Philadelphia Bills on Green Roofs and Electric Cars Show Backwards Thinking

Philadelphia Councilmember Mark Squilla's opposition to green roofs, density, and electric cars, stands in contrast to his professed commitment to sustainability, Inga Saffron argues in a piece for the Philadelphia Enquirer. "Since the beginning of April, Squilla has pushed through two separate bills that compromise the city’s ability to cut its carbon use and contain flooding from precisely the kind of heavy weather he was personally experiencing," Saffron writes. These include a bill that took parking spaces away from electric vehicles and a new one that looks to end a green roofs incentive for Society Hill.

"Like many older cities, Philadelphia is stuck with an antiquated sewer system that has trouble handling big rainstorms. To keep the overburdened pipes from discharging untreated water into the city’s rivers, the Philadelphia Water Department encourages people to install green roofs," Saffron writes. To that end, the city's zoning code allows developers build a quarter more units in buildings outfitted with green roofs, Squilla is trying to exempt his district from that rule. A strange position for councilman to take after speaking at an Earth Day march about the importance of sustainability.