Oregonians have historically had the courage to lead the way in environmental stewardship. From the bottle bill, to beach clean-up, the rest of the U.S. has looked to Oregon to lead. As your next U.S. Senator, I will have the courage to challenge the status quo and push for real change that creates a sustainable environment for our world.

From my student days as a co-founder of Land, Air and Water Research at the University of Oregon Law School, to being a founding director and cooperating attorney with 1000 Friends of Oregon, to my days as the NEA Chairman where we funded grants related to sustainability and artist projects that leached toxins from the ground, to my time as an attorney in Montana fighting against drilling on the eastern front of the Rockies and the Bozeman Watershed, I have a long and proven track record of fighting for the environment. Others may talk of supporting plans once they are elected. My actions are louder than words.

Investment in Sustainability

The very definition of sustainability requires cooperation, incentives and use of renewable, rather than finite resources. I will push to extend Federal rebates, incentives and tax credits that encourage lower energy consumption. I will support federal legislation to require that greater than20% of the nation's electricity come from clean renewable sources including wind, solar, bio mass, wave, and geothermal. And I will push to redirect subsidies away from nuclear energy and redirect them to clean, renewable energy. Nuclear facilities have not solved the problem of disposal of waste, not to mention their vulnerability to terrorist attack. Nuclear energy is not a safe or clean solution to our national energy crisis.

Specifically, we should do the following:

1. Require that all new light bulbs be compact fluorescents (CFL's). This would reduce energy usage for lighting by 3/4ths. Each bulb, over its 10 year lifetime, reduces energy equivalent to burning 200 pounds of coal.
2. Require that new appliances have reduced standby usage. This could cut power costs by 10% overall.
3. Adopt the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) LEED Standards for all new buildings and as soon as available, for all residences. These standards consider site selection, energy efficiency, materials used and indoor environmental quality. Site selection standards include proximity to public transport and encourage bike racks, showers and daylight illumination for 75% of the space.
4. Establish federal grants or tax incentives for retro-fitting buildings in accordance with LEED Standards.
5. Establish a Federal program for high speed rail transportation between population centers of 500 miles or less distance. We need to shift transportation dollars away from highways and better inter-connect our existing transportation modes.
6. Finally, and this is the big one, we need higher Federal gasoline taxes to pay for high speed rail and encourage use of more efficient automobiles, carpooling and reduced car travel.

I would also work to correct the century of poor management policies of Oregon's forests that have led to catastrophic forest fires on one side and clear cuts of old growth on the other. Oregon grows trees better than anywhere else in the world. As your U.S. Senator, I will work to build a coalition of conservationists, forest industries, and community leaders to co-manage our forests so that we can sustain our environment as well as provide jobs for the local economies and keep the money in Oregon. Not send it back to Washington and hope that they send some back. The rhetoric of "I win, you lose" is not sustainable in Washington, and it is not sustainable in Oregon. We must work together to protect what we all value.

The Courage to Fight for All of Us
Many of you know me for my call for President Bush to be impeached on constitutional, not partisan grounds. As your Senator, I will continue to fight for what others view as not "politically safe" if I believe it is morally just. I believe that a national gas standard of 35 miles per gallon for cars is too low. If we are going to wean ourselves of foreign oil, and decrease CO2 emissions, we must do better.

I will push for the U.S. enter the International Protocols and take responsibility as a World Citizen.

I will fight for a long term and strategic view of sustainability that does NOT include Ethanol in Oregon. The Oregon legislature approved a 10% addition of Ethanol in our gas. Ethanol's energy production is 1: 1.8 (sugarcane is 1:8 by comparison), and requires excessive fossil fuels to convert land to grow corn as well as transport it to Oregon. This is not helping to sustain our environment.
Protecting our environment requires working together with a long term vision. As an Independent, I answer to you, the voters of Oregon, not to a political party's agenda. Courage is not always popular, but a leader should lead. Together we can make things right again.

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