In their own words:
“Star Communities are communities that are willing to abide by a national framework and performance-management system that will finally allow local governments to measure and rate these communities sustainability performance. This framework for sustainability encompasses the social, economic and environmental dimensions of community, and includes a rating system that drives continuous improvement and fosters competition. There will be an online system that gathers, organizes, analyzes, and presents information required to meet sustainability goals.”
STAR is a program of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives ICLEI USA (see page 55 of Agenda 21 or lesson 10 of this series) developed with key partners including the U.S. Green Building Council, the Center for American Progress and the National League of Cities.
In Reality:
A Star Community is in part a creation of ICLEI, an organization working directly with the United Nations. A Star Community is a community that will allow the federal government to measure and control every resource (water, air, soil, energy, etc.) that its citizens use. The control may be regulatory in nature or simply through increased cost of utilities, but as you can tell from the “in their own words” section above, you can bet that, if your community becomes a Star Community, a whole lot of redistribution of wealth is going to be going on.
Regardless, the big question should be, will the citizens be the ones deciding whether their city participates, or will it be politicians on unelected boards who will make these decisions? Further, will the citizens have any idea that at the end of the process that their freedom to enjoy the resources that were provided by a generous Creator will be measured, rationed, and controlled in ways they can probably not comprehend.
What will be measured (click to enlarge):
Participating Communities (click to enlarge):
