By Drew O'Bryan
In early November, the City of San Antonio hosted its second annual Sustainability Summit with 600 members of the public in attendance. The summit featured presentations by CPS Energy, San Antonio Water System, and local organizations displaying the sustainability initiatives already creating a more sustainable city.
One of the first speakers of the night was Mayor Ivy Taylor, who reminded the audience that “this idea of sustainability can’t just be about talking, we have to turn it into action.” It was a good if not ironic point coming from Mayor Taylor, who has been a strong supporter of the Vista Ridge Pipeline, a water project set to pipe 16.3 billion gallons of water from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer annually. The pipeline would prove to be unnecessary with strong planning and action on water conservation initiatives.
Mayor Taylor also highlighted the significance of the recent San Antonio Tomorrow Sustainability Plan approved by city council this past summer. The plan features initiatives for transportation, water quality, and improved green spaces among other goals. It was the focus of last year’s summit and created in part through public participation.
While the SA Tomorrow Plan really is something to celebrate, its one glaring deficiency is a lack of goals for reducing harmful fossil fuel pollution. The document acknowledges both the existence of human-caused climate disruption and the need to protect ourselves from its effects but does not set any goals for San Antonio to reduce its own emissions of greenhouse gas pollutants like carbon dioxide and methane.
Over the past months, we’ve worked with the Alamo Sierra Club and other organizations in San Antonio to determine a course of action for moving the city towards meaningful reductions in fossil fuel pollution and continuing to build on CPS Energy’s national leadership on clean energy solutions. Following discussions with CPS Energy and the city’s Office of Sustainability, it became clear that San Antonio’s lack of a vision or goals for climate action have left the city’s decision makers talking about, but not always acting on, climate change and air quality.
That’s why moving forward we will be calling on the residents of San Antonio to let their council members know that they want a climate action plan to guide the city towards a truly sustainable and responsible future. Following the election of Donald Trump and facing rollbacks of many key environmental protections, climate action on a local level is more important than ever, especially in America’s seventh largest city.
In the words of Mayor Taylor, “sustainability can’t just be about talking, we have to turn it into action.”It’s time the mayor and city council work together on addressing San Antonio’s fossil fuel pollution and truly protect our health, our neighbors, and the future.