Creating a Sustainable City

ED HERMES FOR PHOENIX
City Council District 4

Creating a Sustainable City

Phoenix is on the front lines of climate change. Our City, and especially its most vulnerable residents, face the nation’s most extreme heat and poor air quality. We must act now to protect our residents from extreme heat and worsening air quality and hold corporate polluters like data centers accountable to ensure they do not pass costs onto Phoenicians and overuse water. On the Phoenix City Council, Ed will:

Pause approvals of new data centers until Phoenix can create the guardrails to guarantee that utility bills and water rates will not increase due to data centers.

Make data centers pay their own way. If the construction of a new data center requires grid upgrades, new power generation, water lines, sound barriers, or heat mitigation, the data center covers it, not Phoenix families

Hold corporate over-users and polluters accountable, including by requiring that data centers run on clean energy rather than coal power or diesel generators that pollute our City

Increase water rates on data centers and other large corporate water users in Phoenix to keep water rates affordable for Phoenix families and encourage more efficient water use

Plant 1,000 drought-resistant trees in District 4 in the first year, prioritizing high-heat corridors

Set up the first Office of Tenants’ Rights to investigate and enforce air conditioning requirements to ensure that landlords are keeping residents cool, and crack down on repeat offenders

Expand Phoenix’s cool pavement program to reduce surface heat

Install better shading at light rail and bus stops and city parks

Improve transit with reliable service and frequent connections to make it an everyday option for Phoenix residents

Upgrade our water infrastructure to integrate green stormwater capture to water native trees naturally, recharge our groundwater, and cut sewer system costs to protect our water supply for generations to come