Cities Pioneering the Clean Energy Economy As the United States
climbs out of the Great Recession, one source of economic
promise is the hard work that American cities are doing to
catalyze local clean energy economic development, according to
Powering the New Energy Future from the Ground Up, a report
released on July 18, 2012 by New Energy Cities. The study,
conducted over a 10-month period, profiles a diverse set of 34
communities with populations under 250,000 and found that U.S.
communities from Knoxville, TN to Fort Collins, CO are
pioneering a wide range of clean energy solutions in energy
efficiency, renewable energy, electric vehicles, and carbon-
reducing transportation strategies. The communities profiled in
this report demonstrate that clean energy innovation is
occurring across the country. Through trial and error,
communities are breaking down barriers, testing various
marketing strategies to drive demand for clean energy solutions,
and creating finance mechanisms that can serve as models for oth