Big City Sustainability: Phoenix
Phoenix Arizona has grown in many ways over the past decade. Its population has grown by 25%, the cities deficit has ballooned, and the Republican influence in the local government has grown exponentially. These factors combined have led to the shrinkage of what used to be a politically progressive municipality. For better and worse, Phoenix became a ‘red’ state during the Bush administration, and now the city is suffering the consequences. The municipal sustainability plan is designed to attract funding for the overgrown, underfunded oasis in the dessert.
The city’s official sustainability plan has two components: The AZ Climate Action Plan (AZCAP) and Phoenix Environmental Sustainability Program (PESP). In 2005, Governor Janet Napolitano commissioned the AZ Climate Action Plan Advisory Group to study potential climate change impacts in Arizona. Based on their recommendations, she set a statewide goal to reduce GHG emissions to the 2000 levels by 2020, and 50% below the 2000 levels by 2040. The city’s main environmental goal is to cut GHG emissions. AZCAP spells out the city’s plans to become energy efficient using the municipal resources (land, buildings, vehicles, etc.) and how the city has a long history of environmentalism. The PESP is a link on the city’s official website designed to help residents of Phoenix become more sustainable in their homes and daily lives. The overall sustainability plan the city has is disappointing. The AZCAP and PESP is not user friendly and downright confusing. The AZCAP clearly is designed for environmentalists; however, I found the document hard to read and the recommendations weak. The PESP is aimed at residents but the information it gives is pedestrian at best. The most progressive sustainability plan the city has, is to capture methane gas from landfills and wastewater plants and supplement the gas in areas that currently use electricity. Unfortunately, the budget crisis the state is dealing with has put this project in limbo. Harsh budget cuts have pushed sustainability down the city’s priority list. The city is going through economic and cultural upheaval that many cities in the U.S. are currently going through, taking the resources and attention away from environmentalism.
Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the United States and has grown by twenty five percent since 2000. Las Vegas is the only city that has grown faster. In the last decade, Phoenix experienced a construction boom that led to large suburban sprawl, and a housing collapse that has left many residents in financial crisis. Arizona has simultaneously become one of “the reddest” states in America. The political landscape in Arizona has been a powder keg for years, and recently has become deadly. The Tea Party has taken a strong hold in Arizona and its ideology is influencing the state’s political leadership. These factors are creating the perfect storm for environmental failure in Phoenix. Sustainability plans the city has are thinly veiled tools designed to garner funds from federal environmental and stimulus programs. The projects that these programs are supposed to fund get stopped in the Phoenix beaurocracy, and the funds are ultimately used to balance the states budget. The current Republican leadership in Arizona is Tea Party led, and determined to make government smaller by defunding programs to balance the budget. Sustainability requires vision to long for the short- sited leadership of the current Bush- era influenced Republican leadership. Unfortunately for Phoenix and America, we have leaders that can’t see as far as the next election. Cutting programs from the state budget exponentially is just as harmful as spending the same way. Phoenix’s long history of environmental programs, are being eroded by its current budget shortfalls and political leadership. The attitudes in Arizona are attitudes that are sweeping the country and jeopardizing sustainability programs, and ultimately putting our environment at risk.
References:
City of Phoenix “Climate Action Plan for Government Operations” City of Phoenix and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, October 2009
City of Phoenix “Phoenix: Living Like it Matters! Environmental Sustainability Program” City of Phoenix, January 2009
Wong, Scott “ Gordon to unveil lofty 17-point green plan for Phoenix” The Arizona Republic, March 11 2009
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