The Madison Energy Task Force released a five-year environmental plan Monday advocating the city's commitment to renewable energy, sustainable development and buildings as green as a Lambeau Field tailgate party.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz praised the 115-page report as a means to make Madison an urban leader in linking economic growth and social welfare with sound environmental policies.
The plan advocates the city purchase 10 percent of its electrical power from renewable resources by 2006 and twice that amount by 2010.
The report also recommends remodeling municipal buildings using \green"" or energy-saving principles and establishing an Office of Sustainable Development.
According to Patrick Eagan, a UW-Madison engineering professor, an energy crisis will eventually force all cities to invest in green development.
""They're not going to get it all right the first time, but just the fact that they're attempting to do these things is significant,"" he said.
Cieslewicz established the task force to assess the adequacy of the city's power supply in light of the massive blackouts that struck large parts of the East Coast in the summer of 2003.
