Pittsburgh is a Cool City!

[globalvillage]

At least we will be. Is your city cool?

Check out the Sierra Club link to see if you live in a Cool City. If you don't, sign up at the site and urge your mayor and local officials to make your city a cool place to live.

Or move to Pittsburgh.

:-)

For more information on the Sierra Club Cool Cities campaign, visit http://www.coolcities.us

Pittsburgh info posted below.

ACTION ALERT:

Cool Cities Resolutions to be Offered in City and County Councils

Your is help needed to ensure they pass!

At a pre-screening of the new global warming documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth”, Pittsburgh City Councilman Bill Peduto and Allegheny County Council President Rich Fitzgerald both pledged to offer resolutions in their respective councils to ask Mayor O’Connor and Chief Executive Onorato to join over 250 other cities and counties in signing the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. By signing onto this agreement, they would pledge to reduce Pittsburgh and Allegheny County’s global warming emissions to at least 7% below 1990 levels by 2012.

True to their word, next Wednesday, July 5, resolutions will be offered in both City and County Councils. This is only the second time that joint resolutions have been offered in City and County councils. We want to make sure that these resolutions pass and demonstrate that Pittsburgh and Allegheny County are a Cool City and Cool County (the City resolution is below – the County resolution is similar.) To do this, your help is needed TODAY.

Please take a moment to e-mail your City and/or County Council members and ask him or her to co-sponsor the resolution in support of joining the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. E-mail addresses for all City and County council members are below.

Click here if you contacted your council member

Don’t know who your council member is?

For Pittsburgh City Council: Go to http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/council/

For Allegheny County Council, Go to http://www.county.allegheny.pa.us/council/

Also, please attend the City and/or County Council meetings on Wednesday, July 5. Please also consider making a brief statement in support of the resolution at the meeting. If you wish to speak at the County Council meeting, please fill out the on-line request form at http://www.county.allegheny.pa.us/council/meetings/recomm.asp

Click here if you can attend the City Council meeting

Click here if you can attend the County Council meeting

Pittsburgh City Council Meeting

Wednesday, July 5, 10:00am

City-County Building

414 Grant Street


Allegheny County Council Meeting

Wednesday, July 5, 5:00pm

County Courthouse
436 Grant Street
4th Floor - Gold Room

For more information on the Sierra Club Cool Cities campaign, visit http://www.coolcities.us

Pittsburgh City Council Members:

[e-mail]

[e-mail]

[e-mail]

[e-mail]

[e-mail]

[e-mail]

[e-mail]

[e-mail]

[e-mail]



Allegheny County Council Members:

John DeFazio: [e-mail]

Dave Fawcett: [e-mail]

Matt Drozd: [e-mail]

Jan Rea: [e-mail]

James Burn: [e-mail]

Micheal Finnerty: [e-mail]

Vincent Gastgeb: [e-mail]

Joan Cleary: [e-mail]

Susan Caldwell: [e-mail]

Charles Martoni: [e-mail]

Robert Macey: [e-mail]

William Robinson: [e-mail]

Rich Fitzgerald: [e-mail]

Rich Nerone: [e-mail]

Brenda Frazier: [e-mail]

A RESOLUTION


A Resolution of the Council of the City of Pittsburgh, urging the Mayor to take action to reduce global warming pollution levels in the City of Pittsburgh by meeting or exceeding the Kyoto Protocol target for the United States, which calls for a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by seven percent (7%) below 1990 levels by 2012.

WHEREAS, the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the international community’s most respected assemblage of scientists, has found that climate disruption is a reality and that human activities are largely responsible for increasing concentrations of global warming pollution; and

WHEREAS, the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to address climate disruption, is in effect in the 163 countries that have ratified it to date; with 38 of those countries having implemented legal requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on average 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012; and

WHEREAS, in July 2006, on the occasion of the G8 Summit, the G8 countries will gather in Russia to address the major challenges of climate change, energy sustainability and security; and

WHEREAS, although the United States officially withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, over 200 cities and counties in 38 states have pledged to reduce their global warming emissions, and these local governments are lowering energy bills, saving taxpayer dollars, and protecting our environment; and

WHEREAS, many cities and counties are reducing global warming pollutants through programs that provide economic and quality of life benefits such as reduced energy bills, green space preservation, air quality improvements, reduced traffic congestion, improved transportation choices, and economic development and job creation through energy conservation and new energy technologies; and

WHEREAS, the City of Pittsburgh is committed to the effort to reduce the United States’ dependence on fossil fuels and accelerate the development of clean, economical energy resources and fuel-efficient technologies such as conservation, methane recovery for energy generation, waste to energy, geothermal, wind and solar energy, fuel cells, efficient motor vehicles, and bio-fuels; and

WHEREAS, by taking innovative, responsible energy-saving steps like making buildings more energy efficient, promoting transportation alternatives, reducing waste, and investing in more fuel-efficient vehicles and clean renewable energy sources, Allegheny County is leading the way to a better, cleaner, and safer future.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Council hereby requests that the Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh sign on to the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement and aim to reduce global warming pollution levels in the City of Pittsburgh by meeting or exceeding the Kyoto Protocol target set for the United States, which calls for a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by seven percent (7%) below 1990 levels by 2012, by promoting energy efficiency, promotion of clean and affordable energy sources and systems, development of local energy resources and systems, relying upon local industry to the greatest extent practicable, promotion of cost-effective economic instruments that can help to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, and promotion of waste management and reuse/reduce/recycle activities; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Council further requests that the Mayor explore other means of increasing the City's renewable energy use for the benefit of the City's residents and businesses, through cost savings in lower electricity bills, protection and health of the environment and by generating growth to the economy within the City of Pittsburgh.

SPONSORED BY COUNCILMAN WILLIAM PEDUTO

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[Redstone]

1. Hey, where else can you get a sandwich with fries inside it? That's enough

by itself to make me consider it a Cool City.

Redstone

[Avalux]

2. I remember the Pittsburgh of the 70's -

you've come a long way, baby! Love you! :applause:

[AnnieBW]

3. Damn Straight!

The city that brought you Rachel Carson, and the adopted home of Teresa Heinz Kerry, is VERY environmentally aware. We learned our lesson back in the heyday of the "stillmills" (that's steel mills to the uninitiated) that caused it to be dark at noon, and our rivers to be polluted.

There's times that I miss my home city and want to go back. If only to vote against Slick Rick!