Well, that’s a breath of fresh air. Mayor-elect Anthony Foxx says his first act as mayor will be to sign the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. We’ve written about the USMCPA before, Mayor McCrory’s refusal to sign it, and City Council’s dithering on the issue. Check out this link for a reminder.
The irony of McCrory’s refusal to sign the USMCPA is that he was chairman of the U.S. Conference of Mayors environmental committee, which drafted and approved the measure in the first place. At the time, McCrory was bucking for a federal job — scuttlebutt had it that he wanted to be head of the EPA, thus his slot on the mayors’ environmental committee — but it’s one of the jobs he couldn’t talk his way into, sort of like the governor’s office. McCrory wouldn’t sign the agreement because it didn’t include nuclear power as a recommended power source. As the Observer pointed out at the time, McCrory’s objections were irrelevant since local governments don’t build nuclear plants. Local governments can, however, carry out the climate agreement pledge’s suggestions, such as preserving open space, enforcing land-use policies, promoting public transit, and inventorying greenhouse gas emissions in city operations.
At the time, of course, McCrory was on the payroll at Duke Energy, which wants to build more nuclear plants. Now, I’m not saying McCrory was in Duke’s back pocket, but … yeah, actually, that is what I’m saying. Also, I’m saying it will be a nice change to have a mayor who’s able to tell the difference between the public interest and corporate profits.
FYI, the linked column above is included in my upcoming book, Deliver Us From Weasels, to be released later this month. End of commercial, thank you and good night.
This article appears in Nov 3-9, 2009.
