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The City Council will be considering an exciting new project at the City Council meeting on Tuesday. It's called the Asheville Energy Independence Initiative and it has the potential to substantially increase the city's investment in renewable energy, create hundreds of new, green collar jobs, and lower Asheville's overall carbon footprint.

Using an innovative financing model, the initiative provides loans to homeowners and businesses for retrofits (efficiency measures and small renewable energy systems), making large-scale progress towards greater energy efficiency possible.

Here are some potential benefits for our city:

• Savings over time for homeowners and businesses
• More local green jobs
• Cleaner air due to reduced emissions from power plants
• Community investment in renewable, clean energy
• Less reliance on fossil fuels

We all know this initiative reflects widely held community values, but in order for it to move forward, we need to show broad community support! According to Vice Mayor Brownie Newman, only a handful of cities -- none of them in the Southeast -- have created such an initiative to date. Here's how you can help make Asheville a national leader in clean, renewable energy:

Join Green Opportunities at the next City Council meeting to voice your support for the measure. Please wear green (or your GO t-shirt) so your support is visible. Details are below; please share the word with your friends and neighbors!

When: Tuesday, January 12 at 5:00pm (This agenda item isn't expected to come up until 6:15 or 6:30)
Location: 2nd Floor of the City Hall Building, 70 Court Plaza, Downtown Asheville

For more information about the financing program that would used for the initiative, you can visit http://www.pacenow.org/