It's hard to go back," she said.
The city spews more than 700 million pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually — and that figure doesn't include emissions from liquid fuels, such as gasoline, according to a recent city utilities-department document.
Fortunately, the city has a base of innovation to build on, having received high marks for its energy programs.
The city has enrolled 14 percent of its utilities customers in PaloAltoGreen, a renewable-energy program through which customers pay a bit more on their utility bills to support the city's purchase and development of clean and renewable energy, such as wind and solar power.
The program has cut greenhouse emissions by nearly 19 million pounds, the equivalent of planting 2,257 acres of trees or taking 1,652 cars off the road, according to the program's Web site.
A two-hour ride showcases what the program helps buy.
In the Montezuma Hills overlooking San Pablo Bay, windmills whoosh in the wind. On the rolling hills, sheep graze on grasses beneath the crackling power lines carrying wind-powered electricity to Palo Alto.
PPM Energy, a Portland-based company with wind farms throughout the country, is providing the energy through long-term contracts to customers including Palo Alto, Modesto Irrigation District and PG&E. Palo Alto, a repeat customer, also obtains wind power through PPM's High Winds farm and its new Shiloh facility.
On June 1, Shiloh began providing Palo Alto with one-sixth of the power the farm generates. The Shiloh electricity is enough to power 9,500 Palo Alto homes.
The city now receives a 13 percent of its power from wind at the two sites. Plans are in the making for another 13 percent in new contracts, according to City 