More than 600 Local Elected Officials to President Obama: Act on Climate

Environment America

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Obama today received a letter signed by more than 600 local elected officials thanking him for his leadership addressing climate change and pledging their support as local partners in implementing carbon pollution standards for power plants and other key components of the president’s Climate Action Plan.

“We can help you achieve the key pillars of your plan to reduce carbon pollution, especially the first-ever national limits on carbon pollution from power plants,” the letter reads.

The letter was released via a telephone press conference where speakers included Mayor of Des Moines Frank Cownie, Mayor of St. Petersburg Rick Kriseman, Virginia State Senator Barbara Favola and Ken Hughes, clean energy specialist for the City of Santa Fe.

“Surrounded by water on three sides, no community is more aware of the catastrophic impacts of sea level rise than we are. Job one for me is public safety and sea level rise is about public safety and public health,” said Mayor Kriseman.
Earlier this month, the Obama administration released the third National Climate Assessment, the most comprehensive report yet on the impacts of climate change on the United States. The report was a combined effort of more than 200 scientific experts across the country with input from more than a dozen federal agencies from the National Science Foundation to the Defense Department. It issues grave warnings about the current and future impacts of climate change, including extreme weather like heat waves, flooding and drought, as well as the continued rising of sea levels and melting permafrost.

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to propose standards limiting carbon pollution from existing power plants within the next two weeks. There will be a year of public comment and states will need to have a compliance plan by June, 2016.