Mayor Benjamin to make major announcement about 100% clean energy

Mayor Steve Benjamin is one of 26 mayors from across the United States who has joined with the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign to announce a new effort to engage and recruit mayors to endorse a goal of transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy in cities across the country.

Ahead of the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting in Miami Beach in June, the launch of Mayors for 100% Clean Energy aims to demonstrate bold local leadership and showcase the depth and breadth of support from city leaders for a transition to 100 percent renewable energy.

The new Mayors for 100% Clean Energy initiative is co-chaired by Mayor Benjamin, Mayor Philip Levine of Miami Beach, Mayor Jackie Biskupski of Salt Lake City and Mayor Kevin Faulconer of San Diego.

At a press conference on May 31, Mayor Benjamin will issue a proclamation on the clean energy effort, share the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ resolution endorsing clean energy and discuss City Council’s plans to pass a proposed clean energy resolution.

Mayoral leadership has been a powerful driver of city-wide action on climate change and clean energy in municipalities across the United States. The Mayors National Climate Action Agenda or Climate Mayors founded by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, and former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, recently released an electric vehicle request-for-information to demonstrate demand to automakers for nearly 115,00 vehicles that could be electrified in 30 cities.

Now the Co-Chairs of Mayors for 100% Clean Energy, a number of whom are Climate Mayors, are further demonstrating their commitment to lead nationally on the shared challenge of reducing climate pollution and contributing to Climate Mayors’ framework of local leadership and action.

Twenty-six cities across the United States have now committed to transition to 100 percent clean and renewable energy. This growing list of cities most recently includes South Lake Tahoe, California, which last week unanimously voted to transition entirely to renewable energy by 2032. Other big cities including Los Angeles and Denver are studying pathways to 100 percent clean energy. Earlier this month, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a commitment to transition Chicago municipal buildings and operations to 100 percent clean and renewable energy by 2025. 

The Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign is a new national campaign launched in 2016 working to accelerate a just and equitable transition to 100 percent clean energy in the United States. Ready for 100 is campaigning to get 100 cities in the United States to move away from dirty, outdated fossil fuels and to commit to 100 percent clean energy.

The Climate Mayors (the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda)– founded by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, and former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter — are 86 U.S. mayors in red states and blue states working together to strengthen local efforts for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to supporting efforts for binding federal and global-level policymaking. For more information visit www.climate-mayors.org or follow @climatemayors on Twitter.