Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms recently had a piece published in The Huffington Post about her pledge to combat air pollution.
“As the new Mayor of Atlanta, the capital city that anchors the ninth-largest metro in the United States, I take air pollution, the threat of climate change, and the effort to address both very seriously,” she wrote.
She went on to add, “We are proud to be the first city in the South to have the foresight and wherewithal to build its own mass-transit system, MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority), which was a major component in our winning bid to host the Centennial Olympic Games in 1996. MARTA now serves as the backbone of an expanding public-transportation system which will provide greater connectivity for working families to our job centers and world-class universities.
Still, like many urban population centers across the country, Atlanta has suffered for years from poor air quality, from ground-level ozone, particulate matter and smog. But after decades of local, state and federal efforts to tighten air quality standards through the Clean Air Act and then meet those standards, our air quality has improved.”
Toward the end she emphasized the city’s commitment.
“Atlanta’s 100 percent Clean Energy Pledge is a social contract to protect the health and welfare of our residents. As such, we call upon the people of Atlanta to join us in the clean energy movement. This is not just a plan drafted in a vacuum at City Hall — our aim is to unlock the potential of Atlantans to take action to make our city more resilient to the shocks and stresses of a warming planet.”
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