In a story online June 25 that also ran in our print edition June 27 the Pleasanton Weekly credited Mayor Jennifer Hosterman with co-sponsoring Resolution No. 55 at the U.S. Conference of Mayors last month that opposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife refuge.

That action was reported among resolutions and measures Hosterman has approved at the mayors' conferences.

As Hosterman pointed out in an email to the Weekly, she took that action at the mayors' conference in 2005, not at the mayors' conference last month in Miami.

At last month's meeting, Hosterman actually joined mayors in a resolution that called for new national guidelines to track the life-cycle impact of different types of fossil fuels. They also urged their member cities to stop using unconventional sources of energy with a large carbon footprint such as liquid coal or oil shale for their own municipal operations.

"The production of tar sands oil from Canada emits approximately three times the carbon dioxide pollution per barrel as does conventional oil production and significantly damages Canada's Boreal forest ecosystem--the world's largest carbon storehouse," said the resolution.

Hosterman told the Calgary Herald that the mayors wanted to send a message that cities are taking action to stop the concentration of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere from reaching dangerous levels that could seriously disrupt the living systems on earth.

"We don't want to be . . . promoting the use of fuels which exceed the greenhouse gas emissions that are currently put into the atmosphere by (conventional) fuels," said Hosterman, in a phone interview with the Canadian newspaper.

The High Carbon Fuels Resolution was submitted by Mayor Kitty Piercy of Eugene, Ore. Mayors co-sponsoring the resolution, in addition to Hosterman, were Gavin Newsom of San Francisco; Frank Cownie, Des Moines; Marty Blum, Santa Barbara; Larry Nelson, Waukesha, Wisc.; Douglas Palmer, Trenton, N.J.; Roy Buol, Dubuque, Iowa; Christopher Cabaldon, West Sacramento; Dan Coody, Fayetteville, Ark.; Will Wynn, Austin, Texas; and Beverly Johnson of Alameda.

The 76th annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors wrapped up June 24 at the Miami InterContinental Hotel where Hosterman joined others in endorsing or signing a number of resolutions ranging from opposing U.S. intervention in Iran to supporting the elimination of all nuclear weapons by the year 2020.

- Jeb Bing

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