WASHINGTON — Despite budget constraints, mayors in the United States expect to significantly expand their investment in energy technologies over the next five years, according to a new survey highlighting how cities are deploying new energy technologies to make their city operations and communities more energy efficient.

The survey, titled Energy Efficiency and Technologies in America’s Cities, was unveiled during the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) 82nd Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C. The survey can be found at www.usmayors.org/2014energysurvey.

“This survey shows again how mayors are leaders in energy innovation, deploying new technologies, pursuing new efficiency systems, reducing their communities’ energy use, and lowering costs for their taxpayers. Their best practices as well as the findings of this survey confirm that investing dollars in city energy efforts is a very good investment for the private sector and the nation,” said Scott Smith, mayor of Mesa, Ariz., and USCM president.

In addition to energy-efficient lighting, retrofitting public buildings also ranked as a top priority in improving the energy efficiency of city infrastructure. Significantly, mayors expect to use their own local resources, followed by partnerships with the private sector, as the sources of financing these technologies. And in terms of the actual deployment of new technologies, survey findings reveal that more than seven in 10 mayors believe their local utilities are now their city’s most important partner in doing so.

Of note, survey results also indicate that with recent weather events and associated power outages, three in four cities have developed plans to keep vital city services operating during sustained outages, and within three years, nearly 90 percent of all cities surveyed expect to have such plans in place.

For more information, visit www.usmayors.org.

Publication date: 2/3/2014

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