Laserfiche WebLink
<br />Orozco, Norma <br />From:Ashton Gilbert <ashtongilbert2000@gmail.com> <br />Sent:Wednesday, September 08, 2021 1:30 PM <br />To:eComment <br />Subject:Santa Ana deserves to be healthy and safe <br />Dear Santa Ana, <br /> <br />Our community is being impacted on a daily basis by environmental hazards like lead and fossil fuels. We need to treat <br />this like the emergency it is and put in place protections for all Santa Ana residents. The resolution brought forward by <br />Councilmember Lopez is a good first step and roadmap for actions our community can take to resolve these pressing <br />issues. <br /> <br />Fossil fuels don't just exacerbate climate change, but also poison people. Study after study has shown that extracting, <br />transporting, refining, and burning fossil fuels harms environmental and human health – and new evidence shows that <br />toxic air pollution from fossil fuels also makes people more vulnerable to poor outcomes from COVID. <br /> <br />We must phase out fossil fuels from our daily lives – whether it’s gas stoves causing asthma, tailpipes blanketing our <br />streets with smog, or gas stations poisoning water supplies and spreading cancerous chemicals like benzene. It’s clear <br />we must start moving to clean energy systems – and soon. Our community should be running on clean, renewable <br />energy no later than 2030. <br /> <br />But it's not just fossil fuels that are harming our community. Many neighborhoods in Santa Ana suffer from <br />disproportionately high levels of lead in their soil, which can lead to serious developmental and health issues. The city <br />must do more and protect our residents. <br /> <br />Addressing these issues won't just improve our health, it will also improve our local economy. The Biden administration <br />is investing money in green infrastructure buildout, and we need to make sure we have shovel ready jobs prepared. <br />What's more, cleaning up environmental pollution and converting our energy systems are massive job opportunities that <br />could bring family-wage jobs to thousands of people in Santa Ana. <br /> <br />I’m writing to you today to ask you to please pass the climate and public health emergency resolution that calls for an <br />end to fossil fuel expansion, clean renewable energy choices that save money, actions that will reduce lead and other <br />environmental toxins in our neighborhoods, family-wage jobs, and an endorsement of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation <br />Treaty initiative. We can reduce pollution that is cooking the planet and poisoning our communities while improving the <br />quality of life for every Santa Ana resident. <br /> <br />Please please pass this resolution and commit to taking local action to explore policies that stop fossil fuel expansion, <br />speed up the clean energy transition, reduce local pollution, and empower our local community and economy. <br /> <br />Thank you, <br /> <br />Ashton Gilbert <br />Santa Ana resident <br />1 <br /> <br />