Issue Position: Protecting the Environment

Issue Position

We have an opportunity in the 2006 election to elect a new Congress that will work to conserve our natural resources and protect the environment. The Bush Administration, backed by a rubber-stamp Republican Congress has spent the last six years devising ways of eliminating environmental regulations, opening up more public lands to oil and gas development, weakening the Endangered Species Act, and placing corporate interests ahead of the public interest.

We need to change the direction America is headed, but to do that we need a new Congress. Specifically, we need a Congress that will:

* Make a significant commitment to energy independence by doubling our support for renewable and sustainable energy.

* Expand the workforce at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL).

* Strengthen instead of weakening the Endangered Species Act.

* Protect ANWR and other special places from development.

* Increase wilderness and pass a BLM wilderness bill in Colorado and Utah.

* Fight the Bush Administration's efforts to weaken NEPA and other federal laws that preserve public involvement in the environmental protection process.

* Make climate change and global warming a policy priority.

* Increase the budget for our National Park System and other conservation programs in the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.

* Mandate higher Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standards.

These are just a few of the policy items that a new Congress needs to put at the top of their agenda next year. And I hope to be a voice for these important changes.

As a state legislator for eight years I earned a reputation for taking on difficult environmental problems and finding solutions. I worked in the State Senate to improve land-use regulations, strengthen clean air and drinking water laws and support additional open space. I also led the fight to stop the NIKE Corporation from ruining Table Mountain in Jefferson County, and worked to create a comprehensive growth management plan for Colorado. When I wasn't supporting Roy Romer's vetoes, I was fighting the bad proposals coming from his successor, Bill Owens. For my efforts, Colorado Conservation Voters named me an "environmental hero" for my work in the State Senate, and my average CCV score for the five years they rated state legislators was 88%. Environmental leaders in Colorado like Maggie Fox-Udall, former State Senator Pat Pascoe, State Senator Moe Keller, Congressman Mark Udall's District Policy Director Doug Young, Chuck Malick and Cathy Carlson are supporting my campaign.

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