Issue Position: Energy and the Environment

Issue Position

I believe that we all want a clean environment for ourselves and for the generations to follow and there is nearly unanimous consensus in the scientific community that climate change is real; that it is critical; and that human activities, in particular the production and use of fossil fuels play a very real part in creating the problem of climate change. If we are truly concerned about what sort of world we leave to future, we must be willing to address climate change now.

While fossil fuels will remain a part of our energy mix for some time to come, we must make serious effort reduce our dependency on them and move to more sustainable resources such as wind, solar and biomass, many of which would provide economic growth opportunities to the 14th District (see Ref. 3). We must also work to increase the efficiency of our transportation system, not only at the micro-level through vehicle fuel standards, but at the macro-level through a more considered approach to our development of roads, rails and mass transit systems. Once again providing economic as well as environmental opportunities to the 14th.

The overwhelming majority of American businesses are good citizens and respectful of the environment. However, when the rare bad actor is responsible for an oil or coal ash spill, or when corporate failure to adhere to safety standards results in an accident that damages or destroys life or property, we must ensure that the industry involved, and not the taxpayer, is responsible for the costs of rectifying the damage.

Finally, I oppose the Keystone Pipeline due to the reported risk of environmental catastrophe, the project's minimal long-term job creation and unlikely effect on energy prices.

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