| Seven municipalities in California have some of the | | | | encourage energy generation; |
| best energy polices in the country, according to a | | | | Santa Clarita: Cutting usage of electricity by 1 |
| recent ranking. | | | | million kilowatts and natural gas therms by 9,000 |
| The Natural Resources Defense Council calls them | | | | for a total savings of more than one million |
| "smarter" cities because they invested in green | | | | pounds of pollutants per year; |
| power, energy efficiency and conservation. They | | | | Oakland: Creation of Green Jobs Corps, which |
| are Long Beach, Huntington Beach, Berkeley, | | | | trains low-income residents in solar installation, |
| Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Santa | | | | energy-efficiency retrofits and green building; |
| Clarita. | | | | San Francisco: Exploring the use of a wave farm; |
| None of them, however, are in the San Joaquin | | | | Berkeley: Financing solar installation through a |
| Valley, where power bills and temperatures are | | | | Sustainable Energy Funding District; |
| among the highest in the state, and where | | | | Santa Cruz: A green building program and Climate |
| incomes are the lowest. Here is why them made | | | | Action Teams, where groups of friends and |
| the list: | | | | neighbors calculate carbon dioxide missions of their |
| Long Beach: instituted first greenhouse gas | | | | actions. |
| emissions inventory in 2009 and founding member | | | | All these cities should be commended for their |
| of The Climate Registry, an organization working | | | | efforts, but my favorite is Reno, a popular |
| toward greenhouse gas reduction and climate | | | | gambling resort in Nevada, not far from the |
| reporting; | | | | border. It is more than 2,000 lights in its |
| Huntington Beach: Lots of green power, low | | | | trademark 'Biggest Little City" arch with the LED |
| per-capita energy consumption and policies to | | | | variety and installed wind turbines atop City Hall. |