Greening the NYC Skyline

Photo: Daniel Stein / Istock

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Kurt Vonnegut memorably called New York City "Skyscraper National Park" but it's Mayor Michael Bloomberg who has a vision for transforming that famous skyline into a national icon for the green movement.

In a speech at a national clean energy conference, Bloomberg outlined a vision for New York that includes wind turbines on skyscrapers, on bridges and rising from the same waters as Lady Liberty (though not, one can assume, within sight of the famous statue).

The vision, part of Bloomberg's over-arching plan for making the city more sustainable in the next 20 years, would no doubt face opposition from some in the city, where new building projects routinely run afoul of community preservationists. But there's ample reason to believe the twin forces of high energy prices and that sense of New Yorker exceptionalism could build enough political will to see the plan come to reality. (And, of course, if they can make it here, they'll make it anywhere.)

Generating more clean power in New York City would solve several other problems: Reducing pollution from power plants in poor neighborhoods, meeting the demands of a growing population without adding to the burden of pollution, and obviating the need for controversial long-distance power lines that would cut across the upstate landscape to deliver electricity to the power-hungry city.

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