Mayors gathering for their annual meeting Monday approved a resolution urging Congress to pass carbon pricing legislation.
It’s the first time the United States Conference of Mayors voted on a carbon pricing resolution.
At least a few Republican mayors supported the proposal, although the vote tally was still being counted as of publication.
This year’s annual meeting, in Honolulu, Hawaii, includes more than 1,400 mayors representing cities with populations of 30,000 and larger.
The resolution says Congress should “pass legislation that imposes a price on carbon emissions sufficient enough to reduce emissions in line with ambitions detailed in the Paris Agreement.”
It notes that “economists are in general agreement that market-based mechanisms such as carbon pricing will create price signals” that encourage businesses to invest in carbon-free sources.
“As mayors we are all committed to working hard on this issue, but we cannot do it alone,” said Jackie Biskupski, the mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah. “We need Congress to enact federal laws that will support our work and spur the kind of American innovation and market-based solutions that will slow and eventually stop the progression of climate change.”
Biskupski introduced the resolution along with Mayors Bill de Blasio of New York City, Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, Thomas Butt of Richmond, Calif., Pauline Russo Cutter of San Leandro, Calif., and others.
“Not only is carbon pricing an effective, efficient way to reduce emissions, but it’s also becoming the consensus solution, as this vote shows,” said Andres Jimenez, senior director of government affairs at Citizens’ Climate Lobby, which helped spearhead the resolution. “The Conference of Mayors’ position makes it clear that carbon pricing should be an integral piece of America’s climate policy.”
Jimenez’s group helped with the introduction this year of a bipartisan carbon tax bill in the House.
