06-27-16 Utiliites - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Those wishing to speak in favor of the bill: Christopher Cobb, 215 East Pokagon Street South Bend, stated he is a ten (10) year resident of the City and his family has been residents of Northern Indiana for five (5) generations. The long- term health of the region is something close to his heart. He spoke in favor of the bill as currently filed. The continuity of this resolution in support of clean energy with the City's and Council's environmental commitments to South Bend is very important. The number one (1) threat listed so far for Elbel by the surveyors is climate change. If we want to protect our natural areas and our quality of life we have to address climate change and we cannot address climate change while we rely on coal for our electricity. This is a great opportunity to move away from coal instead of spending up to three (3) billion dollars spent by people in Northern Indiana to continue our dependence on coal for fuel. Clean energy is smart energy and we need to look for ways to make this a vibrant community that attracts people and desire a good quality of life. There is the opportunity to have local and regional investment in clean energy which would bring jobs to our community. Being stuck with coal long -term has no environmental benefits and it also has no social or economic benefits. He emphasized that moving to energy efficiency will bring jobs here, protect public health, protects the environment and stops the practice of using customer money to subsidize profits for out of state corporations that own the Rockport Plant. Renaldo Hernandez, 702 East South Street 46601, South Bend should care about the fate of the Rockport Plant even if it is in the southern part of Indiana. This is also more than an economical issue and that makes South Bend just as involved as other areas of the state. This is not just a good hearted liberal resolution. This is nothing less than standing up to I &M on behalf of its customers. The Rockport Plant does not burn Indiana coal but instead sends over $400 million Hoosier dollars annually to Kentucky and Wyoming. That is not helpful to the Indiana economy. Much of this coal comes from mining practices that destroys beautiful and pristine mountains as well as forests and streams. Instead of taking an opportunity to take an outdated and dirty plant offline, they are trying to perpetuate a misguided system to further their profits. The amount of money they plan to spend on updating Rockport could instead be spent on a major conversion to wind and solar energy. I &M has a history of discouraging Hoosier families and businesses. Instead of spending six (6) million dollars to give a dirty plant new life it should be spent on an existing plan to retire half of that plant by 2022. Anthony Serianni, 115 South Hill Street, spoke in full support of the resolution as filed. Mr. Serianni explained he has taught courses at Notre Dame on the topic of sustainability and own a thirty -four (34) year old company in the CBD of South Bend that is partly powered by solar energy. His children and students have concerns about the earth that they are going to inherit and this is why we are all here. Current scientific data on the environmental and human health effects of burning coal are irrefutable as they were for the health effects of smoking tobacco thirty (30) years ago. We chose to ignore this collateral damage because we benefit from the use of coal. However, we are at the transition point in history where one (1) energy source yields to another. The transition to renewables is happening during our watch, we can embrace the change or resist it. This resolution if passed will play a major role in determining how South Bend is viewed both internally and externally as a community. Does South Bend resist change and maintain the status quo or do we embrace change and future opportunities? The ideas in this resolution are neither new nor novel, savvy communities around the world are debating the very same issues that we 7