"Right now, energy is the number one issue in America," he said. "…We need a unified vision of our energy future and how to implement it--which, when, what, where." The Mayor mentioned that the City has already created steps towards a sustainable future with PlaNYC, which is an energy policy to clean New York City's air, green the environment, and fuel the economy. At the same time, the Mayor said that the City plans to roll out proposed new City laws and regulations that will require new levels of transparency about energy use in commercial buildings.

Mayor Bloomberg explained that conservation alone isn't enough. "We also need to dramatically step up the production of clean energy for our growing city and economy. For example, I believe that we've got to be willing to do what some other nations--such as France--have already done, and increase our capacity of safe and clean nuclear-generated power." He adds that by building new plants using cleaner fuels and new technology, and by modernizing existing power plants, some of which he says now burn polluting oil, "we can begin generating cleaner power right away."

Some of the "innovative ideas" the City is looking at could include projects that might be designed to draw power from the tides of the Hudson and East Rivers, or increase rooftop solar power production, which he estimated could meet nearly 20% of the City's need for electricity. "They could tap into geothermal energy. In fact, some private home and building owners have already drilled their own 'heat wells.' Or perhaps companies will want to put windfarms atop our bridges and skyscrapers, or use the enormous potential of powerful off-shore winds miles out in the Atlantic Ocean, where turbines could generate roughly twice the energy that land-based windfarms can. Windfarms located far off our shores, some evidence shows, could meet 10% of our city's electricity needs within a decade."