Issue Position: Energy and the Environment

Issue Position

Global Warming is the biggest threat to our national and global economy. As just one local example of the harm being inflicted by global warming right here in the 8th Congressional District, the glaciers on Mount Rainier have already lost over half of their mass in the past 50 years. These glaciers provide most of the fresh water for our major rivers, especially during the summer. Failure to stop global warming could result in entire rivers running dry -- greatly harming many communities here in East King and Pierce counties.

We need to act much more aggressively to reverse global warming. Cap and Trade just maintains the status quo and this is not good enough. Cap and Trade also raises prices on products which reduces middle class buying power and thus harms the economy. Cap and Trade whether voluntary or mandatory is simply the wrong approach and will not solve the problem.

The problem is hydrocarbon emissions. The solution is a dramatic reduction in the use of fossil fuel. The quickest way to reduce fossil fuel usage would be to greatly expand the use of electric cars. We want families to have the freedom to go where they want to go when they want to go. People have to get to the doctor when their child has an emergency and they also need personal transportation to get to the store and buy groceries. We want to promote the use of electric cars and SUV's that get 200 miles to the gallon. If we combine electric cars with free solar panels, we can reduce transportation cost while also protecting the environment.

The second solution for reducing emissions is free mass transit. I would like to build light rail all the way past Issaquah and Renton and all the way out to North Bend, Maple Valley, Enumclaw and Eatonville. I would also greatly expand local bus service so most folks would not even have to use their cars to get to and from work. This would have the added benefit of creating millions of good paying construction jobs as well as greatly reducing the transportation cost for middle class families. It would save the average family more than one thousand dollars per year thus giving them more money to spend on local businesses and helping our economic recovery.

The third way to reduce emissions is to built solar panel manufacturing plants in every Congressional District in America. We should then offer tax credits to get solar panels on the roofs of every home in America. This would not only create millions of good paying manufacturing jobs. It would cut home heating bills IN HALF, saving every homeowner more than one thousand dollars a year in heating costs. Again, money they could use to spend on local businesses to revive our economy.

If we also connected these same solar panels to electric car batteries, we could eventually reach the point where Americans could almost completely eliminate hydrocarbon emissions. As a side benefit, we could completely end off shore oil drilling and oil company monopolies.

The lesson we should learn from the Gulf Oil Spill is there is a huge danger in having corporate executives running our country. Greedy corporations cannot be trusted to regulate themselves. But neither can wealthy corporate executives who try to buy their way into Congress. We need a government that protects the American people and our environment from reckless and irresponsible multi-national corporations.

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