Kerry proposes "Green Communities" - Most far-reaching enviro proposal

[RegenerationMan]

ever from a major Presidential candidate.

Just talked to someone who flew Kerry in a plane all over Ethiopia and Sudan in 85 and he said, Kerry really knows his science and cares about world problems like hunger in Africa.

From Kerry site:

Priorities

Reduce our Dependence on Foreign Oil
John Kerry has outlined a comprehensive energy plan that will tap America’s initiative and ingenuity to strengthen our national security, grow our economy, and protect our environment. Kerry’s plan will increase and enhance domestic energy sources and provide incentives to help Americans use energy more cleanly and efficiently. When sixty-five percent of the world’s oil reserves lie beneath the Persian Gulf states and only 3 percent lie beneath America, we cannot drill our way to independence. We can, however, develop and deploy clean energy technologies that will make us more efficient and allow us to capitalize on domestic and renewable sources of energy. John Kerry’s plan for a renewable energy trust fund to invest in the development of renewable energy will reduce our oil dependence by more than 2 million barrels of oil a day – about the same amount we import from the Persian Gulf. Kerry’s plan will also create 500,000 new jobs over the next decade and work toward producing 20 percent of US energy from renewable fuels by 2020.
See John Kerry’s Energy Plan

A Commitment to Cleaner and Greener Communities

John Kerry believes that addressing the environmental needs of our communities will improve the economic vitality and quality of life of the places where we live and work. Kerry will fight for “Green and Clean Communities” by removing the threat of toxics from our communities, reinvigorating the Superfund cleanup program, improving our parks, and taking on traffic congestion and sprawl. As part of this commitment, Kerry will create a Toxics Task Force at the EPA that will identify the top toxics threats to our citizens and develop an action plan to address them, and he will work to ensure that every American child has access to a clean and safe neighborhood ball field or park.

Fighting for Environmental Justice

For too long, low income and minority communities have borne a disproportionate burden of air pollution, water pollution and other environmental hazards. John Kerry will make environmental justice a national priority. He will create Environmental Empowerment Zones to ensure that environmental justice is considered in decisions that affect these communities and, more importantly, to empower communities from the ground up for positive change. He will also create a national health tracking system for chronic diseases and environmental health hazards. And, John Kerry will reinvigorate action on environmental justice at the federal level.
See John Kerry’s plan for Environmental Justice


Enter into a 'Conservation Covenant' with the American People

John Kerry will enter into a “Conservation Covenant” with the American people to tread lightly on the public lands and protect and restore our nation’s parks and other treasures for the benefit of future generations. As part of the covenant, John Kerry will implement the Endangered Species Act in a cooperative manner that extends the benefits of wildlife and habitat protection to public and private lands. He will put new teeth into requirements that private companies who lease public lands return the land to its original state. The Covenant will reinvest royalties obtained from extracting resources from public lands back into protecting our lands, and require that before remote public lands are opened up to new resource development, the federal government evaluate the long term economic and environmental costs associated with such actions.

Protect our Health by Reducing Dangerous Emissions

John Kerry understands the connection between air pollution and public health. As President, he will immediately reverse the Bush-Cheney rollbacks of our nation’s Clean Air laws, plug loopholes in the laws, and vigorously enforce them. He will take bold steps to protect the health of all Americans – particularly our most vulnerable seniors and children – by adopting an aggressive program to meet ozone and air quality standards, stop acid rain, and reduce mercury emissions. His plan also includes addressing global warming emissions through a combination of innovative programs that will drive technology change and create jobs.

Restoring America's Waters

Our nation has fallen far short of the Clean Water Act’s goal of making our waters “drinkable, swimable, and fishable.” John Kerry will lead a “Restoring America’s Waters” Campaign to clean up our nation’s waters, protect communities’ fresh water supplies, and help communities reclaim their riverfronts and lake-fronts as new centers of economic growth.

Reassert US Leadership in Global Environmental Progress

John Kerry understands that some of our most serious environmental challenges – and opportunities – are taking place on an international stage and that they require American leadership in the international community. Unlike the Bush Administration, John Kerry will not abdicate this responsibility and opportunity. When John Kerry is president, the U.S. will reengage in the development of an international climate change strategy to address global warming, and identify workable responses that provide opportunities for American technology and know-how. And a Kerry Administration will meet new challenges associated with the global exploitation of marine resources and the global crisis of access to fresh water supplies.

Promoting Smart Growth and Livable Communities

John Kerry recognizes that local communities are struggling with how to address issues of traffic congestion and sprawl. A Kerry Administration will work with states and communities to ensure they have the tools and resources they need to tackle these difficult problems. Kerry will ensure that we have “Clean and Green Communities” throughout America by coordinating federal transportation policies, federal housing incentives, federal employment opportunities and the use of federal dollars to acquire parks and open space.

[GreenArrow]

1. what's his stand on water privatization?

haven't seen that mentioned on here.

[Doomsayer13]

2. I would assume he's against it

[corporatewhore]

8. then whydid he vote for nafta wto and bushs fast track to ftaa

[cprise]

3. I hope it's not the Blair/Clinton stand!

A doctor working in Gondar hospital in Ethiopia wrote to me recently to spell out what this means. The hospital has none of the basic textbooks on tropical diseases it needs. But it does have 21 copies of an 800-page volume called Aesthetic Facial Surgery and 24 volumes of a book called Opthalmic Pathology. There is no opthalmic pathologist in training in Ethiopia. The poorest nation on Earth, unsurprisingly, has no aesthetic plastic surgeons. The US had spent $2m on medical textbooks that American publishers hadn't been able to sell at home, called them aid and dumped them in Ethiopia.

In Britain the Labour government claims to have abandoned such practices, though only because they infringe European rules on competition. But now it has found a far more effective means of helping the rich while pretending to help the poor. It is spending its money on projects that hand public goods to corporations.

It is now giving, for example, £342m to the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. This is a staggering amount of money, 15 times what it spent last year on the famine in Ethiopia. Why is Andhra Pradesh so lucky? Because its chief minister, or "chief executive" as he now likes to be known, is doing to his state what Pinochet did to Chile: handing everything that isn't nailed down, and quite a lot that is, to big business. Most of the money DfID is giving him is being used to "restructure" and "reform" the state and its utilities.

more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1116854,00.html

[GreenArrow]

4. that would be my fear

.

[cprise]

5. 'innovative programs' for global warming

This sounds like Bush.

Hello, where is the Kyoto Protocol???

[RegenerationMan]

6. Here is Kyoto --From when RFK Jr. Endorsed Kerry

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2003_0917a.html

President Bush broke a campaign promise to reduce the harmful carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming from power plants. Instead of enforcing the law, he’s taking environmental cops off the beat and letting power plants pollute our air. Instead of renegotiating the Kyoto Treaty to improve it, he simply repudiated it – and took a fateful step toward isolating America in the world. He’s made taxpayers instead of polluters pay for clean ups. He’s stood in the way of our efforts to make cars cleaner and more fuel efficient. And despite all our efforts to stop him, he continues to want to open up our most pristine and sacred national resources to destructive development and drilling.

The difference between us and George Bush is one of vision. Where we see a pristine wilderness or a scenic coast, George Bush sees an oil field. Where we see a beautiful mountaintop, George Bush sees a strip mine. Where we see a pristine old growth forest, George Bush sees toothpicks. And where we see an opportunity to join the global community to fight global warming, George Bush sees a chance to curry favor with his buddies in the oil business.

Under President Bush, America’s environment has become threatened, endangered, and imperiled. I’m running to make America safer, stronger, and more secure. And we know protecting our environment is central to that cause.

Our commitment to the environment is a compact with our children, our grandchildren and the generations beyond. To keep clean the water they drink, the air they breathe, the yards and parks in which they play and laugh, and the communities in which they live.

[turnhardleft]

7. where is the Kyoto Protocol???

Sadly 98% of congress voted against it. What to do?

[RegenerationMan]

9. Here's all the times Kerry mentioned

the Kyoto Protocol.

http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=KYOTO&sp-a=sp1001847f&sp-f=ISO-8859-1&sp-x=all

[corporatewhore]

10. Wrong the most far reachin would be getting outta nafta/wto

http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wto/FTAAWTOEnvironment.html
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wto/FTAAWTOAgriculture.html
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wto/FTAAWTOServices.html

[ldoolin]

11. No mention, however, of...

Overpopulation or globalization/trade.

It figures.

"Smart growth" is an oxymoron.

[fearnobush]

12. We need to start again (unfortunately) somewhere.

Kerry may not be the best, but is Bush better?