Cleveland Loses Points on This Year's City Clean Energy Scorecard

While the region eyes its future amid climate change, Cleveland lost a few points in its clean energy credibility this year, according to a report released Monday by the verbosely-named American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, or the ACEEE.

The Washington D.C.-based climate advocacy think tank ranked Cleveland 46th on its 2024 City Clean Energy Scorecard, a deep assessment of 100 U.S. cities’ progress toward becoming green and climate friendly. In 2021’s report, the city took 38th place.

For close observers of City Hall’s enthusiasm for lowering Cleveland’s carbon emissions, the drop seems at odds with what was detailed five years ago in the Climate Action Plan. The plan, created during the Frank Jackson era, vowed to cut carbon emissions by 80 percent come 2050.

Mayor Justin Bibb carried an optimistic spirit at a meeting of U.S. Climate Mayors in December, when he gave his first major speech as the organization’s chair. As Cleveland.com reported, Bibb seemed to preview the anticipated update to the city’s Action Plan, vowing to stick to a “long-term decarbonization” plan, install more electric car charging stations, to run more of City Hall on renewables, and more.

“It’s going to take an all-of-government approach,” he said in his speech, “working with the private sector and other key government organizations to truly implement the climate solutions our residents need and deserve.”

The ACEEE’s super in-depth, 124-page look into what U.S. cities do well, and don’t, puts a new spin on the fanfare around activity at City Hall as of late.

The report gave Cleveland an 18 out of 70 for its transportation policies, scoring the RTA high on its ability to “give low- and moderate-income households’ access to high-quality transit.” (One point above D.C.’s transit system!) The RTA’s studies of new bus-rapid transit corridors on West 25th and Lorain Avenue will likely up that score by the next report.

As for the Scorecard’s analysis of government since 2021, Cleveland’s last mayoral election year, Cleveland tied for 4th out of 75 other U.S. cities, most likely for Bibb’s sustainability hires and Mayor Jackson’s LED makeover of the city’s streetlights.

In a Zoom webinar marking the release of the report, ICEEE Director of Local Policy Dave Ribiero noted four cities with substantial progress—San Francisco, Miami, New Orleans and Madison, Wisconsin—those that, like Bibb touted in December, actualize an agreed-upon government commitment to veering way from fossil fuels.

For Jessica Price, Madison’s sustainability manager, it was encouraging an all-electric transit fleet. For Greg Nichols, sustainability chief of New Orleans, it was buffing up the city’s EV charging stations, or revising local laws that better regulation of Entergy, New Orleans’ public utility that powers residents’ homes with solar.

Or, in Tyrone Jue of San Francisco’s case, the city’s environment director linked its number one stop to, in part, several new bus rapid transit lines with help from the city’s new racial and social equity assessment tool.

“Everything we’re doing is helping to shape the city moving together towards its goals,” he said. “It all works together.”

Columbus was quite a bit ahead of Cleveland, ranking 32nd, mostly for its community energy infrastructure. Cincinnati, which had a similar drop as Cleveland, took 49th. And Akron got the dead last spot, at number 75.