Last year, Mayor Rob Drake of Beaverton, Oregon signed the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, and committed the city to reduce its emissions of global warming pollutants.  Signing the Agreement was a good way of stating the city's concern over human-induced climate change, but a question remained: would the local government back up its words by taking tangible steps to decrease carbon dioxide and other greenhouse emissions?  This month, the Beaverton City Council took a promising step in the right direction.

On June 19th, the city council and Mayor Drake issued a challenge to Beaverton residents, asking them to purchase renewable energy from Portland General Electric (PGE) - the region's main energy provider.  The city hopes to get 250 new households signed onto PGE's "Green Power" program by the end of the summer.  Still more importantly, however, the City of Beaverton itself is purchasing enough green power to account for all city facilities; this amounts to keeping 6.8 million pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere every year. 

To be sure, there is much more to building a sustainable community than purchasing green power.  New buildings should be designed with energy conservation in mind, and urban sprawl should be discouraged.  Public transportation should be easily accessible, and residents should be given incentives to buy hybrid and fuel-efficient cars.  Still, this step taken by the City of Beaverton is highly encouraging.  It suggests that the city is serious about preventing climate change, and willing to take real action.  Let's hope that this is a sign of still greater things to come.

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