Clearwater Council Commits To 100 Percent Clean Energy By 2050

CLEARWATER, FL — The Clearwater City Council unanimously passed a resolution on Dec. 15 committing the city to transition 100 percent of the electricity consumed in city operations to clean and renewable energy by 2040 and 100 percent of electricity consumed citywide to clean and renewable by 2050.

Clearwater joins the list of 12 other cities and one county in Florida to make similar commitments.

In their commitment, the council took a strong leadership stance by emphasizing equity, public health and frontline communities. The resolution directs “all departments to build inclusive and sustainable economic opportunities and mitigate related losses; and provide regional leadership to address equity in climate, energy, and related public health issues.” The city has committed to working across all departments to achieve its benchmark goals.

"Our city staff has done incredible work to put us on a very strong financial path to realize these types of goals. We are already realizing significant savings with our energy efficiency programs, and we’re on track to save much more with solar projects. It is exciting to see our Greenprint 2.0 emission goals be joined with clean electricity goals and financial savings. A win-win," said council member Kathleen Beckman.

Clearwater joins a growing group of Florida cities that includes Orlando, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, Tallahassee and Gainesville, among others, and is added to the list of more than 180 other cities across the country that have committed to achieving 100 percent clean and renewable energy community-wide.

The unanimous vote to approve the resolution was strongly supported by the Florida Sierra Club and Suncoast Sierra Club in Pinellas County.