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Approved-By:  Jane Clark <[log in to unmask]>
Message-ID:  <088301c469e4$c8308720$4201ba3f@jrclark>
Date:         Wed, 14 Jul 2004 15:53:49 -0500
Reply-To: Iowa Chapter ExCom <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Iowa Chapter ExCom <[log in to unmask]>
From: Jane Clark <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Questionnaire from Bill Gluba
To: [log in to unmask]
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This is the letter and response to federal questionnaire from Bill Gluba,
running for Congressional District 1 against Jim Nussle. The Eagle View
Group voted to endorse Bill Gluba so the Chapter should consider whether or
not to endorse Mr. Gluba. If the ExCom does, then national will have to
consider endorsement, also.

14 July 2004

Enclosed please find my candidate questionnaire for the Sierra Club.  As a
long-time and active member of the Sierra Club and its political PAC, I
would like to formally request your endorsement for my campaign for United
States Congress.

When I am elected to Congress, I look forward to supporting legislation to
provide our generation and our future generations with clean air, water and
soil.  However, I need your help for this to happen.  I would also like to
formally request $5,000 from your federal PAC to my campaign.  Please make
the check payable to Friends of Bill Gluba, PO Box 2205, Davenport, IA
52809.  If you have any questions regarding my questionnaire or my campaign,
please feel free to contact me at 563-459-6558.

Thank you for your support and interest in my campaign for Congress.

Sincerely,

Bill Gluba
Democratic Candidate for Congress
1st Congressional District of Iowa

P.S.  Together, we can build a better country!
============================================
Sierra Club Candidate Questionnaire
Bill Gluba for Congress

ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP
1.  What has been your greatest environmental achievement?

In State Senate, co-sponsored the 1st can deposit bill in Iowa.

2.  What top three environmental issues would you become actively involved
with once elected to Congress?

The three issues would be our dependence on foreign oil, clean water, and
companies that ship jobs overseas with little or no environmental
regulations in third world countries.

3.  Are there any issues where you find the pro-environment/Sierra Club
position troubling?  If so, which issue?

No problems that I know of.

PROTECTING THE NATURAL HERITAGE OF OUR PUBLIC LANDS
4.  America's National Forests and other federal public lands are owned and
enjoyed by the American people.  Unfortunately, these lands have long
suffered from money losing, taxpayer subsidized commercial logging program.

Qa.  Will you support a bill ending subsidies and phasing out the commercial
logging program in our National Forests?  Why or Why not?

I will support a bill ending subsidies and phasing out the commercial
logging program because the destruction of our National Forests should not
come at the burden of the taxpayers.

Qb.  Will you support legislation such as the National Forest Protection and
Restoration Act, which focuses on protecting and restoring National Forests?

YES!!!

5.  The National Academy of Sciences and the Supreme Court have identified
habitat protection as critical to restoring viable populations of threatened
species of wildlife and plants.

Q.  What do you think the federal role should be in protecting habitat,
including critical habitat as defined under the Endangered Species Act?

The federal government has a moral responsibility to protecting and
preserving our ecological system by any means possible.

6.  Special designations, such as Wilderness Areas and National Parks, are
also critically important for protecting habitat and for public recreation.

Qa.  Will you support significant additions to the National Wilderness
Preservation System, specifically, designating more than 9 million acres of
wilderness in Utah, or classifying the coastal plain of the Artic National
Wildlife Refuge as wilderness?

Yes.

Qb.  Would you vote against all bills and amendments authorizing drilling
for oil in the Alaska Natural Wildlife Refuge?

Absolutely!

PROTECTING OUR AIR QUALITY
7.  The Bush Administration has recently weakened the Clean Air Act's New
Source Review program, allowing factories to make substantial changes
without installing modern pollution control technology.

Q.  Do you support efforts in Congress to turn back these changes, restoring
this protection?

Yes, if factories have the money to renovate their facility, there is no
reason why a modernized pollution control system should not be apart of the
renovation.

8.  Pollution from power plants is a serious problem for communities around
the country.  Several legislative proposals address this issue, including
the Bush Administration's deceptively titled "Clear Skies" initiative, which
undermines several key Clean Air Act protections, substituting a "pollution
trading" scheme.

Q.  Will you oppose Clear Skies, and support efforts to clean up power
plants without weakening the Clean Air Act?  What alternative measures would
you propose?

I oppose the "Clear Skies" initiative that is turning back the clock on
environmental regulations.  As for new measures, I would have to study the
Clean Air Act in further detail to determine what measures I would propose.

STOPPING SPRAWL
9.  Since 1991's Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA),
federal transportation legislation has underscored the importance of
transportation choices including public transit and bicycle/pedestrian
improvements, recognizing that transportation is not simply about roads.
This legislation has also included air quality mitigation measures,
beautification, and more.  These bills have enjoyed strong bipartisan
support.

Q.  Will you oppose transportation legislation if it does not, at minimum,
meet the percentage investment in public transportation as 1998's TEA-21 or
if it severs the links between transportation projects and air quality?
What standards would you consider reasonable?

All legislation should meet at least the minimum previous standards.

10.  Bills currently before Congress would weaken the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA) by diminishing the public's ability to participate in
transportation planning processes and by limiting environmental-impact
reviews.

Q.  Will you oppose this or similar legislation, either in transportation
reauthorization or as stand alone bills?

Yes.

PROTECTING OUR WATER QUALITY
11.  The Bush administration issued guidance and proposed rulemaking that
changes and limits the definition of "waters of the United States" under the
Clean Water Act to exclude from protection many wetlands, intermittent
streams, small lakes and ponds.  Many states would be left without a federal
backstop for protecting their waters.

Qa.  Will you support a bill that restores the original definition of
"waters of the United States" that has been in place since the 1970's?

Yes

Qb.  Will you support reducing the subsidies to large livestock operations
under the Farm Bill's Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) so
that the money can be spent on real environmental improvements rather than
on subsidies for expanding poor waste management practices like lagoons and
sprayfields?

Yes.

Qc. Will you oppose efforts that would give large industrial livestock
operations immunity from the Clean Air Act and Superfund in exchange for
simply having the EPA collect air emissions data from some Confined Animal
Feeding Operations (CAFOs)?  Please be specific.

Yes.  Industrial livestock operations should not be held to different
standards than everyone else.  Air emissions data from select areas is not
sufficient enough.

SUPERFUND CLEANUP
12.  One of every four people in the United States lives within four miles
of a toxic waste site.  To pay for the cleanup of more than 1,200 national
priority toxic waste sites, Congress authorized polluter pays fees, which
were put into a fund known as the Superfund.  The fees sunset in 1995 and,
as a result, the fund will run out of money before the end of 2003.

Q.  Will you support legislation that restores the original 'polluter pays'
fees and ensures that tax payers do not pay the bulk of the cleanup costs?
What percentage of the cost of clean up do you believe polluters should pay?

I fully support polluter pays fees.  Polluters should pay in proportion of
how much damage they have caused to the environment.  That payment should
not have to come at the burden of the taxpayers.

CURBING GLOBAL WARMING
13.  The United States is the world's largest emitter of the greenhouse gas
carbon dioxide, with transportation accounting for nearly one third of all
U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.  Improving fuel economy of our cars and
trucks is the biggest single step we can take to curb global warming and
protect sensitive areas from oil drilling.  Additionally, producing more
electricity from clean, renewable sources such as wind solar power will also
help cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Qa.  If elected will you support increasing miles per gallon standards
(known as corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards) for cars, SUV's, and
light trucks to a 40mpg average?

Yes, and perhaps an even higher standard.

Qb.  Will you support a law to mandate that at least 20% of our electricity
come from clean, renewable sources by 2020?

Yes.

Qc.  What other measures do you believe Congress should take to curb global
warming?

We should have less dependence on foreign oil and more dependence on
domestic forms of energy and renewable sources.  This is a matter of not
only environment, but also for homeland security and jobs/economic purposes.

SLOWING GLOBAL POPULATION GROWTH
14.  The magnitude of increased human activity pollutes and diminishes fresh
water and clean air, adversely contributes to global climate change, further
jeopardizes threatened and endangered species, and erodes the health and
quality of life on earth.  One of the most comprehensive ways to address
rapid population growth and better protect the environment is to ensure that
families everywhere have access to quality voluntary family planning and
reproductive health care.

Qa.  Do you support a funding increase in international and domestic family
planning programs?  Why or why not?

Because I am not too familiar with these programs I cannot say if I would
support or oppose funding increases in this area.

Qb.  Will you oppose restrictions placed on this funding, such as the global
gag rule?

Again, because I am not too familiar with these programs I cannot say if I
would support or oppose restrictions in this area.

Qc.  Will you support the Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive
Coverage Act, which requires insurance companies that cover prescriptions to
cover prescriptive contraceptives?

Probably not.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT
15.  At this time of heightened concern about international issues, U.S.
companies are informal ambassadors of our country around the world.
However, American companies have too often been implicated in human rights
abuses, environmental destruction and labor rights violations.  U.S.
corporations have no legally binding obligations to disclose specific
environmental and labor information about their offshore operations as they
must in order to operate within the U.S.

Q.  Will you support legislation requiring U.S. based multinational
corporations to disclose basic information on their human rights, labor and
environmental practices much in the same way they disclose domestic
information?

Yes

PROMOTING ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE TRADE
16.  The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade
Organization (WTO) have been used to weaken environmental protection in the
United States and abroad.  The downward pressure on environmental, health
and safety standards could increase with completion of the Free Trade Area
of the Americas (FTAA) and the Doha Round of WTO talks.  Regrettably,
Congress cannot exercise its normal constitutional powers as a check and
balance on the executive with respect to trade agreements because fast-track
procedures deny Congress its normal power to make amendments or to conduct a
thorough debate.

Qa.  Will you support reform of current and future trade rules so that they
no longer can undermine environmental, health and safety protections?

Yes.

Qb.  Will you support an alternative to fast-track procedures that would
allow Congress to fully debate and amend trade agreements?  What type of
agreements would you support?

I would support alternatives to fast track procedures.  I would support
agreements that give the American worker a fair deal in trade agreement,
contrary to what is happening under this administration.

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