US taxpayers have been funding ICLEI for years, EPA serves as a slush fund for such groups who create an entire new gov. unbeknownst to taxpayers

What Mayor wouldn't want to be a "Cool Mayor?" (p. 5). ICLEI like others in the 'sustainable' industry operates on the hypothesis that CO2 is poisonous. Scientists are now aware that CO2 is not poisonous. US taxpayer money is still flowing to ICLEI. Everyone wants clean air and water, but that's something very different than creating new governments in every town and city in the US based on non-existent CO2 poisoning, getting between citizens and their city council members, (who doesn't want to be green?), diverting millions of scarce taxpayer dollars in the process that could have gone for police and firefighters, and knowingly, patiently robbing the lives of an entire generation of humanity for something that doesn't exist. Millions of US taxpayer dollars even go to ICLEI's foreign efforts through USAID. We the people are the only ones who will stop this crime:

2008, "“ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability”: Taxpayer Dollars and Foundation Grants Help a U.N.-Inspired Group Show U.S. Cities How to Enact Climate Change Policies," Capital Research Center, David Libardoni

Page 3: "For years, the EPA has generously supported
ICLEI programs. The federal government
agency not only underwrites the organization’s
operational costs, but it also serves as
a source of funding for local governments
that want ICLEI to help “green” their cities.
Over the past 11 years, ICLEI has received
between $250,000 and $1,500,000 annually
in EPA grants to fund its CCP Campaign
and emissions analysis software. In 2006, it
reported $904,000 in government grants (out
of $3.3 million in total revenue) on its IRS
990 tax form, the most recent available....

In 1997, George Soros’s Open Society gave ICLEI a
$2,147,415 grant to support its Local Agenda
21 Project, also sometimes known as Communities
21. These are ICLEI-funded city
projects that promote “sustainability.” They
draw their inspiration from the Rio Earth
Summit, the 1992 United Nations environment
conference held in Brazil. Communities
that adopt Agenda 21 projects get ICLEI’s
help in creating “sustainability inventories”
and they pass resolutions affirming that they
will pursue the “three E’s” of sustainable
development: environment, economy, and
equality. Of course, ICLEI’s definition of
“sustainable development” comes from the
U.N. and liberal groups such as the Sierra
Club, Center for American Progress, Natural
Resources Defense Council, and The Climate
Group.

More recently, ICLEI has received major contributions
from the left-leaning Rockefeller
Brothers Fund, ($650,000 in March 2008,
$525,000 in 2006), the Surdna Foundation
($200,000 in 2006), the Kendall Foundation
($150,000 in 2007) and the Richard and
Rhoda Goldman Foundation ($100,000 in
2007). ICLEI also got $500,000 in 2006
from the Kendeda Sustainability Fund, a
donor-advised fund administered by the leftist
Tides Foundation, to support its Mayors
for Climate Protection Initiative.

Currently, ICLEI wants to establish a global
standard for emissions accounting. It is developing
cutting-edge internet-based software to
allow users to calculate, track, and conduct
comparative analysis of greenhouse gas
emissions. The William J. Clinton Foundation
and Microsoft Corp. are partnering with
ICLEI on this new initiative. The global
ICLEI network and a group called C40,
comprised of the world’s largest cities on
the carbon-reduction bandwagon, will have
no-cost access to the program.

Targeting Politicians

ICLEI is well-liked by mayors and city council
members because it shows them how to
promote climate change initiatives and then
does their work for them. (The Center for
Climate Strategies, profiled by Christopher
C. Horner in the April 2008 Organization
Trends, pushes state-level global warming
policies and is similarly beloved by many
governors including Minnesota Gov. Tim
Pawlenty.) New York City mayor Michael
Bloomberg has called ICLEI’s leadership
“invaluable” because its “expert technical
assistance was instrumental in helping us
to complete our first-ever greenhouse gas
inventory last year.” Susan Rainey, mayor of
Walnut Creek, California, a Bay-area city of
about 65,000, said this about ICLEI:

ICLEI’s five-milestone process makes
sense and yields results. That’s what
sold the Walnut Creek City Council on
ICLEI. ICLEI staff is knowledgeable, accessible
and invaluable in organizing our
coordinated local effort. ICLEI provides
training and technical assistance to city
staff, identifi es best practices and meets
with regional air quality, utility, solid
waste and transportation agencies to
generate baseline emissions inventories
that are both useful and defendable.
Thank you ICLEI!

Local governments gratefully outsource their
work to ICLEI, which even offers hiring
advice. The group recommends that cities
hire a “sustainability manager” to coordinate
an inter-departmental green team representing
city administrative, public works,
environment, facilities, budget, economic
development, planning, social services, and
parks agencies “to share ideas about how to
improve internal operations to make them more consistent with environmentally sound
practices.”

Will a green czar strong-arm city departments
into adopting green goals? Will mayors
with environmental stars in their eyes set up
“visioning” committees to tell city agencies
what to do? ICLEI’s broad-brush approach
shows just how eager it is to shape the urban
agenda and how eagerly local politicians
seek it out.

The Seattle Greenhawk and his
“Emerald” City

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels is perhaps the
best example of a city official who has bought
into the ICLEI vision of “sustainability.” His
public outreach campaign, called Seattle
Climate Action NOW!, proposes job creation
for a green economy, clean renewable
energy, improved public transit and reduced
car usage, and ways the city can help citizens
and employers conserve natural resources,
reduce waste and build energy-efficient
homes and offices.

The city makes use of ICLEI services, including
the Green Fleets initiative for city
vehicles. It uses ICLEI emissions calculators
to help local businesses cut their carbon
emissions. Seattle city government conducts
technical assistance workshops for local
employers, offers networking services, and
provides a recognition program for companies
that adopt a carbon cutting program.
Nickels’ plan to decrease Seattle’s “carbon
footprint” calls on city residents to make
changes to how they live—and to pay for
those changes. Among U.S. cities, Seattle
spends the most per capita on waste management.

Mayor Nickels recently proposed
a 20-cent “green tax” on paper and plastic
shopping bags used by food and drug stores.
According to Seattle Public Utilities, the tax
would generate nearly $10 million annually
for the city. The city would use $2 million to
fund a switch to reusable bags, which it would
give away at no cost to families with fixed
or low incomes. The other $8 million would
fund more recycling, waste management, and
environmental education. The measure, approved
by the city council on July 29, takes
effect on January 1, 2009, along with a ban
on foam containers.

Seattle also sponsors “Green Power options”
for city residents. A campaign encourages
utility ratepayers to pay a little more each
month on their electric bill—a “green”
premium—to allow the city to fund (“invest
in”) solar power pilot projects.
How much does all this cost Seattle? Forbes
magazine, which ranked Seattle the #2
“Cleanest City” in 2008 (after Miami) also
ranked it the “Most Overpriced City” in
2004 and 2005. In 2008 Forbes called Seattle
“America’s Most Increasingly Unaffordable
City.” The city currently battles the highest
inflation rate –5.8%– in the U.S.

Nickels is a vocal advocate for local green
action. When 141 countries ratified the Kyoto
Protocol in February 2005, he launched a
campaign to have at least 141 cities sign a
U.S. Conference of Mayors’ “Climate Protection
Agreement.” To date, the agreement
has been signed by 850 mayors representing
nearly 80 million constituents. It calls for
cities to meet or beat the Kyoto Protocol’s
carbon emission reduction goals: To cut
carbon emissions 7% from 1990 levels
before 2012. The mayors further promise
to urge state and federal legislators to enact
a carbon emissions cap-and-trade system to
cut greenhouse gases.

To heighten media exposure, ICLEI sponsors
a recognition program for mayors who
sign the agreement. A “Cool Mayors” website
spotlights mayors who do “whatever
it takes to bring about climate protection,
piece by piece, solution by solution.” The
Sierra Club similarly promotes cities that
sign its “Cool Cities” agreement. Using the
media, it provides “showcase solutions” to
implement at the state level and nationwide.
Both Cool Mayors and Cool Cities propel
local politicians into the national debate on
climate change.

Community “summit meetings” are another
way ICLEI furthers its mission. In 2007,
ICLEA co-hosted a Sundance Summit on
global warming (with actor Robert Redford
at his Utah ranch, Sundance Preserve) and
a Texas Mayors Climate Summit, targeting
a state heavily involved in fossil fuel
production. Later that year, ICLEI opened a
Houston-based regional headquarters.

ICLEI’s Global Strategy

While U.S. regional offices contribute money
and services to local governments, ICLEA
also pushes for international climate change
policies. Since 1998, the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID)
has supported ICLEI’s global programs. That
year, the agency gave it a $16,141 grant, but
USAID funding has greatly increased since
then. The agency gave ICLEI grants of
$746,526 in 2004 and $1,361,197 in 2005 for
its international programs for cities. ICLEI
handed out $287,600 in 2005 to cities in
South Africa and Mexico to support their
local CCP campaigns.

All this funding has raised the organization’s
international profile. With offices and secretariats
on six continents and an International
Training Center in Freiburg, Germany, ICLEI
enjoys worldwide access. Nearly 20,000 local
government authorities have participated
in training seminars, and over 900 cities
are active members of the CCP campaign.
A six-year Strategic Plan envisions 10,000
local governments enrolled in the Local
Agenda 21 initiative and participating in its
ecoBudget® system for tracking “sustainability
factors.”

What’s next? Well, there’s the Green Jobs
Pledge, begun in May 2008, in which mayors
promise to promote a green private sector
economy. Says an enthusiastic Olympia,
Washington mayor Mark Foutch:
We are pleased to reach our f fth milestone
toward emission reductions this year!
ICLEI coached us through the process
of measuring our emissions and this has
helped us put sustainability into action.
Our crowning achievement this year is
that city operations will have emissions
below 1990 levels. Now that we have
proven we can do it we can go out to our
community with confidence to ask them
to do the same. [emphasis added]."





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