[Urging the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to Continue Implementing the United States’ Clean Power Plan]
Resolution opposing the repeal of the Clean Power Plan and urging the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to continue implementing the Plan’s critical policies that require states to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and generate cleaner energy.
WHEREAS, The San Francisco Commission on the Environment seeks to help counter the growing threat that greenhouse gas emissions pose to global climate and health through activities and policies that reduce emissions and improve, enhance, and preserve San Francisco’s long term environmental sustainability as set forth in Section 4.118 of the City Charter; and,
WHEREAS, The City and County of San Francisco, in joining the State of California in the fight against climate change, has set ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2025 and 80 percent by 2050 (Board of Supervisors Ordinance No. 81-08); and,
WHEREAS, San Francisco has a goal of reaching 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and, like the State of California and other jurisdictions, has demonstrated that aggressive investment in and development of renewable electricity can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously fueling our local economy; and,
WHEREAS, While San Francisco and California are leading the nation in greenhouse gas emission reductions, climate change continues to be a national and global challenge and the Clean Power Plan is needed to spur other states to take action towards a shared goal of cleaner, healthier air; and,
WHEREAS, the EPA developed the Clean Power Plan to establish state-by-state targets to lower carbon emissions produced by power generators to 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030; and,
WHEREAS, On March 28, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order directing the EPA to begin dismantling the Clean Power Plan; and,
WHEREAS, The repeal of the Clean Power Plan will limit the United States’ ability to meet the emission reduction targets set forth in the Paris Climate Agreement and will only exacerbate the effects of climate change that are already visible throughout the world in the form of super storms, droughts, floods, fires and more; and,
WHEREAS, While climate change will impact the entire world, the resulting health impacts are expected to disproportionately affect communities least able to prepare for, cope with, and recover from them (San Francisco Department of Public Health’s 2017 San Francisco’s Climate and Health Adaptation Framework); and,
WHEREAS, On February 28, 2018 the EPA will hold a hearing in San Francisco to collect public comment on the proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan; now, therefore be it,
RESOLVED, That the San Francisco Commission on the Environment opposes the proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan and calls on the EPA to continue upholding and implementing the Plan’s policies and programs that reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and support cleaner energy generation; and, be it,
FURTHER RESOLVED, That the San Francisco Commission on the Environment reiterates the need to not only uphold the Clean Power Plan but to accelerate the local, national and global transition to a clean energy economy because dramatically reducing the use of fossil fuels is critical to averting a global climate and health crisis; and, be it,
FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be submitted to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
I hereby certify that this Resolution was adopted at the Commission on the Environment’s Meeting on February 21, 2018.
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Anthony Valdez, Commission Secretary
Vote: 5-0 Approved
Ayes: Commissioners Bermejo, Wald, Ahn, Hoyos and Stephenson
Noes: None
Absent: Commissioner Wan