ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE

I appreciate the efforts Mayor Klanderud, the city council, the city attorney John Worcester and Dan Richardson made to on behalf of the Canary Initiative. But the time has come to uncage that Canary and hear her sing.  A Canary Action plan was submitted to council in March of 2006 and awaits adoption.  
 
For the past three weeks, I have been visiting hundreds of citizens in their neighborhoods, listening to them and observing how they live their lives. Aspenites, acting on their own, are already stepping forward by recycling, riding the bus, buying hybrid cars, adding solar power and building greener than the rules require.
 
And our neighbors in the valley and beyond are fighting hard to protect water and air quality, preserve stream flows and head off threats like oil shale development.
 
As mayor, I would have the courage and vision to lead us to the forefront of those efforts.  WE need to adopt a plan and move ahead.
 
By empowering our citizens and working with our neighbors between here and Parachute, we can reduce our carbon footprint by 5 million pounds per year.
 
That may not sound like a big number. But, by comparison, the current city commitment to the Chicago Climate Exchange is 150,000 pounds a year or about 1% per year.

The commitment I am asking today is different, larger and more urgent than that. It is different because it's a regional vision that will bring communities together to reduce their effects on global warming in particular and the environment at large. Larger because I believe the community is ready to do more than it is already doing. And more urgent because the need to act grows more vital by the day.
 
There are a number of symbolically important steps that can be taken right away.  These steps go beyond carbon reduction but are just as important.

• We can join the fight against the water intensive, environmentally devastating attempts to bring oil shale development back to life.  If ever a wooden stake were needed for an environmental monster, it would be here on the West Slope where plans are afoot to drain our water supplies and create mountains of tailing in pursuit of an unsound energy source.
• One way to help in this fight is to support our legislators in Denver in their efforts to preserve recreational water and water quality.
• We have the opportunity to upgrade the lighting at the city garage and other buildings and to replace existing boilers in city facilities.
• We must require special event organizers to emulate the X games with recycling and, ultimately, zero waste programs.  These events are a great chance to foster an environmental ethic among locals and visitors.
• We can start enforcing rules already on the books on diesel emissions produced by a small number out of compliance vehicles.  It takes more will than words to get this done.  It will take enforcement.
• We must manage construction jointly with the county for the entire urban area.  As of November of last year, there was 1,884,664 square feet of new construction in the development pipeline.  More than two thirds of this is free market development.  The rest is voter mandated housing or mitigation for development.

Construction management is not about a coincidence or a perfect storm, it's about an ongoing development boom that must be reigned in and managed. We can make construction management work for small projects as well as the big ones, but we have to do it in partnership with the county.

• And we should turn off the natural gas hearth on the mall.  The idea was well intentioned, but our true priority is better symbolized both to local residents and our visitors from around the world by leaving that hearth unlit. 

There are other, concrete steps that carry bigger reductions in CO2 that must be embraced, as well.  We must set out to accomplish the following:

• We can and should retrofit our homes with energy-efficient appliances and windows and insulation with the assistance of our housing fund and other dedicated, energy-related funding.
• We can offer free energy audits to any homeowner willing to have their property analyzed.
  
• And we will offer low cost energy devices to those who ask for an audit. Those devices include solar panels for pre heating boiler water, improved insulation, low energy lighting and a host of other products.
• We already inspect affordable housing units before sale and it would be simple and appropriate to add an energy audit and make the upgrades as part of the sale, but at little, or in some cases no cost to the seller or the buyer.
• The city could also offer help to home owner associations and other groups to pool their efforts and costs to add advanced, energy-efficient systems to their buildings at low cost. 
  

Affordable housing is a critical part of the solution, as well.  When completed, Burlingame will reduce carbon emissions by a very conservatively estimated 3,760,000 pounds simply by reducing the average commute of its residents.

• We can use land use as an environmental tool.
• With zoning that makes it affordable for certain everyday services to stay in Aspen, we can reduce the number of automobile trips out of town.
• We must also reign in our pace of development and minimize the impacts of new development. We don't need another 1,884,664 square feet of construction in the next pipeline,

Simply put, Aspen should commit to reducing our carbon footprint by 5 million pounds per year. If elected mayor, I will do everything I can to make Aspen a true leader - an example for the entire world - in the fight against global warming.


 

Paid for by Mick for Mayor, PO Box 1432, Aspen, CO 81612, 920-2858