OMAHA- Last November, Omaha Council members voted in favor of hiring a consultant to create the city's climate action plan, but not much progress has been made.

Council President Pete Festersen voiced his frustrations, saying, "Every city our size has already done a climate change action plan to assess our current environmental footprint, to identify specific goals, to reduce our carbon emissions and reduce our impact on our environment. There's no reason why this hasn't started in the last 10 months."

Festersen introduced a resolution to speed up the creation of the climate action plan, and expressed his hope to allocate some of the city's budget toward the project.

After the meeting, Mayor Jean Stothert's office said that the climate action proposal is still in the works, and that it will likely be approved by Sept. 21st.

However, the Mayor's Chief of Staff, Thomas Warren, stated that "it will likely be 2023 before we actually hired a consultant, the consultant hired to prepare the plan, and that plan will form what will be the strategy to address this very important issue."

Warren also stated that funding for the consultant will likely come from next year's budget, and not the current one.

During the hearing, some opponents argued that the plan was a "waste of time and money."

One citizen stated, "As they say, save the planet Earth, that's just ridiculous. Omaha's not going to do anything to save the planet."

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