11 Nov Austin City Council — Recommit to Climate Protection

This petition, to put climate protection at the top of our new City Council’s agenda, is co-sponsored by Jake Stewart (frmr manager of the Austin Climate Protection Program)…

Backstory
Some friends recently suggested we petition Austin’s new City Council to recommit to Mayor Wynn’s 2007 Climate Protection Mandate. I think it’s a great way to urge our leaders AND show them our support. I’m one of thousands concerned about alarming financial oversights, costly health impacts and lack of initiative on climate and environmental issues in Austin Energy’s current electricity plan, 2010 to 2020. But I also think it’s important to let our elected officials know that I (we) will support them if they come through with some strong climate actions.

Here is the text of our petition. I hope you’ll consider signing it at http://budurl.com/AustinCPP

The City of Austin makes the goal of its Climate Protection Plan clear: to “make Austin the leading city in the nation in the fight against climate change.” We have created the petition below to show our support for the Mayor, City Council, Austin Energy, Austin’s city leaders, and our diverse community of multiple stakeholders, to achieve rapid implementation of affordable, world-leading, climate solutions, immediately.

We, the citizens of Austin, TX, urge members of Austin City Council to officially recommit to our City’s Climate Protection Program. We feel our City can and must do more, and we stand ready to support our City’s commitment to world-changing leadership.

In 2007, just two years ago, when the Austin Climate Program was adopted, more than half of today’s council was not yet elected, we had a different Mayor and a different City Manager. We urge our City’s new leadership team to recommit the City to the bold, urgent and important goals laid out in 2007.

We ask that today’s City leadership put climate solutions first on their agenda and make public their commitment to finding an affordable way forward.

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Austin needs to be a leader on the environment and clean energy. We pledged to do just that. Now it is time for us to move forward and fulfill our promises. Thanks, Chris Searles

view/sign the petition: http://budurl.com/AustinCPP
Read Matt Glazer’s endorsement of the petition, via the BurntOrangeReport: http://tinyurl.com/ykgqqrw