Cities Must Lead on Climate Policy
By Freddie O’Connell (@freddieoconnell)
I’m a native of Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve been a subscriber to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Green Power Switch since not long after its launch in 2000. For almost twenty years, and for just $4/month, I’ve been raising my hand to demand cleaner energy.
Then last year, I raised my hand a little higher, spending $200 to become one of the first subscribers to a panel from a first-of-its-kind community solar project, developed by the Nashville Electric Service. Over time, this investment in a cleaner future will pay back its initial investment via rebates.
Though I’ve tried my hardest to use natural resources that don’t pollute our environment, personal action cannot solve the urgent issues we are facing. Climate change—and its side effects, from severe weather to sea-level rise—demands larger, structural solutions. That’s why, as a member of Nashville’s Metro Council, our local legislative body, I led a package of energy bills (BL2019-1598, BL2019-1599, BL2019-1600) this term that put our local government on track to use 100 percent renewable energy, a zero-emission fleet, and stronger green building standards that should result in our first LEED Zero building (zero energy, zero water, zero waste, zero carbon). This approach was billed as a local “Green New Deal.”
What was remarkable to me was the strong, vibrant coalition that I watched emerge to support these bills. People from nearly every demographic reached out to Metro Council, encouraging us to take these bold steps.
Unfortunately, despite the preponderance of scientific evidence, discussion of climate policy has become highly partisan, with one side trapped in faith-based denialism. Because of this, our federal government has failed to act, and our state government in Tennessee—having drifted from a Democratic majority to a radical Republican supermajority in under a decade—more often looks to preempt its local jurisdictions than to lead Tennesseans to a better, healthier future.
So it is left to cities to lead. Nashville has begun to lead in the South. Several years ago, one of our mayors declared an ambitious goal of Nashville becoming the greenest city in the Southeast. I listened and I continue to work toward that goal, but we need to join public leadership to personal leadership. Nashville Electric Service, for instance, frets that public uptake of community solar subscriptions has not been sufficient to support additional such projects.
I hope that everyone reading this supports their local Sunrise and Sierra Club chapters. I hope, too, for everyone to examine their options to demand cleaner energy through their local utility, whether they have local-transit benefits and electric-vehicle infrastructure, and how small choices in the home can result in lower overall utility costs (and usage).
Our climate silence must end. And cities such as Nashville will be using our voices when our state and federal partners refuse.
Freddie O’Connell is a native of Nashville, Tenn. He and his family have lived in the Salemtown neighborhood for twelve years, where Freddie served as president of the neighborhood association for five years. He’s a former member of the board of directors of WeGo Public Transit, as well as local non-profit Walk/Bike Nashville. For years, he co-hosted a public affairs radio show on WRVU-FM. He was just re-elected to a second term in Nashville’s Metro Council.