Mayors meeting in Florida are considering an ambitious commitment to have US city governments run entirely on renewable sources such as wind and solar by 2035.
Leaders from more than 250 cities gathered at the US Conference of Mayors in Miami Beach were scheduled to vote on Monday on a resolution to reach the 100% clean energy goal.
Miami Beach mayor Philip Levine is leading the effort after being in the spotlight for his moves to combat sea level rise.
A May survey by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions said 47 cities spent nearly $1.2bn annually on electricity for city operations.
Mayors at the conference have overwhelmingly expressed support to fight climate change, especially after the Trump administration pulled out of the Paris climate agreement last month.
“I think most mayors in America don’t think we have to wait for a president” whose beliefs on climate change are disconnected from science, New Orleans mayor and new conference president Mitch Landrieu said at the beginning of the conference.
“There’s near unanimity in this conference that climate change is real and that humans contribute to it. There may be a little bit of a disagreement about how actually to deal with it.
“If the federal government refuses to act or is just paralyzed, the cities themselves, through their mayors, are going to create a new national policy by the accumulation of our individual efforts.”