Typically, as California goes, so goes the nation. But the same often holds true with New York. Here is one news item rapidly making the rounds on the clean tech sites that I hope will demonstrate New York’s influence.
On Tuesday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced at a clean energy summit in Las Vegas that he wants New York to make a major shift into renewable energy, and urged businesses to submit proposals by September 19th. No holds barred on the sources of energy – he wants to float everything from urban turbines, skyscraper solar panels, tidal energy, geothermal energy and….ahem, nuclear. I wish we could pretend he didn’t say that last one, but yes, he wants “clean nuclear” power.
New Yorkers are already among the greenest people in the nation, based mainly on the tight set-up of the city. But millions and millions of people require a whole lot of power. While Bloomberg wants the current usage levels to stay the same even as the city grows, he pointed out that the infrastructure, and power sources, are out of date and strained. So, he wants to see energy being drawn from the Hudson and East rivers, from the Atlantic ocean, from the skyscrapers in terms of wind and solar, and any other place possible.
New York is already taking some great steps to green up, from the new WTC towers, to its participation in the Carbon Disclosure Project, to their pilot East River power generation project.
It seems like there are hundreds of ideas discussed on EcoGeek alone that could be streaming in to his office as we speak. I’m looking forward to finding out if some of the renewable energy ideas he called for will actually be considered and adopted in the near future.
Via Physorg; photo via aturkus
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