Issue Position: Environment

Issue Position

"I believe that in the 21st Century a sound environmental policy is good jobs, good business, and good policy." Donna Edwards

Dear Friends and Supporters,

We're in the middle of the dog days of summer, but the heat and humidity haven't stopped us from working hard to get this campaign for change up and running. As many of you know, we had a wonderful announcement event on June 30 at Watkins Park in Upper Marlboro. It is amazing to see so many people willing to give of their time and energy to help us chart a course for a new direction for our counties and our country. Our campaign for change is not just a cause for more rhetorical promise - it's time to lead. I want to be in the Congress to lead the fight for the issues we believe in so deeply.

I want to lead the fight in Congress to preserve and protect our environment for future generations and to promote new technologies for a clean energy future. No more reliance on fossil fuels, no more subsidies for outdated, last-century energy production. I believe that in the 21st Century a sound environmental policy means good jobs, good business, and good policy. With long-term investment today, renewable and clean energy research, development, and production will provide real solutions to global warming and be the heart of next economic boom in this country -- facilitating service and technology markets all across the globe. With your support, we will transform this vision into reality. These are just some of my ideas to take on this challenge:

Forget voluntary limits on carbon emissions - they don't work and we're in a crisis. It's time to set mandatory limits on emissions with a goal of 20 percent reductions by 2020 and 80 percent reductions by the middle of the century. This is the call for this generation of leaders if we're serious about tackling global warming.

Provide real incentives for industry to do the right thing. End subsidies for carbon production and provide incentives for carbon reduction through clean technologies. We must increase car fuel efficiency standards to 40 mpg - we have the technology, and we need the political will to meet the challenge.

Don't buy the hype of nuclear energy, "clean coal," and "ending dependence on foreign oil." If you can't dispose of the deadly waste, and you can't clean the coal until after you dirty the air and destroy mountain tops, and you can't tell the difference to the air, land and water by trading foreign oil for domestic oil and drilling in protected environments, then it's not sound environmental policy.

Let's get off the "bad air" list. It's time to lead by getting the Washington metropolitan region and metropolitan regions like ours around the country off the "bad air" list. Let's end the high rates of asthma caused by air pollutants, protect our water supply, and end gridlock by making significant investments in our public transportation infrastructure: Metrorail across the Wilson Bridge (the only federal bridge in the country); end the delays in developing the Purple Line instead of hot lanes around the Capital Beltway; and reward affordable housing and economic development strategies that rely on public transportation infrastructure in existing commercial/development zones.

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