Officials in Sydney, Australia turned off the lights in their downtown last weekend in a move to make people more aware of global warming. Laura Miller, mayor of Dallas, talks about whether she would consider doing the same thing in her city.
ALEX CHADWICK, host: From water to electricity now, and in a moment back to Dallas. First, in Australia last weekend, they turned off the lights in Sydney. Now this is a city of four million people. It's got a glittery downtown, the famous opera house, but the lights were all off for an hour at the request of the mayor as a way of asking people to think about global warming. They've also tried this in Japan.</s>NOAH ADAMS, host: Well, what about this country and our bright city lights? Remember the Jimmy Dale Gilmore song called "Dallas"?</s>Mr. JIMMIE DALE GILMORE (Singer): (Singing) Did you ever see Dallas from a DC-9 at night? Well, Dallas is a jewel. Oh yeah, Dallas is a beautiful sight. And Dallas is a jungle but Dallas gives a beautiful light.</s>NOAH ADAMS, host: And so, why not make the phone call to Dallas, to the mayor. She is Laura Miller.</s>NOAH ADAMS, host: Mayor Miller, welcome to our program.</s>Mayor LAURA MILLER (Democrat, Dallas, Texas): Thank you for having me.</s>NOAH ADAMS, host: What do you think about when you hear about the cities going dark at night, sort of a turn making a statement, maybe even starting something that could move on to something bigger in terms of saving energy - what do you think?</s>Mayor LAURA MILLER (Democrat, Dallas, Texas): I think it's wonderful. I think, right now, in America, the place where there is most progress being made on energy conservation and being progressive and innovative, is the cities.</s>NOAH ADAMS, host: Well, have you suggested turning out the light in Dallas at least for one night?</s>Mayor LAURA MILLER (Democrat, Dallas, Texas): You know, I haven't. I think that would be quite a shock to the night by the city in America, because we are the fossil fuel capital of the world. So I think, if I told them to turn the lights off, they'd think I had lost my mind, but it's a great thing and I'm glad to see it.</s>NOAH ADAMS, host: What is the real iconic building on that skyline? Dallas is known as the emerald city of the prairie, I understand, and the real icon there in terms of light would be one of the bank towers?</s>Mayor LAURA MILLER (Democrat, Dallas, Texas): Yes, it's the Bank of America tower. It's 63 storeys tall. It's very, very large and all outlined in green neon. So it really is the emerald city on the prairie.</s>NOAH ADAMS, host: When you see the skyline, when you look at the buildings at night, how many of those lights that are on make sense in terms of safety or efficiency that they have to be on, and how many are just really for the great look?</s>Mayor LAURA MILLER (Democrat, Dallas, Texas): Oh, most of them are for the great look. And I don't mind so much outlining the buildings. I think that's very dramatic. But certainly, we're like a lot of other cities where people leave at 5:00 to go home, and they leave their office light on and no one ever turns if off, and in that way, of course, we waste as much electricity as a lot of other folks.</s>NOAH ADAMS, host: But surely, some of the buildings are lit just as a matter of policy.</s>Mayor LAURA MILLER (Democrat, Dallas, Texas): Well, sure. I mean, yeah. Some buildings are but - you know, Dallas is very progressive on a number of fronts. None of the buildings that we build anymore with our taxpayer money are anything less than lead certified - just incredibly highly energy efficient.</s>NOAH ADAMS, host: But as you suggested, there are people in Texas who would say, she's not going to turn off those light in those buildings and be elected mayor again.</s>Mayor LAURA MILLER (Democrat, Dallas, Texas): Well, I don't have to worry about that because I leave office June 25th.</s>NOAH ADAMS, host: Right. Well, you have a great chance then.</s>Mayor LAURA MILLER (Democrat, Dallas, Texas): Oh, no. Listen, I think it's a great idea. And I think it would be fun. But, you know, one of the reasons that, in the back of my mind, I'm nervous about turning off the lights is that we've had this enormous, wonderful grassroots effort to stop the construction of new pulverized coal plants in Texas because unfortunately our energy company's proposed doubling the number of coal plants in our state last year. And we rose up together, elected officials, to fight it back.</s>Mayor LAURA MILLER (Democrat, Dallas, Texas): But their mantra, especially TXU, which is our predominant utility here in North Texas, they said if you don't build these old style pulverized coal plants, then the lights will go out in Texas. So literally, as we've reached the peak of that fight here in the last few months, if we were to turn the lights off now, everyone would assume it was because it was true that because we didn't the coal plants we're dark.</s>NOAH ADAMS, host: Laura Miller is the mayor of Dallas, Texas. Thank you, Mayor Miller.</s>Mayor LAURA MILLER (Democrat, Dallas, Texas): Oh, you're very welcome.</s>Mr. JIMMIE DALE GILMORE (Singer): (Singing) Did you ever see Dallas from a DC-9 at night? Well, Dallas is a jewel. Oh yeah, Dallas is a beautiful sight.</s>NOAH ADAMS, host: Stay with us on DAY TO DAY from NPR News.