Environment

Bill Clinton praises LA for changing to LED lights

by Amy Judd | February 17, 2009 at 02:17 pm

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Former President Bill Clinton yesterday praised the City of Los Angeles and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for what called the largest effort by a US city to reduce street light pollution by converting to LEDs or other low powered light fixtures.

Starting this July, over the next five years, the city will replace 140,000 of its street lights with LEDs - this alone will reduce carbon emissions by 40,500 tons and save about $10 million.

"If we help you to live green," Clinton said, there could be a time when "every major city could be without a landfill."

Vilariaigosa said that this move could make LA the 'cleanest, greenest big city in the US'.
A pilot project has already gone ahead in the San Fernando Valley and that has so far gone well.
Bill Clinton said that the money from the $787 billion federal stimulus package signed today will include funds for environmental improvement projects such as this one for the future.
As Clinton said at the Greenbuild International Conference in Chicago in 2007:

"The solution to the climate crisis isn't far off in the future -- it's in the buildings we inhabit, our civic infrastructure and the way we organize our lives,"

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Roy C

at 18:30 on February 17th, 2009

The question is, and I make this comment as someone who worked in the energy-savings business in the '80s, what did Clinton ever do to promote anything green? Did he raise MPG standards on cars? Did he restore the tax credits that Reagan took away, killing the business off in its infancy?

In 8 whole years, Clinton didn't do anything at all.