Pittsburgh’s efforts to purchase all of its energy from renewable resources using the Western Pennsylvania Energy Consortium have netted the city top honors among large cities in the 2020 Climate Protection Awards presented Friday by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Mayor Bill Peduto was called a visionary by San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo during the virtual awards presentation.
The mayors in the conference benefit from being able to “steal” ideas about ways to do things better from each other, Liccardo said.
Pittsburgh’s program to pool agencies together to buy electricity is one of those programs, he said.
Formed in 2008 when Peduto was a councilman, the consortium uses the economy of scale to buy energy for 35 municipalities, institutions and nonprofits to get a better price.
Beyond that, the consortium has made a priority of purchasing renewable energy credits, preferably from Western Pennsylvania providers, Peduto said.
Last year, 35% of the portfolio was renewable energy credits and this year the city met a goal to be 100% renewable. That’s something the city hoped to do by 2030.
In the process, the city saved about $100,000 of its annual energy bill of about $1.8 million, Peduto said.
All told, members of the consortium save about $700,000 in energy costs this year, according to figures provided by the city.
“We have a lot of work to do still,” Peduto said.
The city is looking to partner with traditional fossil fuel companies in the region to create new “green” energy sources, he said.
He noted the city’s legacy as an industrial city where coal, oil and now the natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations power the systems people rely upon.
If a city like Pittsburgh can make the leap to renewable energy, other cities can do so, Peduto said.
The city’s One PGH fund to further green-energy investment will receive $25,000 from Walmart as part of the award.
“We know climate is back on the national agenda,” U.S. Conference of Mayors Executive Director and CEO Tom Cochran said.
The conference will work with President-elect Joe Biden and his administration as dealing with climate issues returns to the forefront, Cochran said.
