Daily Local News – September 13, 2006

By Brian Fanelli, Staff Writer

WEST CHESTER – The Borough Council’s Park, Recreation, and Environmental Protection Committee voted on Monday night to recommend that full council take the necessary steps to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.

The recommendations include having council create an ad-hoc committee, which is currently called Borough Leaders United for Emissions Reduction (BLUER), that would be made up of members for the community.

Currently, the committee calls for two residents, one West Chester University representative, one business owner and one county facilities representative.

The recommendation also calls for council to support Dianne Herrin, a resident of North Franklin Street, and her work of creating a CO₂ and greenhouse gas emissions inventory to determine how much is generated by municipal operations.

"I think West Chester is taking a leadership position," she said on Tuesday.

"Our reliance on fossil fuels, particularly on foreign oil, is a national security issue," she added.

Reliance on fossil fuels also causes health hazards, climate change and economic concerns, she added.

"For all of these reasons, we need to change directions…and have cleaner, renewable energies," she said.

She explained that she wanted to move forward with the cause after receiving feedback from members of an activist organization that she created.

"I started a local grassroots group almost two years ago called Moms for the Future…We made a list of issues we’re concerned about that will affect our children," she said.

"The one thing that trumped the list was a reduction of fossil fuels."

The group moved forward with creating school-initiative to address the problems, but Herrin wanted to do more.

The more I learned about this, I realized another way to effect change was through local government," she said.

She met with Councilwoman Carolyn Comitta and Councilman Scott Smith, chairman of the Parks, Recreation and Environmental Committee, and they encouraged her to move forward.

Smith said after the meeting that he found out that council committed to participate in the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign through a resolution that was adopted in 2002, ant the initiative will be a way to move forward with that resolution.

"I think this is very important. It has a lot of advantages. It will reduce our reliance on foreign oil," Smith said.

He added that the initiative should not cost the borough much money, since it will involve things like saving energy.

The plan calls for CO₂ and greenhouse gas pollution to be reduced by a minimum of 10 percent by 2010.

Candidates that want to serve on BLUER will be interviewed at future Parks, Recreation, and Environmental Protection meetings.

To contact staff writer Brian Fanelli, send an e-mail to bfanelli@dailylocal.com.