City staff outlines climate resilience projects, flags frozen federal grants and near-term savings

City staff updated the City Utilities Committee on the Climate Resilient ATL action-plan, describing an 18-month engagement process and laying out near-term program work on fleet electrification, food access and municipal solar opportunities.

The presentation summarized city partnerships — including Invest Atlanta, the Department of City Planning and external technical partners — and said staff aims to engage at least 2,500 residents. The presenter told the committee, “my goal is that nobody's gonna come up to me and say they didn't know that the city was working on this,” and urged council members to help publicize outreach in their districts.

The presenter highlighted a short-term rate-analysis with Cherry Street Energy that identified nine city facilities eligible for a utility rate change. The analysis, which staff said has been discussed with Georgia Power, “could produce a savings this year of $27,000 for the city,” and staff estimated “over the remainder of our contract term, that's another half a million dollars of savings on [the] city's utility bills.” Staff said hearings for the…