The Greening of Carbondale Candidates

The Daily Egyptian newspaper ran its second installment Monday about the Carbondale mayoral race and included comments from an interview I provided last month regarding Carbondale's energy future and past. Except for the glaring error stating that I am an “active member with the local Green Party chapter” (I have never had an affiliation with the Greens), I thought the story was fair and balanced in describing the four mayoral candidate’s attitudes about environmental issues.

1) Brad Cole said he is addressing environmental needs by having signed without the City Council's consent the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and taping down light switches so they won’t get used. The Shawnee Green Party say he supports (in principle) the Urban Environmental Accords which prescribe 21 steps city governments can take to help the environment. For this election, he is emphasizing spending funds on cleanup of Piles Fork Creek.

2) Sheila Simon’s priorities are to “reduce the city's energy use by encouraging bike riding, investing in solar panels and better utilizing the city forester.” Her campaign platform describes several other specific actions the city government should undertake including energy audits of city operations.

3) Candidate Jessica Davis wants the city to take a more aggressive role in creating a more bicycle-and-pedestrian-friendly town and either talk about or study to “moderate city usage should aggressively explore alternatives to moderate the utility rate increases for each of our residents.”

4) Candidate Pepper Holder wants to focus his environmental attention on the Koppers Wood Treatment Plant. He appears to have no position on other environmental issues or the global problems that a municipality can address locally. He has no website.

Later this week I will release a more detailed assessment of the candidate’s positions, or lack thereof, on environmental issues and discuss their potential to lead Carbondale into a sustainable future. I’ll examine their record and critique their approaches. You can then decide who has the vision, leadership ability, and wisdom to be the next mayor of Carbondale. You may be surprised.