MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Morgantown City Council is placing the Paris Climate Accord on their agenda.
With multiple people speaking in favor of a presentation made by the Morgantown Municipal Green Team, City Council unanimously approved to move provisions of the Paris Climate Agreement to their agenda during their Committee of the Whole Tuesday night.
During the discussion portion, all members of council brought their reasoning for bringing forth provisions. Most prominently, that included cutting greenhouse gas emissions by over a quarter by 2025. These included proposed safety precautions for extreme weather and economic proposals that ranged from solar power benefits and coal country replacement jobs.
Deputy Mayor Mark Brazaitis felt the opportunity for Morgantown to benefit is there.
“This is a benefit to Morgantown,” he said. “It’ll actually save us money in addition to helping our environment.”
The economic benefits that the Green Team proposed included small businesses saving money through more energy efficient materials and using alternative sources of energy including potential solar panels. Brazaitis believed those benefits could directly affect Morgantown in the positive.
“Clean energy is increasingly efficient and increasingly inexpensive and the more we tap into those developments and the greater cost savings we’ll realize.” said Brazaitis
President Trump officially announced that the US would withdraw from the agreement on June 1st. In response, multiple major cities including St. Louis and Houston vowed to uphold provisions made in the agreement. If passed, Morgantown would be the first in West Virginia to do so.
Brazaitis recognized the potential backlash this amendment might cause in coal country and among others who might disagree. But Brazaitis said this is important for all of West Virginia and Appalachia.
“I want to emphasize what I said about our President, President Trump,” he said. “He promised to revitalize Appalachia’s infrastructure and I’d like to see that promise kept.”
Morgantown City Council will meet next week for their regular meeting.