Pittsburgh Mayor Fires Back At Trump For Citing City In Climate Speech

PITTSBURGH, PA — After denouncing President Trump for invoking Pittsburgh in his globally condemned decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto on Friday issued an executive order for the city to further promote climate control initiatives.

The order details the city’s long commitment to those initiatives and outlines how Pittsburgh will promote them from now through 2030.

“For decades, Pittsburgh has been rebuilding its economy based on hopes for our people and our future, not on outdated fantasies about our past,” Peduto said. “The city and its many partners will continue to do the same, despite the president’s imprudent announcements yesterday.”

In explaining his decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement, Trump said, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”

That remark drew an immediate and sharp rebuke from Peduto.

“I'm appalled that the President used my city to justify his unacceptable decision, as most other Pittsburghers are,” he said. ”I was one of the nation's mayors who went to Paris to fight for the accords, and my city, which has finally bounced back from decades of industrial carnage, will do all it can to promote its own environmental standards.”

Peduto went on national news programs Thursday to say that Trump was wrong to suggest his action would benefit the city or that most city residents would support the move. He noted that Hillary Clinton received nearly 80 percent of the vote in Pittsburgh in last year’s presidential election.

Clinton collected 74.8 percent of the votes cast in Pittsburgh, while Trump received 20.6 percent, according to Allegheny County Elections Division records.

When CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked him whether he has a message for the president regarding the decision to withdraw from the Paris accord, Peduto said, "What you did was not only bad for the economy of this country, but also weakened America in this world."

Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania also took umbrage at Trump’s Pittsburgh reference, tweeting that if the president “really wanted to help the people of Pittsburgh, he would protect their clean air & opportunity for jobs.”

Among many initiatives, Peduto’s executive order commits the city to:

• Working with the National Climate Action Agenda and 81 other cities to undertake additional actions to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius target.

• Continue working on 2030 climate objectives, including achieving 100 percent renewable electricity consumption for municipal operations; a citywide zero-waste initiative to divert 100 percent of materials from landfills and a 50 percent energy consumption reduction citywide and development of a fossil fuel free fleet.

• The continued commitment to quantifying the impact of the city’s work in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building a more sustainable city through the completion of the Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan 3.0

• Advancing carbon neutrality objectives within the city; adopting energy efficiency standards for buildings; electrifying transportation system with renewable energy sources; supporting weatherization and maintenance of Pittsburgh housing stock to help elderly and vulnerable populations; and protecting and regenerating of the natural environment through land conservation, park preservation and urban agriculture.

Peduto photo by Mark Dixon via Creative Commons.