Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will testify in front of a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday about Atlanta’s efforts to combat climate change.
Bottoms is one of five mayors of major U.S. cities who will testify in front of the Senate Democrats’ Special Committee on the Climate Crisis. She will be the only mayor of a Southern city and the only female mayor to offer testimony at the committee’s inaugural hearing. Mayor Kirk Cardwell of Honolulu, Hawaii; Mayor Melvin Carter of St. Paul, Minnesota; Mayor William Peduto of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland, Oregon will also testify.
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The hearing is intended to discuss what large cities are doing to “cut carbon pollution and become more resilient to the impacts of climate change,” according to a press release from the committee. The mayors will also discuss how the federal government can help cities in these efforts.
In Bottoms’ prepared testimony, she cites Clean Energy Atlanta, the city’s “mitigation strategy and action-oriented plan,” as a chief part of the city’s work to combat climate change. Clean Energy Atlanta, adopted by the Atlanta City Council in March, includes a commitment to transition municipal operations to 100 percent clean energy usage by 2035. The plan also includes efforts to help residents transition to clean energy use.
“We feel that this ambitious goal is critical to help reduce the worst impacts of climate change,” Bottoms’ prepared testimony says. “We are taking concrete steps as part of this plan to ensure that every Atlantan, no matter their zip code, is protected from the adverse effects of climate change.”
The hearing will begin at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol. It is not currently listed on the broadcast schedule for C-SPAN, the network that broadcasts congressional proceedings, but will be streamed on c-span.org.
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