Enfield Mayor Mondale Robinson has long been a clean energy advocate. Earlier this year, he helped secure a seed grant of nearly $300,000 to jump-start a pilot project to deploy geothermal energy that can heat, cool, and provide hot water to households, bringing cleaner and cheaper energy to the town.
Now the mayor has announced that he’s launching a new small-town coalition, with the hopes that if small towns like his can work together, they can help get new federal policies enacted, attract new donors, and have greater access to experts who can help them confront a host of challenges, from the climate crisis to housing and food insecurity.
“One small town can be ignored,” Robinson said. “Thousands of organized small towns become a national constituency.”
The National Conference of Small Cities and Rural Mayors is still in the early stages, but Robinson’s long-term goals include training, peer-to-peer networks, regional collaboration, and a shared voice in federal advocacy. For now, Robinson is trying to recruit the first 100 founding mayors as well as anchor foundations for the coalition.
Robinson believes that small towns have more ability than big cities to be nimble, and are thus the best places to test and refine new clean energy models, just as Enfield has been doing.
“What we’re doing here in Enfield,” Robinson said, “with no resources, or very little resources, is how we change the lives not just of the people in Enfield but everybody who is living in a small town across this country.”
