Item 7: Resolution in Support of Clean Air Act

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K. With the Clean Air Act, air quality in this country has improved significantly since 1970, despite major growth both in our economy and industrial production. L. Between 1970 and 1990, the six main pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act — particulate matter and ground-level ozone (both of which contribute to smog and asthma), carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur and nitrogen oxides (the pollutants that cause acid rain) — were reduced by between 47 percent and 93 percent, and airborne lead was virtually eliminated. M. The Clean Air Act has produced economic benefits valued at $2 trillion or 30 times the cost of regulation. N. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts vs. EPA (2007) that greenhouse gases are “air pollutants” as defined by the Clean Air Act and the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate them. O. The City of Eugene prides itself on being a leader in the fight for clean air, and against climate change by signing on to the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, creating our award-winning Community Climate and Energy Action Plan (CEAP), and establishing Council goals to become carbon neutral in City-owned facilities and operations by 2020, and to reduce community-wide fossil fuel use 50% by 2030. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EUGENE, a Municipal Corporation of the State of Oregon, as follows: Section 1 . Climate change is not an abstract problem for the future or one that will affect only far-distant places; but rather, climate change is happening now, we are causing it, and the longer we wait to act, the more we lose and the more difficult and more expensive the problem will be to solve. Section 2 . President Barack Obama and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa P. Jackson, are hereby urged to move swiftly to fully employ and enforce the Clean Air Act to do our part to reduce carbon in our atmosphere to no more than 350 parts per million. Section 3 . This resolution shall be sent to President Obama, EPA Administrator Jackson, Senators Wyden and Merkley, Congressman DeFazio, and our state legislative delegation; and the City shall lobby on its behalf where appropriate. Section 4 . This Resolution is effective immediately upon its passage by the City Council. The foregoing Resolution adopted the ____ day of ______________________. 2012. Resolution - Page 2 of 2