<TA Rally Tuesday Morning for Car Free Central Park The Oil Drum: Local Taking Back the Street>

Where's Mayor Bloomberg's Energy Task Force?

Posted by The Interloafer on May 9, 2006 - 1:39pm in The Oil Drum: Local

Crain's New York Business is running (behind a paywall) an entry in its "Insider" column that reminds us that Mayor Bloomberg's energy task force hasn't said much lately.
the mayor's special task force on energy policy has not issued a progress report in more than a year. Formed in July 2003, a month before the city's massive blackout, the task force is supposed to look for ways to boost New York's electricity supply by 23% by 2008.
Um, did they say increase our electricity supply? No wonder they haven't come up with anything. As a group of people who are concerned about our planet's energy future, I think we should list some ways that this might be possible.
One thing New York City has plenty of is tides. Maybe we could use them to replace the power we generate by burning oil and natural gas! O.K., obviously I'm being facetious. I shouldn't be scoffing at tidal power, which could provide some energy, but nowhere near an equivalent amount of what we get from oil and natural gas.

The only way to effectly increase the energy supply increased is by decreasing demand. I wonder if Mayor Bloomberg's energy task force will come up with any of these suggestions:

  • Encourage people to live in apartments not single-family houses.
  • Use zoning to encourage high density development of housing and businesses along transit lines.
  • Promote bicycling and carsharing services like Zipcar.
  • Encourage the citizens to go to their houses of worship and say a solemn prayer of thanks to the New Yorkers of a century ago, who handed down to us a mass transportation system that will prove more useful in the coming century than most people now imagine. (That we haven't been able to expand it significantly in more than 50 years is a result of the intoxicating cheap energy age that is now, sadly, ending.)

Where's Mayor Bloomberg's Energy Task Force?

PDF version

2 comments

Glenn on May 10, 2006 - 10:06pm Permalink | Comments top
Hey Interloafer, I did find this report issued in January 2004, but I can't find anything more recent.

I attended a lecture about a month ago by Prof. Stephen Hammer that outlined what New York could learn from London's approach to energy:

A bolder approach would borrow another big idea from across the pond - the London Plan. More formally known as London's Spatial Development Strategy, this land use planning document articulates a coherent, long-term vision that says where development should occur, and what it should look like. What is truly unique about the London Plan, however - and what makes it noteworthy for policymakers in New York - is the way it links to and is supported by other strategic plans covering topics like transport, noise, waste management, air quality, economic development and energy. To borrow a term from British policy debates, London's strategies emphasize "joined up" thinking, with each individual strategy reflecting and supporting key themes found in other policy documents.

Perhaps the Mayor and Dan Doctoroff will start "joining-up" their thinking on all these issues instead of the piecemeal approach to development we have seen to date.

Glenn on May 10, 2006 - 10:09pm Permalink | Parent | Comments top
Sorry, I meant to link to this article by Stephen Hammer in the Gotham Gazette.

Where's Mayor Bloomberg's Energy Task Force?

PDF version

2 comments