July 15th, 2019 – I’m very pleased to announce that tonight Lakewood City Council unanimously passed Resolution 9082-19 which supports two congressional bills: The New Green Deal (HR109) & The Cardon Fee and Dividend (HR763) as well as the BlueGreen Alliance. In addition, we committed to working towards zero-emission energy for our City’s use:
Re: Resolution to support Climate Change plans
Dear Colleagues,
We write to request your consideration of the attached resolution that would express the City of Lakewood’s support for three related and mutually-supportive plans to address climate change, a problem that is growing in urgency and which already affects Lakewood in the form of severe storms, higher lake levels, higher temperatures, and changing weather patterns.
At the request of a number of Lakewood residents, we specifically invite your support for the Bluegreen Alliance’s Solidarity for Climate Action plan; for the Green New Deal resolution (H.R. 109); and for the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R. 763).
Two of these climate change plans would set priorities and provide a broad policy framework to guide federal, state, and local action, while the third would implement a central strategy (cap-and-dividend) to address climate change. (Summaries of each are included below.) Many additional steps must follow to put these policies in action and attain the goal of mitigating the worst effects of climate change.
Of course, our City cannot act alone to effectively address climate change, which is global in scale. This is why it is especially important that we call upon our state and federal partners to work on this issue in a focused manner.
But we must do our part, and happily, the City of Lakewood has been working for years to improve our energy use, transportation system, storm water management, and many other areas. To name of few, these include: sidewalk repair, increasing bicycling, increasing our urban forest canopy, weatherizing homes and commercial buildings, converting street lights to LED, sourcing clean power for city operations, installing and encouraging solar, adding electrical cogeneration to our wastewater treatment plant, expanding recycling, and keeping Ohio’s densest community a vibrant destination of choice.
Our Community Vision articulates support for sustainability throughout, and the City’s Resiliency Task Force will soon report its analysis on how our City and community can further improve—and prepare for climate change disruptions.
Let’s continue our leadership, which is badly needed in a divisive chapter of American society in which scientific problems have been politicized such that many leaders shirk their responsibilities on climate. Our state and our country need to hear our community’s voice: they need to hear that we are engaging this problem with foresight and responsibility.
Sincerely,
Tom Bullock & Tristan Rader – Members of Lakewood City Council
