Issue Position: Environment

Issue Position

Following meetings with former Vice President Al Gore and representatives from the Gore Foundation's Climate Reality Project in 2018 we agreed to create together a County Climate Coalition. Gore and I announced the effort at Governor Jerry Brown's Global Action Climate Summit in San Francisco last year. The Coalition calls on all counties in the United States to rally around combatting climate change.

When I was first elected to the San Jose City Council and later when I joined the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, there were no local environmental stewardship goals. While I was Vice Mayor the City adopted its Green Vision, which became a national model. My colleague Cindy Chavez and I led the way to establish a Council Environmental Committee in 2004. After being elected to the Board of Supervisors, I co-drafted, with my colleague Ken Yeager, the County's first environmental standards. We joined with several local city governments to create Silicon Valley Clean Energy with the goal that most households in the Santa Clara Valley will have access to 100% renewable energy. I'm proud to have expanded electric vehicle charging stations throughout the region and spearheaded the preservation of 287 suburban farm acres known as Martial Cottle County Park which was funded through a state and county partnership.

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