Mayors don't wait for Washington on warming

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. mayors who fight global warming at city hall, on city streets and at the city dump swapped strategies this week at a snowed-in summit in Utah, and some hoped the federal government would follow their lead.

Even as Bush administration officials rejected calls on Wednesday to curb greenhouse gas emissions, at least two mayors said their cities were exceeding goals set out in the Kyoto Protocol meant to stem global climate change. Other municipal leaders are working to meet these targets.

"Everybody knows now that the Kyoto goals are not going to be anywhere near adequate," said Mayor Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City. "The United States has been a huge obstacle to this process so far, but cities are taking up the slack."

Anderson, a Democrat in the strongly Republican state of Utah, said his city has cut greenhouse gas emissions by 21 percent compared to what they were in 1991. The Kyoto Protocol calls for at least 5 percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2012.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/environment_cities_dc