Debate Topic: Environmental Concerns

[Soxy]

FlaxxJim from Florida asks,

 

 

Through much of American history, conservation issues were not decided along partisan lines. The presidencies of Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and JFK all witnessed great waves of conservation and environmental stewardship in this country. It was Richard Nixon who declared that the 1970s to be the "environmental decade," brought the EPA into existence and and approved laws to protect this country's air, water, and endangered species. The current administration, in contrast, has worked hard at rolling back environmental regulations, politicizing the scientific process in regards to the environment, and has essentially cut the EPA and environmental scientists at NASA, NOAA, and elsewhere off at the knees.

 

What are your specific plans for putting the country back on a positive conservation path? What Bush era environmental rollbacks, if any, will you and Congress address during your presidency? What will be your strategic priorities in terms of protecting our environment?

 

 

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--Each candidate can make one initial position post in each thread, of NO MORE THAN 500 words.

--Each candidate also gets to respond to ONE other candidate's post IN EACH of those threads, with the same 500 word limit.

--The candidate who was responded to then gets ONE MORE POST to retort (to each response/question, so that may be more than once in the same thread), again, limit 500 words.

--The threads will remain open until Sunday night late, at which time I will close them (the election is Tuesday). This should give people 5 or 6 days, which should be plenty of time.

--ONLY CANDIDATES SHOULD POST IN THE ACTUAL DEBATE THREADS.

[sox4lifeinPA]

Thank you, Mr FlasoxxJim, for your question. My environmental initiatives are actually economic ones as much as anything.

 

No one can discredit the automobile as one of the greatest innovations of the 20th Century. However, the American Auto industry has seemed to have a difficult time adjusting to the 21st Century.

 

Executives from Ford and other leading companies recently visited President Bush asking for government assistance to help relieve some of their financial woes. I believe this would be a vast mistake. It is not that I do not believe in government assistance in corporations, for instance, after September 11th, it was in the nation’s best interest for the U.S. government to prop up failing airlines due to the terrorist attacks. However, it is that the American Auto industry has failed to market to a growing demand for environmentally and economically smart vehicles.

 

Here is what I do suggest: Expand the tax credits for individual who purchase environmentally friendly vehicles. In 2006, you could purchase a Ford Escape Hybrid and receive a $2600 tax credit. What I would suggest is at least doubling this number. This would create is a huge incentive for American car buyers to think green, save money at the pump and at the same time assist car companies in increasing their sales. Simultaneously, the Federal government could satisfy the Auto industry by spurring car buying, give back money to the American consumer, and stimulate the economy.

 

Environmental policy affects us all; keeping this fact on the nation’s conscience and matching it with environmentally friendly, economically responsible policies will ensure a better tomorrow for ourselves and our children. I believe this is a small but significant step towards encouraging corporations and consumers to achieve that goal.

 

Thank you for taking the time to consider my initiatives on the environmental problems in America.

 

PA

[Texsox]

Yesterday I joined with two platoons from a local High School ROTC program to pick up trash and rebuild a shoreline along South Padre Island's Southern tip. Four times a year I join with a McAllen Boy Scout Troop on an Adopt-A-Highway Clean up project. I have built and maintained miles of wilderness trails in National and State Parks. I have helped build and clean urban parks. I am presently growing mangroves to be used in a spoil bank erosion project along the intercoastal waterway in South Texas.

 

 

 

Our ancestors have blessed us with a great network of open spaces. From small urban playgrounds to the vast vistas of Big Bend National Park, Americans have an opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors. I value these living museums the same way the curators at the Smithsonian value our collections there. We have been entrusted with these national treasures that need to be maintained for all future generations.

 

 

 

We are also entrusted with the resources that these parks contain. Allowing the harvest of renewable resources in these parks is good land management. We must not dramatically alter the eco-system in the pursuit of monetary gain, and especially momentary monetary gain. However, we also must not ignore their value. Fishing, hunting, grazing, mineral, commercial guiding, and many other activities can be safely conducted with-in the parks.

 

 

 

This is also a great time to renew our nation's commitment to the environment. In 1970 I was a 6th grader at Beach School in Illinois. I remember well the activities we did to promote the first Earth Day. We need to once again promote the stewardship which sparked that first Earth Day. We need to take pride in our open spaces.

[NorthSideSox72]

Mr. FlaxxJim, I thank you for this question. You have hit upon one of my passions in the world of politics – the natural environment. I will confess now that I’d like to write much more than 500 words. But as I cannot, I will try to keep my answers focused and direct.

 

My environmental policy can be split into three categories: public health, enviro-economic concerns, and the conservation mandate…

 

Protecting our environment by reducing pollution, acting to stave off disastrous climate change and funding expert scientific agencies like NOAA, EPA and NASA are not about saving an owl. They are about saving us. We aren’t going to “destroy the Earth”, but it may indeed destroy many of us if we keep treating it as we are. If we want to protect the public health, we need to have a heck of a lot more than 40 or so EPA enforcers (what Bush reduced them to), and we need to be working to make the restrictions on pollution more stringent – not less. We need a national trading venue for pollution credits, which will ease the economic burden on companies due to these restrictions, allow for government massaging of output by acting in said market, and create a new space for market makers. And we need to fund, and listen to, the experts.

 

Protecting our environment by moving quickly towards renewable and lower polluting energy sources is not about looking cool in a new Prius. Its about the best possible scenario for the country’s long term economic health – with the nice side effects of further protecting the environment, and getting is out of our position of weakness in the Middle East. For further detail on this one, please see my 7 Point Plan for getting off Fossil Fuels.

 

Finally, Protecting our environment by keeping a conservation mindset isn’t about wearing a cool North Face jacket and Birkenstocks. Its about the simplest of principles. History has shown with absolute clarity that the earth acts like a living system – the way you treat it is the way it will treat you back. Overpopulation in Africa? Mother Nature says, “Here – have AIDS”. Overgrazing and trying to overgrow crops in a dry terrain? “Here – have a Dust Bowl”. Build a city below sea level? “Here – have Katrina”. And then there are some basic facts, like, trees make most of the oxygen we breath. To me, that means we need to be very concerned when we keep losing forests. If we are to survive and be healthy on earth, we need to treat it with respect. That means sustainable agriculture, protecting open spaces and wilderness, careful urban planning, and knowing as much as possible about our planet. We all must share the burden. I am all for more in the way of use taxes, like fees for recreationalists in wilderness areas. But we do all need to share some of the cost of keeping our land healthy.

[NorthSideSox72]

Thank you, Mr FlasoxxJim, for your question. My environmental initiatives are actually economic ones as much as anything.

 

No one can discredit the automobile as one of the greatest innovations of the 20th Century. However, the American Auto industry has seemed to have a difficult time adjusting to the 21st Century.

 

Executives from Ford and other leading companies recently visited President Bush asking for government assistance to help relieve some of their financial woes. I believe this would be a vast mistake. It is not that I do not believe in government assistance in corporations, for instance, after September 11th, it was in the nation’s best interest for the U.S. government to prop up failing airlines due to the terrorist attacks. However, it is that the American Auto industry has failed to market to a growing demand for environmentally and economically smart vehicles.

 

Here is what I do suggest: Expand the tax credits for individual who purchase environmentally friendly vehicles. In 2006, you could purchase a Ford Escape Hybrid and receive a $2600 tax credit. What I would suggest is at least doubling this number. This would create is a huge incentive for American car buyers to think green, save money at the pump and at the same time assist car companies in increasing their sales. Simultaneously, the Federal government could satisfy the Auto industry by spurring car buying, give back money to the American consumer, and stimulate the economy.

 

Environmental policy affects us all; keeping this fact on the nation’s conscience and matching it with environmentally friendly, economically responsible policies will ensure a better tomorrow for ourselves and our children. I believe this is a small but significant step towards encouraging corporations and consumers to achieve that goal.

 

Thank you for taking the time to consider my initiatives on the environmental problems in America.

 

PA

Mr. PA-

 

I'd like to ask my one question in this thread, of you. Your statement here on environmental policy shows a vision I appreciate, in regards to energy policy. You gave a specific idea as well. I like that.

 

But, you failed to say anything about environmental policy outside the realm of energy. My question to you is this: what are your feelings on the issues of the importance of open space and wilderness, biodiversity and the ESA, and pollution and the EPA? if you could elaborate on your stance on those three subtopics, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Thank you.

[Rex Kickass]

The Environment is one of the most critical issues America will face within the next twenty years.

 

Although we can't eliminate all pollution - we can cut down on the ones that are most harmful to our way of life. When it comes to things like the environment, we need to be responsible in how we manage our resources. Because without proper care even our renewable resources may become nonrenewable resources. There's a laundry list of policy initiatives that I think America would do well to explore.

 

* Become Energy Independent within 20 years. Wean ourselves from Foreign oil and produce more bio-diesel fuels, as well as focus on hydrogen cell, solar, wind, biomass energy as well as other sustainable, nonpolluting energy production sources.

 

* Offer tax credits to consumers purchasing ULEV and hybrid vehicles. Create a federal sales tax for consumers choosing to purchase less efficient vehicles. This sales tax would go into a fund to boost mass transportation networks.

 

* Better manage fresh and saltwater fisheries in the United States and help prevent any further collapse in sealife stocks immediately. Also make sure that aquaculture fisheries, which should be encouraged, are ecologically sensitive and safeguards established to keep them from further damaging our oceans, lakes and rivers.

 

* Manage our forests in a way that will seek to prevent fires from becoming so catastrophic and so large so quickly.

 

* Develop a federal minimum standard that mine operators will have to adhere to in terms of guarantees for reclaiming lands used as mines for natural resources. Hold successor companies responsible for the damages done by mining companies that have been bought out and have used bankruptcy as a shield for failing to clean up the toxic mess they have left behind.

 

*Expand and repair mass transit infrastructure across the country and fund a better Amtrak and national bus transportation system.

 

*Ask the EPA to review levels of chemicals in groundwater, and land and determine new, stricter standards that would help lead to overall air and water quality improvement.

 

*Vigorously enforce environmental rules on the books and harshly punish companies who blatantly and repeatedly violate them. We expect our people to be good stewards and citizens, and we should expect the same from the businesses that operate in our borders.

 

We face so many environmental challenges these days. America has an opportunity to be the leader in world conservation, and help turn back some of the problems that we now face. I intend to help see us through that.

[Gregory Pratt]

Less corporate influence. No hippie influence. Common sense. Compromise the Economy as little as possible but concede that some compromises must be made. Combat carbon dioxide and pollution both because of global warming and because it's the right thing to do. Remake the FDA and EPA so as to prevent outside influences from interfering with what should be purely scientific. Push for a hybridization of public transit within ten years and of American society within twenty. Funding for it, too.

 

More trees. Less smoke.

 

That is all.

 

I am not answering questions.

 

Or provocation.

 

I will reply via PM to any intellectually and honestly curious potential voter but I expect any questions to please be PMed.

Edited December 1, 2006 by Gregory Pratt

[NorthSideSox72]

TOPIC CLOSED.