Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb is taking the wheel of a national group of mayors focused on climate change.
Bibb on Tuesday became the new chair of Climate Mayors, a network of city chief executives formed in 2014 to tackle environmental issues. The position will give the mayor a national platform from which to talk about how cities are dealing with climate change.
“This is our moment as cities and mayors to really lead the way to advance economic and climate justice in our respective communities,” Bibb said on a virtual press call hosted by Climate Mayors.
Meanwhile, back home, his administration is still looking for a way to deliver on one of his big environmental campaign promises: extricating Cleveland Public Power from a 50-year contract signed in 2007 with American Municipal Power.
Among AMP’s energy sources is a coal-fired power plant in Illinois. A 2020 report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis characterized the long-term deal as a “financial disaster.”
On Tuesday Bibb indicated that Cleveland hasn’t found a way out of the contract yet. He said he has been talking about “modernizing the grid” with Ammon Danielson, the new commissioner of CPP.
“We have engaged and continue to talk to outside counsel about those opportunities, but no real substantive update yet,” the mayor said.
Still, Bibb argued he had “laid a strong foundation” for cutting Cleveland’s carbon emissions, “decarbonizing our city block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood.”
City Hall is contracting with Volta Charging, at no cost to taxpayers, to build electric vehicle charging stations around town. Cleveland is also now using renewable energy from WGL Energy Services to power city-owned buildings not served by Cleveland Public Power.
The mayor also pointed to a new complete and green streets policy and his push to make Cleveland a “15-minute city,” with amenities closer to where people live.
Bibb ran as an environmental candidate in 2021. He enjoyed support from Conservation Ohio, a super PAC created by the Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund. An early Bibb campaign video took aim at high utility prices and knocked politicians who accepted money from utilities – a reference to the First Energy bribery scandal unfolding in Ohio.
As mayor, Bibb oversees a hardscrabble city-owned electric utility always in competition with the for-profit First Energy.
Cleveland Public Power faces major challenges, as laid out in a 2019 consultant briefing to then-Mayor Frank Jackson. That briefing described CPP as “mired in systemic, performance and financial issues.”