Sierrans:

This is not campaign scheduling, but is one presidential candidate's very
recent speech on his environmental policy. Not given in Iowa, so not
reported here, but I thought you might be interested. The same disclaimer
applies, and the speech is offered for your edification.

Lyle

Disclaimer: Posting these announcements of presidential candidate events
does not indicate support for or endorsement of the candidates.  These are
just event announcements and are not meant to create discussion of
candidates' records on the Iowa Topics listserv.  Information about event
timing and location will be posted, as long as it does not include advocacy
for candidates or statements from the candidates. 
***************

July 31, 2003

Speech in San Francisco, CA 

The Next Hundred Years: Forging a Strong Environmental Policy to Take Our
Natural Resources Back

One hundred years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt visited the Grand Canyon
for the first time.  And he asked the people of Arizona to make sure that it
stayed unspoiled.  "Leave it as it is," President Roosevelt said.  "Keep it
for your children and your children's children and for all who come after
you, as one of the great sights which every American should see." 
 
It may seem odd to you that a Democratic presidential candidate would quote
so approvingly something said by a Republican president.  But there's a
reason.  When President Roosevelt made that speech, he was exhibiting
something that we haven't seen in this country for a long, long time.  And
that is a Republican president providing leadership on the environment.
 
Because of President Roosevelt's leadership, when we visit the Grand Canyon,
our children can see pretty much the same view he did.  But what legacy is
the Bush-Cheney-Norton Administration leaving for the next hundred years?
 
Alaska's Tongass National Forest is the largest rain forest in our nation. 
When our children's children visit in 100 years, what will they see?  Last
month, the Bush Administration said it wants to open the Tongass to more
logging.  If they have their way, roads will slice through what's left of
the pristine forest.  Loggers and their heavy machinery will cut down its
old-growth trees.  Natural habitats will be destroyed.  That's not
leadership.  We can do better.
 
In Utah, the Administration rolled when a long-dormant lawsuit was
resurrected.   The "settlement" the Administration agreed to limits
government's ability to protect the country's remaining wilderness.  That's
not leadership.  We can do better.
 
In Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, the Administration overturned
a rule proposed after years of discussion with scientists and the public - a
rule phasing out snowmobiles in those two parks.  (There are other parks
where snowmobiling is not a problem.)  The Bush Administration made a deal
with the snowmobile industry and blocked the rule.  That's not leadership. 
We can do better.
 
Throughout the Administration, former industry representatives are now -
quote - "regulating" their old bosses and friends.  Before joining the
Administration, J. Stephen Griles raked in the dough as a lobbyist for the
oil and mining industries.  Today, he is Deputy Secretary of the Interior
Department, the number-two official responsible for regulating mining and
other economic uses of public land.  And although Griles said he would
recuse himself when matters affecting his former clients came up, he
remained involved despite this promise, meeting repeatedly with clients of
his old lobbying firm and promoting their interests.  This is a classic case
of conflict of interest and breach of trust - and the Deputy Secretary
should resign.  I want to know why President Bush has failed to hold
Secretary Norton accountable for the improper actions of her deputy.  That's
not leadership.  We absolutely can do better.
 
And when an agency does manage to do its job, the Administration simply
refuses to accept the work.  Last month, under White House pressure, the
Environmental Protection Agency deleted from its Draft Report on the
Environment a section on the scientific consensus about global warming.  
That's outrageous.  But of course we know it's not the first time something
like this has happened.  Whether it's uranium from Niger or global warming,
the Bush-Cheney Administration is not one to let mere facts stand in the way
of its agenda. 
 
One hundred years ago, Theodore Roosevelt saw conservation as not only
central to the national social, economic and political health, but as a
reflection of basic American values.  In the century since he lived in the
White House, America has forged a bipartisan consensus on the importance of
conservation and the responsibility each of us has to pass along a safe,
healthy environment to future generations.
 
Today, we have a Republican president who seeks to destroy this consensus
and reverse decades of responsible environmental policy.  We have a
president who seems to regard public resources as gifts to be handed out to
special interests.  Allowing Big Industry to release more pollutants into
the air we breathe, President Bush calls it the "Clear Skies" program. 
Allowing Big Timber to denude our forests, the Bush-Cheney Administration
calls it the "Healthy Forests" initiative. 
 
This Orwellian doublespeak might be amusing if it weren't so dangerous.  But
it is dangerous - because environmental policy today is about far more than
saving a natural habitat. 
 
Environmental issues are national security issues.  While the Administration
does nothing to curb oil consumption, where does our oil money end up?  It
flows through governments in the Middle East to terrorist organizations who
teach their children to hate the United States.  Indeed, those 28 pages
redacted from the September 11th report - those 28 blank pages - speak
volumes about where our oil money goes. 
 
Environmental issues are health issues.  As a doctor, I know that failure to
act on the environment has devastating health consequences.  As President, I
will urge Congress to strengthen the laws reducing pollutants in our land,
water and air.  I'll help our legislators to think of these environmental
commitments as I do - as part of our broad vision for health care reform. 
 
Environmental issues are economic issues.    The right-wing radicals want us
to believe that we must choose between having a healthy environment or a
healthy economy.  I believe that a healthy environment will support a
healthy economy.  
 
Ask fishermen if they need a healthy ocean to survive.  Ask loggers if they
need healthy, vibrant forests.  Ask CEOs if they need employees who go to
work rather than to their doctors.  (How much productivity do we lose from
preventable illnesses exacerbated by the pollutants spewing out of
smokestacks and drainage pipes?)
 
It can be difficult to bring business interests and environmentalists
together.  But from my experience as a governor, I know that we make the
greatest gains when we do just that.
 
I come from a state that, like California, has a deep respect for our
environment and a strong tradition of protecting it.  I'm proud that under
my leadership, we protected over 470,000 acres of land - nearly 8% of
Vermont - for future generations. 
 
I ordered that emissions in Vermont be reduced to levels below those
required by the Kyoto Protocol.  And I played a lead role with the
Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers to reduce
the threat of mercury pollution in the region's waters.
 
As a Governor I always had a five-, a twenty- and a hundred-year vision for
Vermont.  My five-year vision dealt with issues where an investment now
could produce tangible results during one term in office.
 
My 20-year vision addressed the needs of the next generation.  Investments
in kids today that would pay off when they finish school or college, find
jobs and contribute to the community. 
 
My 100-year vision was for the environment: I wanted to be sure that we were
taking steps in the present to ensure that future generations would live
healthy lives in a world with the same resources, land, and natural beauty
that we inherited. 
 
Real leadership is about making investments whose payoffs might not become
apparent in our lifetimes.  Real leadership requires taking action today
that will benefit generations yet to come.  That's the kind of leadership I
tried to provide for the people of Vermont when I was governor.  And that's
the kind of leadership I will provide for this nation and the world when you
send me to Washington, DC.
 
The Dean Administration's environmental agenda has four elements:
1)      an environmentally sound energy policy,
2)      promoting livable communities and preserving working landscapes and
open spaces,
3)      putting the "protection" back in Environmental Protection, and
4)      restoring America's world leadership on environmental issues.
 
The first element, my energy agenda, includes an ambitious commitment to
developing renewable energy sources and fostering energy efficiency. 
Instead of giving Americans incentives to conserve fuel, the Bush-Cheney
Administration seeks unlimited supplies of oil.  All we need to do, they
say, is drill for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.  But according
to the Union of Concerned Scientists, building fuel-efficient cars would
save more oil by 2012 than the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge could ever
produce.  
 
Conservation - principally through efficiency improvements - has to be a
centerpiece of our national energy policy.  All it takes is ingenuity, and
Americans have that in abundance. 
 
For instance, today, technology helps us keep cooler while consuming less
energy.  American businesses should be world leaders in building highly
efficient air conditioners, refrigerators, light bulbs, industrial motors
and other appliances used in homes and businesses.  Unfortunately, the
Bush-Cheney Administration delayed and then weakened efficiency standards
for air-conditioners.  We can do better.
 
Energy efficiency is a centerpiece of my environmental plan because I know
it works.
 
During my tenure as Governor of Vermont, we created the nation's first
state-wide energy efficiency utility. So far, our Efficiency Vermont program
has prevented one million tons of greenhouse gas emissions while generating
$66.8 million in energy savings for customers.  Businesses have seen an
average return of 65 percent on their energy-efficiency investments. 
 
Today, Efficiency Vermont meets 2 percent of Vermont's electricity needs. 
It's on track to meet 10 percent in the next eight years.  If we could match
that nationally - and we can, with help from the federal government - we'd
need 200 fewer new power plants over the next decade.  We could help with
federal matching funds for state energy-efficiency programs or by creating a
national Energy Efficiency Performance Standard to be met at the state
level.  
 
As key as power-generation is, it's not the largest component of our oil use
- transportation is, burning two-thirds of the oil we consume in this
country.  
 
In 1975 - in the midst of the energy crisis - our government decided that
automobiles should get better gas mileage. President Carter set a standard
of 27.5 miles per gallon by 1985.  And it worked.  Without that standard,
fuel consumption would be approximately 50% higher than it is today.
 
Unfortunately, there was a loophole in the law, exempting "light trucks" - a
loophole big enough to drive a gas-guzzling SUV through.  And now, with
millions of SUVs on the road, fuel economy is lower than it's been in
decades.  
 
We need to give the world's automakers an incentive to manufacture more
energy-efficient SUVs.  And to do that, we should close the loophole that
exempts SUVs from gas mileage standards. 
 
A Dean Administration will also direct the auto industry to work toward a
fuel-efficiency standard of approximately 40 miles per gallon by 2015. 
Forty miles per gallon is doable - in fact, it has been doable for a long
time.  And it will create a brand new market for our automakers. 
 
Japanese automakers understand the opportunity that opens up as consumers
become more energy-conscious.  Instead of opposing California's strict
emissions requirements, they built and marketed the hybrid gas-electric cars
that are on the road today. 
 
American engineers can lead us even further, to the next generation of
hydrogen-powered vehicles.  A Colorado-based company has already designed a
fuel cell-powered vehicle.  It's about the size of a Lexus RX 300, and will
achieve the equivalent of 99 miles per gallon. 
 
Another key element of an environmentally sound energy policy is investing
in renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.  Solar-power
systems are dropping in price and new technologies are emerging.  And
California led the way in wind power - in the early 1980s, California had
more than 80% of the world's wind-power capacity.  But without a national
policy to support alternative energy generation, the U.S. has fallen behind
other nations.  Today, Europe generates nearly 75% of the wind-power used in
the world.  
 
We can do better - and you're working on it.  California has taken the lead
with a standard that calls for 20% of your electricity to be renewable by
2017.  The rest of the country will need time to catch up to you, so my
energy policy calls for 20% renewable electricity by 2020.
 
And we should increase our use of ethanol, a renewable fuel that can be
produced from agricultural and forest waste, grasses, and other feedstocks. 
Ethanol can also replace MTBE, a fuel additive which has caused water
contamination problems.
 
I originally entered politics in an effort to make my city more livable,
participating in an effort to build a bike path along Lake Champlain - sort
of like that bike path you've built around part of San Francisco Bay.  So I
know how important livable communities are.  And that's item two on my
environmental agenda: preserving working landscapes and open spaces - and
preventing promiscuous sprawl. 
 
Our land may be our finest natural resource in this country, but we must
recognize that it's a finite resource.  As our population grows, the need
for housing, for industrial development and for commercial space grows with
it.  And we must plan intelligently.  I'm very proud of what I was able to
do to support livable communities while I was governor. 
 
I established a "Development Cabinet," bringing together the heads of our
transportation, natural resources, commerce, and agriculture agencies. 
 
I signed the Downtown bill, granting funding to towns that devise specific
plans for economic development centered in urban areas.  Almost all of the
new state government buildings built in Vermont over the last decade were
situated in town centers and downtowns.   New federal buildings such as
courthouses and post offices can anchor new development and provide
leadership for others involved in planning efforts, and the Dean
Administration will lead a national effort to support that. 
 
The federal government can be a better partner to state and local
governments by sharing information about what works.  You know, over half of
our states are still using planning statutes written during the Hoover
Administration or earlier.  With just a small investment, the Federal
Government could help states update these important laws.
 
We also need to address the cleanup and safe redevelopment of polluted
land.  
 
We need to improve the Superfund program.  Superfund, which exists to pay
for critical cleanups, was designed to be funded by special corporate taxes
and by fines paid by polluters.  But the legislation authorizing Superfund
to collect these monies expired in 1995 and a Republican-controlled Congress
refused to reinstate it.  As a result, the level of funds in our so-called
Superfund is now at a 20-year low.  Fully half the cleanup money this year
and nearly three-quarters next year will have to come out of the Treasury's
general fund.  As President, I will revive Superfund by re-establishing a
simple rule that every shopper understands implicitly:  "You break it, you
bought it."  In the world of pollution, this is called the "polluter-pays"
system - if you create the pollution and its attendant health risks, you pay
to clean it up.   It's only common sense.
 
We also need a reinvigorated effort to address the challenge of brownfields
- abandoned industrial properties that lie fallow in our cities and towns
because there's no clear way to establish responsibility for cleanup.  I'll
propose a system to clean more brownfields faster, helping EPA work with
states and local governments by giving them increased funding and technical
assistance.  Through my brownfields program, we will ensure that communities
have the opportunity to rebuild wisely - returning our cities and towns to
the vibrant places they once were, and turning back the tide on urban blight
and the sprawl that's chewing up our landscape.
 
Responsible development also means protecting the wilderness that surround
and support our towns and cities.
 
Here in California, parks and forests, fire, and water are on everybody's
minds.  I'm committed to the National Park System and to the National Park
Service. I will support the Park Service in doing its job, and I will defend
that professional process against the lobbyists and special interests.  And
I'll work to protect our National Forests and reestablish the Roadless Rule
as it was put in place by President Clinton, so we can keep our wilderness
wild.
 
Parks and forests are not just beautiful, they're also the watersheds from
which we get much of our water.  We'll fight for cleaner water, addressing
the challenge of runoff as we did in Vermont, where the business community
came together with conservationists to improve our watersheds.  And a Dean
Administration will get serious about a national fire policy. I'll provide a
real approach to fighting forest fires, not an environmentally damaging bill
mislabeled as the "Healthy Forests Initiative." 
 
The third item on our agenda is putting the "protection" back in the
Environmental Protection Agency and other enforcement agencies. 
 
We will finally make the EPA a cabinet-level agency - with a Secretary, not
an Administrator, who will have not just the symbolic support of the
Administration, but the actual support as well.  And we'll ensure that the
agencies created to oversee our precious environmental and natural resources
aren't co-opted by the very forces they're supposed to be guarding against. 
 
We'll place tighter controls on air pollution immediately.  New legislation
will reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, mercury and
carbon dioxide.  We'll strengthen New Source Review requirements to undo the
damage done by the Bush Administration.  And I'll ask Congress to close the
loophole in federal law that allows old, polluting power plants to continue
to foul our air.  
 
We'll address the crisis in our oceans and we'll provide adequate funding so
that the Fish and Wildlife Service will never again have to say - as it did
in May - that it would halt designations of critical habitat under the
Endangered Species Act because the Service is, and I quote, "out of money." 
 
The Dean Administration will restore funding for enforcement efforts and put
the environmental cop back on the beat. 
 
The United States must lead the world in addressing the serious long-term
challenges facing the planet.  The unilateralism practiced by the Bush
Administration must end.  The U.S. must re-establish our leadership on the
environment and begin to work with other nations on these and other critical
challenges in an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect.
 
Prime Minister Tony Blair, addressing a joint meeting of Congress just two
weeks ago, talked about the interconnection among various global security
threats, including environmental degradation.
 
"We must show the world we are willing to step up to these challenges around
the world and in our own backyards," Blair said.  "America must listen as
well as lead."
 
Doing that, we have to work toward a version of the Kyoto Protocol that we
can adopt.  Sure there are issues with Kyoto - it must be strengthened
significantly - but nothing that can't be solved if we engage other nations
directly in dialogue.  We need to work with the community of nations,
including both developed and developing countries, to meet this challenge.
Other global challenges facing us that we must address together with the
world community include resource conservation, rain forest management and
preserving our ocean's ecosystems.
 
The U.S. must pursue an environmental agenda as an essential element of
international trade agreements. In the future, all of our trade agreements
should have strong and enforceable environmental protections built in.  And,
where possible, I will work as well to reform anti-environmental provisions
in existing treaties.
 
But the current Administration has an allergic reaction to international
agreements.  It has even come to light that the Bush Administration worked
to undermine efforts to create an international agreement to address mercury
pollution in the world's waters.  They even opposed establishing voluntary
limits!
 
One hundred years from now, our children's children will read about the
challenges that faced early 21st century America.  It will be either a tale
filled with great deeds and noble acts or one of unspeakable neglect and
irresponsibility.
 
Let us act so that they will not be analyzing in their history books why we
took so long to secure our environment - or why we did nothing. 
 
A hundred years from now, I want our children's children to be able to stand
in the Presidio and look through the clear air (with perhaps a touch of fog)
at this beautiful city and on a bay and ocean that are clean, too.  I want
them to be able to go to Muir Woods, or all the way to the Redwood Parks and
see what an old-growth forest really looks like.  And I want them to find
wilderness - plenty of it - big enough to be hospitable to real animals and
birds.  We mustn't consign our descendants to seeing animals only in zoos,
parks and arboretums. 
 
We have a real California, a real West, a real America that we treasure -
and that, with your help, we will preserve. 
 
I want Americans a hundred years from now to inherit a better natural world
than we have today.  Better because we have taken the steps to reverse the
damage done by the Bush-Cheney-Norton Administration.  It will be part of
the Great Restoration we seek.  And the sooner we can start that, the
better!  
 
We can take America back from those who care more about returning a favor to
a friend than about creating a sensible environmental or energy policy.  And
once we do, we can take America forward - and the world with us.


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