On the one hand, the "ask" for this resolution is pretty simple and includes no direct cost to the City. It simply states that the City Council urges EPA to use the Clean Air Act to reduce greenhouse gases. As such, the resolution can be fulfilled with a 44-cent stamp, a phone call, or even with a single e-mail message.

On the other hand, advocating for a 350-ppm CO2 level will be controversial, even with weasel-wording like "do our part" to achieve that level. The emphasis on endangered species might be important to the Center for Biological Diversity (and to me), but that is not the argument I would use to sway City Council. I suggest that we need to describe ancillary benefits such as the direct health benefits from controlling other air pollutants that would come as part of efforts to achieve this goal. With reductions in greenhouse gases will also come reductions in fine particulates, ozone, mercury and other pollutants, and that will generate immediate health benefits for Morgantown residents, as opposed to some long-term global reduction in climate change.

I support the resolution, but I suspect it will not pass without active support from the environmental community.

What next?

Jim Kotcon