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 wind and solar
power. California led the way in
this 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.
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.
