Morgantown City Council unanimously passes Climate Accord Resolution on first reading

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Morgantown City Council unanimously passed, on first reading, a resolution supporting the goals of the Paris Climate Accords.

Fifth Ward Councilman Ron Dulaney Jr., before voting yes Tuesday night, wanted to remind concerned citizens that the Council’s participation in the Accords was about aligning themselves with the Accord’s goals.

“It’s not about trying to enforce the terms of that agreement,” he said.

“We’re not trying to regulate energy. We’re not trying to send federal tax dollars overseas. What we are trying to do is to do our part to help limit global warming.”

He reiterated that the city can very easily do that by simply keeping its own house in order.

“We are making decisions about buildings, and we are making decisions about transportation,” Dulaney said. “And those are the greatest contributors to greenhouse gases.”

Similarly, Fourth Ward Councilwoman Jenny Selin said Council’s control over city buildings, vehicles, and infrastructure offered a chance to become more energy efficient in a practical way.

“This is a practical consideration that we’re looking to conserve,” she said. “We’re looking to diversify. We’re looking to plan. This is something that nearly every country in the world is looking at.”

Economic diversification was another key factor council members cited in the decision-making process. A number of council members argued, with coal production and employment hitting significant lows in the past decade, that Morgantown should lead the way for the state to look beyond coal.

Deputy Mayor and Sixth Ward Councilman Mark Brazaitis said it was vital that Morgantown take further steps to support economic diversification.

“It’s alarmingly anti-coal miner to promise what cannot be delivered,” Brazaitis said. “A return to times past simply isn’t possible. And to say it is possible is both to mercilessly tease understandably high hopes and to double or triple the inevitable disappointment, devastation, and anger that will arise when those hopes are left unfulfilled.”

Councilors noted this was even more important in light of West Virginia University’s standing as a destination for students from more than 100 nations.

First Ward Councilwoman Rachel Fetty said the name of the resolution should not discourage those from the potential cost-saving benefits inside the City.

“I have not been dissuaded from favoring the Accords by the arguments that have been raised against it,” Fetty said. “Because the name of an accord alone is not enough to dissuade me.”

The public hearing portion displayed significant support among those present at City Council. A representative of the West Virginia Coal Forum offered a word of caution against Council’s zeal to support the Accords.

“I would ask you to consider that it is not just Morgantown that you’re speaking to, but it is to other places, other counties, to Charleston, to the coal fields — the coal fields that have been ravaged due to the economic downturn,” Joel Watts said.

The United States remains part of the Paris Climate Accords, but President Donald Trump announced his intention to remove the U.S. from those Accords on June 1, 2017.

Last month, a number of international outlets reported President Trump was reconsidering that decision following a lengthy diplomatic meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

If the City of Morgantown’s resolution passes a second reading, Morgantown will join more than 300 other U.S. cities and every other nation on Earth except for Syria and Nicaragua in support of the treaty.





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