From the Daily Grist

We asked a number of leaders in environment and sustainability issues to imagine they found themselves in an elevator with the president-elect -- giving them one minute of his undivided attention. Here are their messages to Obama about how he should approach environment, energy, and climate policy:

Gavin Newsom.

Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco:
"Where the Bush Administration has failed in the last eight years, you must lead. In your first 100 days, begin implementing a detailed, achievable plan to establish America as the world's leader in the fight against climate change. By investing in energy independence, you will rebuild the American economy and rid our dependence on foreign oil. Move from the common rhetoric of creating a green revolution in America to achieving results:

"You must:

• Follow-through on your promise to invest $150 billion in clean-technology infrastructure, research, and development (and consider increasing this level of investment). Infrastructure should focus on modernizing our national power grid to make it more efficient and allow new renewable energy projects to feed into that grid. R&D funding should flow to our nation's universities and scientific institutions to develop new energy-efficiency and renewable-energy technologies, such as ocean power, that can be further advanced through the marketplace.
• Establish aggressive new national efficiency standards for buildings, cars, and appliances. We've done this in California over the past two decades and have witnessed no change in per capita energy usage amidst explosive economic growth.
• Recognize the true price of greenhouse-gas pollution by creating an aggressive cap-and-trade system or carbon tax that will make renewable energy competitive with polluting fossil-fuel-burning technologies.
• Organize a bilateral energy summit with China that establishes both countries as leaders in the developed and developing world toward growing national economies while reducing the
  environmental impact.
• Ensure that clean-energy investment benefits all Americans by creating green-collar job requirements as a pre-condition to any federal funding of infrastructure, research, and development.
• Support cities' impressive climate protection efforts through technical assistance and resources for programs such as energy-efficiency retrofits in low-income housing."

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