Protecting the Environment

Responsible conservation of our natural resources, to protect Americans' health and welfare

America's natural resources - our air and water, seacoasts, mountains, wetlands, forests, prairies, and wilderness - are among the glories of this nation. They are a legacy passed down by those who have come before, and a birthright that we are honor-bound to preserve for future generations.

Protecting the environment is a basic and fundamental responsibility of our national leaders. Those who would sacrifice our natural gifts to give well-connected insiders a short-term windfall ignore this responsibility and undermine America's long-term economic strength. As President, I will protect the health of our citizens and conserve the resources our children will inherit. In an era when environmental threats - such as global warming and the loss of our protective ozone layer - pose real and tangible dangers, environmental protection is critical to the well-being of all Americans.

President Bush's environmental record is a disgrace. He has betrayed the public trust and is mortgaging our children's future. The President and his staff of co-opted lobbyists are the true environmental radicals - there is nothing conservative about turning over our public resources to special interests. President Bush has rolled back rules that keep our air and water safe, pushed to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, worked to increase logging and mining on public lands, left taxpayers with the tab for toxic waste cleanups, and walked away from efforts to address global warming. In light of this record, the non-partisan League of Conservation Voters has concluded that "George W. Bush has compiled the worst environmental record in the history of our nation."

As President, I will immediately halt the Bush Administration's unprecedented assault on the environment. I will safeguard the health of our children and families by cleaning our air, water, and soils, protecting our public lands, restoring U.S. leadership on global environmental and energy security issues, and building a broad coalition of nations to protect our shared values.

My environmental policy has four key elements:

1. Clean air and water. Americans are entitled to clean air and clean water. We should be proud that our air and water are cleaner today than a generation ago, but much more progress is needed. It is unacceptable that asthma rates have climbed sharply in the past decade, that many lakes and streams remain unsafe for fishing and swimming, and that millions of Americans lack access to safe drinking water. Yet the Bush administration has led a stealth campaign to undermine the laws that protect our air and water. Under its so-called "Clear Skies Initiative," the Bush administration proposes to weaken and delay rules that protect us from soot and smog, and allow dramatic increases in emissions of mercury from power plants. It proposed easing the limits on arsenic in drinking water, backing down only after a public outcry. It abandoned the "no net loss" wetlands policy put in place by the first President Bush. It continues to undermine enforcement of clean air and water laws with extended delays and inadequate budgets.

   As President, I will:

   • Vigorously enforce all clean air and clean water laws, by reversing the Bush administration's cutbacks in environmental investigations, funding, and enforcement;

   • Enforce the Clean Air Act so that big factories undertaking mammoth expansion projects modernize their pollution controls - just as new plants are required to do;

   • Impose tough limits on emissions of mercury from smokestacks;

   • Advance environmental justice by ensuring that health hazards are not borne by the most vulnerable among us-minorities, seniors, children, and low-income communities;

   • Support aggressive steps to control soot and smog;

   • Restore budgets for sewage plants and storm water controls; and

   • Protect our nation's wetlands by enforcing a "no net loss" policy.

2. Toxic wastes. Polluters should pick up the tab for cleaning up their own mess. It is unacceptable that the tax on companies that generated the most toxic waste has been allowed to expire, that the Superfund program is running out of cash and that the cost of toxic waste cleanups is being shifted to the taxpaying public. Yet the Bush administration has refused to support the Superfund tax on corporate polluters, sought to shift responsibility for cleanup cost to the taxpaying public, slowed the pace of cleanups and supported unjustified exemptions for the Department of Defense from toxic waste cleanup liability.

   As President, I will:

   • Support reinstatement of the Superfund tax on companies that have generated the most toxic wastes;

   • Support strong community right-to-know rules concerning the presence of toxic chemicals in our communities;

   • Reject proposed new exemptions for the Department of Defense from toxic waste cleanup liability; and

   • Promote quick and efficient cleanups to protect public health and safety.

3. Wildlife and wild places. We are stewards of the land and all that live on it. Our public lands must be available for fishing, hunting, and hiking, and America's scenic beauty must be held in trust for the generations to come. It is unacceptable that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge remains under threat, that many of our national parks are in a state of disrepair, and that deforestation threatens an epic loss of biodiversity around the world. Yet the Bush administration has fought to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, broken a promise to eliminate the maintenance backlog in our national parks, subverted the Roadless Rule, and misled the public with a so-called "Healthy Forest Initiative" that in fact promotes logging and scales back review of logging plans in the national forests.

   As President, I will:

   • Oppose efforts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling;

   • Fix our crumbling national parks by ensuring sufficient funds for park maintenance;

   • Codify and enforce the Roadless Rule, which bans new road building on millions of acres of national forest;

   • Work aggressively to protect communities from wildfires, thinning small trees near homes and towns while rejecting proposals to allow logging of medium and large size trees in remote areas under the guise of fire protection;

   • Strongly support the goals of the Endangered Species Act - to protect the ecosystems upon which threatened species depend, to protect the species themselves from extinction, and to implement our obligations under international conservation agreements; and

   • Increase funding for fighting deforestation and protecting biodiversity around the world.

4. Clean energy/global warming. This nation can no longer defer serious action to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels. We urgently need to confront the challenge of developing a 21st century energy policy, both as a matter of national security -- to reduce our dependence on foreign oil -- and to combat the profound danger of global warming. This is a challenge that we can meet with American ingenuity, resolve, and technological leadership. Yet the Bush Administration has adopted a head-in-the-sand policy of denial, delay, and deceit. Its energy plan is stuck in a past when it seemed that fossil fuels could be burned with impunity. On global warming, the Administration walked away from the Kyoto Protocol, announcing its unilateral approach to the world. At home, it has pursued a do-nothing policy, calling for weak, voluntary measures to cut carbon emissions, while opposing real, bipartisan solutions. And it has even sought to obscure efforts by its own scientists to inform the public about climate change. In June 2002, the President dismissed an EPA report warning of the human impact on climate change, and in June 2003, the White House deleted key language on the health and environmental consequences of climate change from a key Administration report on the environment.

   As President, I will pursue a far-reaching, strategic energy plan to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels, including our dependence on foreign oil; cut greenhouse gas emissions; and maintain economic growth. I will:

   • Promote the use of fuel-efficient cars, SUVs and minivans by --

   • Strengthen automotive fuel efficiency standards, in consultation with scientists, environmental groups, industry, and others;

   • Accelerating the use of hybrid vehicles through targeted tax incentives; and

   • Spurring research into hydrogen-powered fuel cells;

   • Impose a cap on carbon emissions from power plants by putting the market to work as we did in controlling acid rain -- with tough but fair limits, coupled with an emissions trading program, so that businesses will get the incentives they need to invest in emission control;

   • Aggressively promote the use of renewable energy like solar and wind, ensuring that we will be capable of producing 20 percent of our electricity from renewable energy sources by the year 2020;

   • Harness the power of bioenergy, turning farm products into energy and fuel and helping American farmers profit from the fight against global warming;

   • Use standards, incentives, and other measures to significantly increase the energy efficiency of our power plants, our business equipment, and our home appliances;

   • Invest in the capture and sequestration of carbon;

   • Upgrade our outdated electric grid so that power can be distributed efficiently and reliably;

   • Help communities plan for smart growth rather than suburban sprawl; and

   • Lead the United States to re-engage in international global warming negotiations, recognizing that American leadership is essential and that all nations must do their part in meeting this challenge.

From the soot and smog that threatens our health to the global warming that threatens our future, our well-being depends upon our ability to meet the extraordinary environmental challenges of the 21st century.

We can meet these challenges - and we can do so while growing a robust, prosperous economy. We can do this on the strength of American technology , American innovation, and American drive. All we need is leadership.