WHEREAS, America’s cities are the nation’s leaders in development of clean, safe, environmentally sound and efficient methods of solid waste management; and,

WHEREAS, America’s cities have developed comprehensive solid waste management plans that rely on source reduction, recycling, waste-to-energy, and landfilling to adequately manage the nation’s growing amount of municipal solid waste; and,

WHEREAS, America faces rising energy prices and increasingly lesser energy supply that threatens the security and economy of the nation; and,

WHEREAS, source reduction and recycling of solid waste increases the efficiency of our nation’s management of natural and material resources, and lessens the nation’s demand for energy;

WHEREAS, the federal government has long held that wasteto- energy and landfill gas recovery projects are essential sources of renewable energy; and,

WHEREAS, generation of energy from municipal solid waste disposed in a waste-to-energy facility or captured by landfill gas recovery not only offers significant environmental and renewable benefits, but also provides greater energy diversity and increased energy security for our nation; and,

WHEREAS, source reduction, recycling, waste-to-energy and landfill gas recovery offer significant reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases that enter our atmosphere; and,

WHEREAS, America’s cities have consistently shown that an integrated approach to solid waste management that includes source reduction, recycling, waste-to-energy and landfill gas recovery is a highly effective and efficient means of solid waste management; and,

WHEREAS, promotion of an integrated approach to waste management benefits America’s cities,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that The U.S. Conference of Mayors supports federal legislation that promotes source reduction, recycling, and development of waste-to-energy and landfill gas recovery; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The U.S. Conference of Mayors supports federal legislation that provides production and investment credits for local entities and production tax credits for all forms of waste-to-energy technology and landfill gas recovery projects; and,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that that The U.S. Conference of Mayors supports federal legislation that recognize the benefits of avoiding and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by use of recycling, waste-to-energy and landfill gas recovery; and,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The U.S. Conference of Mayors urges the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to delineate methods of recycling, energy recovery and disposal in its communication with the Congress, public documents and accounting practices; and,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The U.S. Conference of Mayors urges the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to publicly promote the recovery of energy from municipal solid waste using waste-to-energy combustion and landfill gas recovery technologies; and,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The U.S. Conference of Mayors urges the U.S. Department of Energy to reestablish a Solid Waste Program that supports existing operating waste-toenergy and landfill gas recovery facilities, promotes the development such facilities, and researches new methods for generation of energy from waste.