Authorizing the City Council Committee on Law and Government to hold hearings to investigate the state of the air quality in Philadelphia and to recommend ways and means to improve its air quality, and therefore, the health of all Philadelphians.

WHEREAS, The federal government in 1955 passed the national Air Pollution Control Act and then, over the next two decades, added a series of clean air and air quality control amendments, including the 1970 amendment, which was a major revision with much more demanding standards, which are still effect; and

WHEREAS, Council of the City of Philadelphia, in 1969, created the Air Management Code by ordinance; and

WHEREAS, Our efforts to clean our air have been significantly frustrated by the pollution that drifts in from surrounding counties and states; and

WHEREAS, President Bush in his recent State of the Union speech, talked about his new “Clear Skies Initiative,” which would actually allow more pollution for longer periods of time than the current federal clean air laws; and

WHEREAS, The Clean Air and Clean Water Acts have received strong bi-partisan support, including from President George Bush, Sr.; and

WHEREAS, Just recently the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection sued the federal government over new regulations that would relax industrial pollution standards, and in doing so, joined nine northeastern states that did so last month; and

WHEREAS, Eighty percent of Pennsylvanians already live where air is deemed “unsafe to breathe” by the American Lung Association; and

WHEREAS, And the Bush administration’s “new source review” rules make it easier for aging factories, mills, refineries and coal fired power plants to expand or modernize without upgrading pollution controls; and

WHEREAS, These new rules take effect March 3, 2003 and apply to 800 industrial facilities in Pennsylvania and 17,000 nationwide according to the Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board, and

WHEREAS, Air pollution disproportionately adversely affects children, elderly citizens, and those with breathing problems and lung disease; and

WHEREAS, United States air quality has improved since the passage of the national Clean Air Act, but has a long way to go to make urban air quality minimally harmful; now therefore

RESOLVED, THAT THE CITY COUNCIL OF PHILADELPHIA, Will hold hearings to investigate the state of the air quality in Philadelphia and to recommend and enact ways and means to improve its air quality, and therefore, the health of all Philadelphians; and

FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Chairperson of the Committee, in furtherance of such investigation and towards enacting improvements and remedies to the air quality problems of Philadelphia, is hereby authorized to issue subpoenas or other process as the Chairperson deems necessary or appropriate to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents to the full extent authorized under Section 2-401 of the Home Rule Charter.

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