Bucks County Is 'Cool!'

First in Pennsylvania to Join Cool Counties Initiative

DOYLESTOWN, Pa., April 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Next week when Earth Day is celebrated, one more county will be among the list of those who have committed to the Sierra Club's Cool Counties Initiative. Pennsylvania's Bucks County now joins the ranks of counties across America pledging to reduce global warming emissions 80 percent by 2050, and becomes the first county in Pennsylvania to make that pledge.

"I am overwhelmingly proud that Bucks County will lead by example and be added to the roster of Cool Counties," Commissioner Chairman Jim Cawley stated. In so doing, Bucks County joins other member-counties in coordinating with local, state and federal governments and other leaders "to reduce reliance on nonrenewable fossil fuels and regional greenhouse gas emissions" and work with those same governments "to enact laws and policies that will ensure that the goals of responsible and sustainable energy use and environmental protection are met."

Pointing out that Bucks County became an environmental steward long before this resolution was signed, Cawley explains that Bucks has also taken the lead in open space and farmland preservation, and to date has preserved in perpetuity more than 10,000 acres of farmland -- a commitment renewed by voters last year that will aim at 10 more years of preservation under a new referendum. Additionally, more than 5,000 acres of open space has been preserved. The County of Bucks is committed to working with the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission on a 2008 inventory of greenhouse gas emissions to establish a benchmark for reduction efforts.

The announcement was made at the board's bi-monthly meeting, held at the county's Silver Lake Nature Center, one of three nature centers in the county. With a population of 620,000 residents living throughout 607 bucolic square miles, Bucks County is already engaged in designing and implementing programs within the Cool Counties policy areas, which are energy efficiency, use of renewable energy, land use patterns, transportation, environmental education, and water conservation. Visit www.BucksCounty.org for more information.

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Source: Bucks County, PA

CONTACT: Stacey Hajdak of Bucks County, PA, +1-215-348-6415

Web Site: http://www.buckscounty.org/

2008-04-18 17:17:15 0339898 PRNEWSWIRE