Like it or not, Mayor Jennifer Hosterman is speaking out on major issues facing America in her firm belief that national and global concerns affect everyone in Pleasanton just as much–or perhaps more so–than local debates over traffic congestion and affordable housing.
Just three weeks ago, she co-sponsored a resolution along with Mayor Don Plusquellic of Akron, Ohio, and Mayor Alan Larson of Schaumburg, Ill., at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Las Vegas that calls on the nations of China and Russia to declare that U.S. cities are no longer targets for nuclear attack.
“I am proud to say the resolution passed unanimously with every mayor in attendance from across the U.S., Democrats and Republicans, alike, voting in favor of this resolution,” Hosterman said. “This is huge, because if we can now move our counter-parts in Russia and China to ask the U.S. to make the same declaration, we have a really made progress.”
She also co-sponsored a resolution urging the mayors to support a federal ban on drilling for oil or natural gas in the Arctic wildlife preserve. That resolution failed.
She also supported a resolution that was approved by the mayors unanimously called the “2030 Challenge.” It asks that the global architecture and community guidelines for buildings include the following targets:
* That all new buildings and developments be designed to use one-half the fossil fuel energy they would typically consume.
* Require that at a minimum, an equal amount of existing building area be renovated annually to use half the amount of fossil fuel energy they are currently consuming, through design, purchase of renewable energy or the application of renewable technologies.
* That the fossil fuel reduction standard for all new buildings be increased incrementally, and finally,
* In the year 2030, achieve carbon-neutral buildings using no fossil fuel Green House gas-emitting energy to operate.
Hosterman said Pleasanton is already ahead of the resolution’s goals with its new ordinances that set green building standards for both commercial and residential construction. Local builders, such as Ponderosa Homes, also are building and marketing housing that more than meets the 2030 goals.
“In Pleasanton, we all care about our community,” Hosterman said. “We care about quality of life. We’re Pleasantonians, but we are also Americans and Californians. We are a diverse community and a lot of these issues being addressed affect all of us.
“That’s why it’s important to discuss national and global issues as I have been doing at the Conference for Mayors and other forums. We get into dialogues about these issues and how communities are facing them.”
Hosterman said Pleasanton residents should be just as concerned about global warming as everyone else in the U.S.
“At a mayors’ Energy Summit in Chicago earlier this year, we talked about global warming,” she told a committee of the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce last month. “We are producing CO2 greenhouse gas emissions at a rate that life on this earth can’t tolerate.”
Calling it “climate change” instead of global warming, since the same effect is actually producing cooler temperatures in parts of the world, including the southeastern states, Hosterman said that scientific reports at the meeting showed the world is currently 7/10ths of a degree Centigrade above the norm.
“If greenhouse emissions continue at the current rate, the Earth’s temperature will increase 2 degrees Centigrade by 2050 and an irreversible 3 degrees by 2080,” she said.
Addressing the World Peace Forum in Vancouver June 24, she pointed out that, “Here it is, only 2006, and fisheries are crashing–no commercial fishing has been allowed on the entire West Cost for the first time this year.
“Key indicator species, such as polar bear populations, are crashing,” she added. “Polar ice caps are melting at an alarming rate of speed. The world is in serious trouble.”
The culprits? There are two, according to Hosterman: the energy inefficiencies of buildings in America, and the lack of leadership.
Here, Hosterman has taken her argument into national politics, blaming “national leaders” who are so focused on garnering the worlds’ natural resources, “at whatever cost,” instead of focusing on technologies to shift the country’s needs to become energy independent.
“My nation is dependent upon unstable, foreign nations for oil. Why?” Hosterman asked the 4,000 international delegates to the World Peace Forum. “Why, especially when the Earth can only produce oil for another 46 years?
“A fellow mayor recently asked me: ‘If the American people were dependent upon foreign, unstable nations for their food supply, do you think they might get angry?’ I think we’d be up in arms.”
The solution, she told delegates, is to have government leaders who are willing to say enough is enough.
“We need to become energy independent, just as the Brazil, which will announce its energy independence in the coming two years,” she added. “Brazil has successfully transformed its entire vehicle population to Ethanol 85, a mix of ethanol and gasoline that has considerably reduced its carbon emissions, and thus, its reliance upon foreign oil. If Brazil can do it, why can’t China? India? America? Such a shift in providing change to an educated populace takes leadership.
“I fear that my country, the United States of America, is failing to affect real leadership,” she said to rousing applause.
Hosterman, who joined the World Peace Forum in New York last year at the invitation of a former mayor of Nagasaki, Japan, said the WPF paid all of her costs to speak at the Vancouver meeting, just as her costs have been paid for other similar groups. Her remarks were reported in Political Affairs Magazine whose online version can be read at politicalaffairs.net.
Hosterman also has criticized the country’s nuclear policy.
“Nuclear weapons exist, and the use of nuclear weaponry is threatened,” she said. “Already, the stage is set for a pre-emptive strike against Iran for its public quest to manufacture nuclear energy. Iran has requested a series of talks to discuss its interest in nuclear technology, which talks thus far have yet to materialize in a meaningful way. Just two days ago (on June 22), the Iranian Government stated it would have an ‘answer’ regarding its quest for nuclear energy. The administration of the United States responded they need an answer by mid-next week. According to them, that’s time enough.
“The Lawrence Livermore National Lab is not 10 miles from my home,” Hosterman said. “The Lab is engaged in research and ongoing experiments of all kinds, but mostly centered on improving all aspects nuclear weaponry. The National Ignitions Facility, or NIF, located within the Lab complex, is the largest laser beam in the world, used currently to increase accuracy and power of nuclear weapons.
“I don’t have a conflict with the scientists engaged in this ongoing research at the Lab, nor do I have a conflict with the University of California Regents who operate the Lab,” she continued. “In fact, some months ago I wrote a letter to Congress urging full appropriations to complete the National Ignitions Facility.
“However, I do have questions regarding my government’s poor foreign policy, and continued funding to improve our stockpile of nuclear weaponry, which is currently sufficient to kill every man, woman, and child across the globe 10 times. Think about it–the National Ignitions Facility–if not engaged in nuclear weapons experimentation, could be far better utilized for so many wonderful uses–from space exploration to new technologies to fuel the globe, and the global economy.
“While I don’t have a beef with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, I am very concerned about my country’s foreign policy and policy regarding the use and continued experimentation with nuclear weaponry. After all, no one in the world can possibly support nuclear proliferation. And, if, with leadership, we can achieve a place where we can finally and unequivocally say no to the continued stockpiling of nuclear weapons, technologically advanced facilities such as the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, with an employment pool consisting of the brightest, and most qualified engineers and scientists, could be focused on technologies to enhance our human existence on this world of ours.”
Asked by real estate services businessman Brad Hirst at last month’s Chamber of Commerce forum if she would support the resumption of nuclear plant construction in the U.S., Hosterman said that she would only do so when the problem of nuclear waste disposal is solved.
“I think we should also look at what Brazil is doing, at making our buildings more energy efficient, and insisting that automobile manufacturers produce vehicles that can deliver 50 miles per gallon,” she added. “As for nuclear energy, I have serious reservations.”
Hosterman also discounted critics who say she is neglecting local issues with her presentations and participation in national and global forums.
She said she serves on numerous local and regional committees in addition to serving as mayor and leading the regular meetings and workshops of the City Council. Her efforts have ranged from promoting green building practices in Pleasanton to addressing major transportation issues and work on the General Plan update and even working to add more bike paths and school busing options in the city.
