Introduction

This questionnaire is designed to elicit your responses and your ideas regarding what environmental groups consider to be the most important environmental issues of the day. In some cases, we refer to certain bills or environmental positions, which are before the Congress or the Executive at this time. We want to hear your views on these issues. Where you disagree with the position as stated or implied by the question, we want to hear your views on these goals and how they can be reached by alternative means.

Natural Resources and Public Lands

1. Public Lands
This nation's 630 million acres of public land are a resource enjoyed by Americans today, and are a natural heritage legacy for future generations. These public lands include America's parks, wildlife refuges, national forests, and lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Wilderness areas are protected within all four management systems.

1a. What is your vision for the future management of America's public lands?

1b. What is your vision for the nation's remaining unprotected wildlands?

1c. Would you support designating the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a wilderness area, to put it permanently off limits to oil and gas development?

1d. Would you support a moratorium on new road construction and logging in the roadless and undeveloped portions of our national forests?

2. Wildlife
The Endangered Species Act, passed in 1973, provides protection for threatened and endangered species of plants and animals. The law preserves these species for their own sake, and serves to maintain the overall health of larger natural systems necessary for the preservation of other species. Critics claim the law unduly restricts private property rights and interferes with reasonable economic development of land. Others say the ESA should provide incentives, like tax breaks, for private landowners to encourage them to help save imperiled species.

2a. Do you support the goal of this law?

2b. Do you believe that current efforts need to be strengthened to better recover our declining plants and wildlife?

2c. How, if at all, would you propose to modify the law in regard to its application to private landowners?

3. Oceans
Conservation of the ocean's resources, particularly fisheries management, has never achieved the same priority as other environmental initiatives. Management of fisheries within the United States 200 mile economic zone is governed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The Act was amended and strengthened by Congress in 1996 but NMFS remains underfunded and slow to implement change necessary to protect declining populations of fish.

3a. Do you support reversing declining fish populations and rebuilding overfished fisheries even if this results in adverse short-term economic impacts?

4. Mining
Currently, minerals are extracted from public lands by mining operations under the Mining Law of 1872. The 1872 law makes mining a dominant use over wildlife protections, water quality, and other managedland uses. It provides few environmental protections and levies meager fees, resulting in environmental damage to the lands, little return to the public for the loss of public resources, and unreclaimed, sometimes toxic, mining wastes.

4a. Would you support comprehensive reform for this law to ensure a more appropriate fee structure, to require companies to clean up sites, and to provide the land managing agencies discretion to determine the suitability of mineral development with other land uses and values?

Global Warming; Energy, Transportation, and Land Use

5. Global Warming
Global warming is the most far-reaching environmental problem our civilization has ever faced. The hottest 10 years on record have occurred since 1980 culminating in 1998, the hottest year ever recorded. The world's leading scientists warn that if the nations of the world fail to cut greenhouse gas emissions, we are likely to commit the world to massive irreversible damage-rising sea levels, crop damage, heat-related deaths, mass extinction of species and the spread of infectious diseases.

The U.S., with 4% of the world's population, is the largest emitter of gases that cause global warming; it is responsible for contributing over 23% of world carbon dioxide emissions. Two- thirds of the U.S. carbon dioxide pollution comes from transportation and energy generation. Improving energy efficiency and increasing use of renewable energy can reduce emissions in a cost-effective manner.

5a. Do you support efforts to implement and strengthen an U.S. emissions reduction program as called for in the Kyoto Global Warming Protocol?

6. Energy efficiency
Automobiles are responsible for 20% of the U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. One way to reduce this pollution is for our vehicles to use fuel more efficiently. Because of an exception in the current vehicle fuel efficiency laws, light trucks such a minivans and Ssport Uutility Vvehicles (SUVs), which account for nearly half of all new cars sold, are permitted 25% lower fuel economy standards (20.7 miles per gallon) than passenger cars (27.5 mpg). Fuel economy standards have not been significantly modified since the 1980's.

6a. Would you support a policy, phased in over 5 years, requiring light trucks to meet the same fuel economy standards as passenger vehicles?

6b. Would you support legislation increasing fuel economy standards such that the fleet average (including cars, SUVs, mini-vans and other light trucks) reaches 42 miles per gallon over the next 10 years? If not, what other means of reducing transportation-related emissions would you support?

7. Power plants
The electric power industry is the nation's largest source of air pollution. Power plants are also the largest source of carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming.

7a. Would you support legislation limiting power plant emissions of carbon dioxide? Are there other ways you would address this problem?

8. Nuclear waste
Nuclear waste is lethal. Environmental groups believe that federal nuclear policies must be based on science and that the protection of public health is paramount. Currently, the nuclear power industry is backing legislation, that would allow the transportation of nuclear waste from power plants around the country to Nevada prior to an Energy Department determination whether to permanently store the waste there. The legislation would pre-empt many federal, state and local laws and weaken radiation protection standards.

8a. Do you oppose transporting nuclear waste until there is a scientifically sound, permanent, licensed solution to the waste problem?

8b. How would you improve security at the places nuclear waste is now stored?

8c. Do you oppose weakening of environmental and public health laws regarding nuclear waste disposition?

9. Nuclear Energy
Nuclear power plants now supply about 20% of U.S. electric energy. While the nuclear industry argues that nuclear power should be seen as a solution to global warming, nuclear power plants are inherently subject to serious accidents, and could be a source of material for nuclear weapons. Additionally, there is no known way to deal with their radioactive wastes.

9a. If nuclear power's share of electricity generation decreases, what mix of energy sources would replace it?

10. Sprawl
Many Americans now consider suburban sprawl -- low-density, automobile dependent development beyond the edge of service and employment areas -- to be a fast growing and obvious threat to their local environment. Suburban sprawl is contributing to the loss of farms,
forests, wildlife habitat, wetlands, open space and water quality. Longer commutes and increased traffic congestion causes air pollution. State and local governments are beginning to pursue sprawl-fighting, smart growth strategies.

10a. What role should the federal government play in helping communities address this fast-growing threat to their quality of life and environment?

10b. Would you support changing federal policies and funding priorities that contribute to andor encourage suburban sprawl? For example, would you support funnelingproviding a greater portion of the Highway Trust Fund into alternative transportation choices rather than highway construction and expansion?

10c. Would you support federal tax incentives to help local communities set aside open space, protect water quality, and clean up abandoned industrial sites in urban areas? What other measures would you support to address these problems?

International

11. Global Population
World population is increasing by 80 million people per year. Continued human population growth causes or aggravates virtually all environmental problems including deforestation, extinction of species through habitat loss, land degradation, global warming, air pollution, water quality and quantity supplies. Since many areas have already exceeded their carrying capacity, population stabilization is an essential element in addressing the present and future crises. The U.S. participates in global population efforts by contributing to the United Nations Population Fund for family planning programs in many countries. By law, no U.S. foreign assistance funds may be used to provide abortion services.

11a. Do you support funding the U.S. portion of international population assistance necessary to achieve universal access to contraception by the year 2015?

12. Trade
The North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization discipline domestic and international law in order to promote international trade and investment. Dispute panels under these agreements have ruled against a number of environmental and health laws, including clean gasoline standards, sea turtle protections, and food safety standards. In order to comply with the rulings, governments may weaken laws or regulations. In other instances, the U.S. government has proactively weakened environmental standards to comply with international trade rules. For example, the U.S. has established weak standards to control imported tree and fruit pests in order to avoid trade conflicts.

12a. Would you support changing international trade rules to prevent the weakening of public health and environmental laws?

12b. Would you support increasing congressional oversight and public involvement in trade negotiations to better ensure that future trade agreements protect public health and the environment?

13. Biodiversity
There is a consensus among the world's leading scientists that one of the greatest long-term threats to human welfare is the loss of species and their natural habitat, collectively resulting in the massive loss of biological diversity. The International Convention on Biological Diversity was negotiated in 1992 to help provide for a coordinated international effort to deal with biodiversity loss problems. The Convention has been ratified by essentially every western country except the United States, in spite of the fact that the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations overwhelmingly approved ratification.

13a. Will you work to persuade the Senate to ratify the Convention?

Pollution and Public Health

14. Clean Water
Runoff from farm fields, animal feedlots and city streets is our largest remaining source of surface water pollution. Over 60% of our water pollution problems today are from "polluted runoff," yet the Clean Water Act does not adequately address this source of pollution.

14a. As President, would you support and promote legislation to address this problem through enforceable new Clean Water Act requirements for use of best management practices and the best available technology, instead of through the current voluntary program?

15. Wetlands
Wetlands - the marshes, bogs, bottom land hardwoods and estuarine areas where water meets land - act as nature's water filters and as sponges that help prevent flooding. Our nation has lost over half its original wetlands and continues to lose over 100,000 acres of wetlands each year.

15a. How would you act to reverse the steady erosion of this natural resource?

16. Clean Air
According to the American Lung Association, at least 117 million people live in areas where it is unhealthy to breathe the air due to ozone or smog pollution. During the 1998 smog season, there were more than 5200 violations of EPA's health standard for smog in 41 states across the
country. The elderly, children and people with asthma are especially vulnerable to the effects of air pollution. Scientists estimate that 40,000 Americans die prematurely each year because of fine particle pollution, or soot. The electric power industry is the nation's largest source of air pollution. Electric power plants produce one third of the nitrogen pollution that causes smog, and two thirds of the sulfur pollution that forms fine-particulate matter, acid rain and haze. Power plants also produce mercury, which contaminates lakes and streams.

16a. Do you support comprehensive additional efforts to make our air cleaner, including EPA's more protective revised air quality standards for ozone and fine particles, tighter pollution standards for cars and SUVs, controls on mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants, and requirements to reduce regional haze?

16b. Would you support legislation to require all power plants, irrespective of age, to meet modern air pollution standards for nitrogen and sulfur?

17. Food Safety/ Pesticides
In 1996, Congress enacted the Food Quality Protection Act to assure that America's food supply is safe from dangerous pesticides.

17a. Do you support implementation of this law to assure that children and other vulnerable people are fully protected from dangerous pesticides contaminants?

17b. Would you oppose efforts to delay the food safety requirements of this important law?
17.c Do you believe all pesticides that may remain on food products should be comprehensively tested for safety, and that, where data is not available, conservative assumptions should be applied to assure public health protection?

18. Right to Know

18a. Do you believe that the public has a right to know about the full range of toxic chemicals in foods, drinking water and consumer products?

18b. Would you support legislation, like that now in effectforce in California, to require manufacturers to disclose the potential health risks associated with cancer-causing or other highly toxic chemicals to which they have exposed the public?

19. Toxics
Despite a slow start in the 1980's, the Superfund program for cleaning up toxic dumpsites has improved in recent years. Cleanup (other than long-term groundwater treatment) is completed at over 500 of the nation's 1300 Superfund sites and is underway at more than 500 others. Under Superfund's "polluter-pays" liability system, polluters have directly paid for cleanups at more than 70% of Superfund sites. In addition, the liability structure has created strong incentives for pollution prevention and better waste management. The program of polluter-pays taxes that support the program expired in 1995, with a net loss of $4 million each day that the taxes are not reinstated.

Critics of the program assert that cleanups are unduly expensive because they too often involve treating wastes rather than simply trying to contain them, and that litigation has been excessive.

19a. Do you support reinstating the Superfund taxes and not weakening cleanup standards or the program's basic liability system?

20. Environmental Justice
Environmental problems -- from toxic pollution to loss of biodiversity -- affect all of us. Some communities, especially communities of color and poorer communities, are likely to suffer disproportionate impacts from environmental degradation. Evidence of environmental disparities includes: higher incidences of childhood lead poisoning among African-American children and among lower-income children; higher exposures by people of color to air pollution and higher penalties for violations of federal environmental laws levied in white communities compared to minority communities. Other areas where environmental disparities can exist include the siting of waste management facilities, access to clean drinking water and food, job-related exposures to toxic chemicals, access to well-maintained public park land, and the availability of transportation options.

20a. What is your vision for insuring equal access to a clean and healthy environment?

20b. Would you support and strengthen compliance with Executive Order 12898, the President's Order on Environmental Justice (2/11/94), which mandates that each federal agency shall make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low income populations?

20c. Are there other ways you would address this problem?

Environmental Process and Procedures

21. Budget/Environmental Funding
Federal spending for Natural Resources and the Environment budget category [Function 300] has declined substantially since 1980. Environmentalists believe that the management needs of national parks, wildlife refuges and other federal lands and clean water and clean air programs continue to increase.

21a. Would you support a reassessment of federal spending priorities and restoration of an equitable portion of the federal budget to natural resource and environmental programs and agencies?

The Land and Water Conservation Fund was authorized by Congress at $900 million each year with revenue derived from Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas leasing and production. Congress has regularly failed to appropriate the authorized amount. The unappropriated balance in the LWCF account now exceeds $11 billion.

21b. Would you support a permanent appropriation for the Land and Water Conservation Fund to the authorized limit of $900 million annually?

22. Takings/Property Rights
Recently, there have been efforts in the courts, the Congress and in state legislatures to expand the application of the Fifth Amendment's so-called "takings clause" in the name of protecting property rights.

22a. Do you support legislation that would reject the case-specific approach the courts now follow, redefine "property" or otherwise expand the Constitution's takings clause?

22b. Do you support legislation to allow private interests to challenge local land use decisions in federal court, bypassing local and state procedures?

23. Legislative Riders
In recent years, Congress has increasingly relied upon the insertion of unrelated anti-environmental provisions into budget bills, appropriations, and other legislation to bypass regular legislative procedures and avoid presidential vetoes. Environmental groups believe this procedure avoids public scrutiny and debate over new laws, which roll back environmental protection.

23a. Do you believe that changes in environmental laws should be subject to open debate and recorded votes in the Congress?

23b. Would you, as President, veto budget bills or other measures that include unrelated provisions weakening environmental programs?

24. Regulatory Reform
Critics of many environmental laws and regulations claim that the regulatory process does not adequately consider costs of compliance to business. Moreover, scientific studies on environmental protection are often characterized by uncertainty.

24a. Under what circumstances should human health standards be lowered lowered based on the cost of compliance to industries?

24b. Would you support legislation or executive action to require more detailed assessments of costs than currently undertaken by federal agencies before new public health or environmental regulations are put in place?

25. Environmental Oversight
The Executive branch's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) administers the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental impact of their proposed actions. This commitment to examine major federal agency actions and to anticipate their impact is fundamental to the federal government's commitment to protecting the environment. The CEQ has played a major role advocating environmental protection in every administration since it was created in 1970. Recently, the desirability of having a strong environmental voice in the Office of the President has been challenged, and some have proposed eliminating the CEQ.

25a. As President would you support NEPA and maintain the CEQ in the White House at or above its current level of staffing?

Economic policy and environmental protection

26a. Please describe what the relationship between strong environmental protection laws and strong economic performance would be under your administration. Do present environmental laws need to be modified (without necessarily reducing the present level of environmental protection) in order to achieve or maintain a strong economy?