General Wesley Clark Statement on Clean Air Plan
New Hampshire
December 9, 2003
These last three years have not been kind to many Americans and their families.
That's what I want to talk to you about today. About how our President has spent his term squandering everything we worked so hard to build. About how under George W. Bush our country has suffered from a leadership deficit. About how for three years, he has taken this country in one direction: the wrong direction.
I'm running for President because I want to provide the leadership that will get us going in the right direction - and I have a Turnaround Plan for America to do just that.
In the U.S. Army, where I served for thirty-four years, I dealt with real issues and real problems - on bases, in barracks, and out in the field.
One of the things many people don't realize is that Generals don't just give orders and wage wars. Most of the battles we fight aren't against the enemy. They're battles to make sure that our troops have the tools they need to succeed in their jobs and raise their children.
I learned a lot about good plans, good people and good leadership. In the Army, when you have a tough challenge - you set clear, ambitious goals and you are always accountable.
I'm going to take the leadership lessons I learned in the military and apply them to our domestic challenges. That's what my Turnaround Plan for America is all about: taking a country that's on the wrong track and getting it moving forward again. Setting specific goals, so the voters can hold me accountable and meeting them.
Yesterday, I talked about family income. Under President Bush, the average family's income dropped by almost $1,500 a year. I laid out a plan to turn this around. After four years of my economic policies, I pledged family incomes will be up $3,000.
Today, I want to talk about the environment: Under President Bush, our industries have had free reign to pollute America. As a result it's projected that by 2020, 100,000 people will die prematurely. We're going to turn it around. I will put environmental policies in place that will save lives not destroy them.
My career has been devoted to national security. When I was a boy, growing up in Arkansas, national security had only one meaning - readiness to deal with threats posed by other nations, principally the Soviet Union.
What wasn't clear then-and what we must acknowledge now-is that environmental threats imperil American's security as well. Currently, 175 million Americans live in areas where the air pollution is so severe that it is considered to be a health hazard. Our environment is crucial to our health, our economy and our well-being generally.
Today I would like to focus on one element of our environment - the air we breathe.
Our atmosphere sustains life. Though the atmosphere seems cast from the Earth's surface it's actually quite thin. If you walked ten miles, you will have walked the expanse of the atmosphere. Unfortunately, throughout most of our modern history, we have treated our atmosphere as a dump for airborne industrial byproducts.
America's efforts to address air pollution are in many ways a great success story. In 1970, concerns about the health toll of air pollution led to the passage of the Clean Air Act. It was a landmark legislative achievement and a product of bipartisan cooperation, pushed by Democrats in the Congress and signed into law by a Republican president.
Under the Bush administration, the bipartisan cooperation that led to this landmark achievement has broken down. We lack the leadership necessary for such an outstanding environmental achievement. Instead, the President is moving relentlessly to dismantle environmental protections and undo a generation of progress.
His so-called "Clear Skies" legislation, for instance, would weaken public health protections against dangerous soot, smog pollution and toxic mercury.
Airborn mercury eventually settles in water, enters the food chain and is ingested by people. It attacks the brain and nervous system, poses special risks for pregnant women and damages the immune and cardiovascular systems of adults.
If Bush has his way, there will be five times as much of this stuff in the air as there would be if we simply enforced existing provisions of the Clean Air Act.
Oh, he'll tell you that he's got a plan to use the markets to deal with the problem so that polluters can buy mercury credits from the good corporate citizens. And he'll tell you that this is what environmentalists proposed for carbon dioxide.
Don't be fooled: these trading schemes weren't intended for toxics. If you want to know why, ask the family living next door to a polluting factory.
Plus, Bush is trying mightily to rollback, weaken, and delay environmental protections across the board. For instance, the Clean Air Act requires older polluting power plants to reduce emissions when upgrading facilities. But this administration has given industry carte blanche to make multi-million dollar expansions - and huge pollution increases - without installing modern pollution controls.
Even those plants caught red-handed are being let off the hook. Last month, Bush's EPA announced it was dropping dozens of pollution investigations. The administration also cut back on inspections by 15% and prosecution by 40%. Plus, Bush proposes cutting 100 additional enforcement positions.
I guess you don't need enforcers, if you aren't going to enforce.
EPA's own documents admit that the administration's policies have resulted in more pollution-hundreds of millions of more pounds per year.
The Bush administration assault on the Clean Air Act bears real costs. According to EPA studies, each year, air pollution causes 30,000 premature deaths and five million lost work days.
Instead of enforcing our environmental laws and protecting people's health, this administration chooses, time and again, to weaken clean air standards and put our health at risk.
It couldn't be clearer-we can't trust George Bush with the air we breathe.
I believe all Americans should be able to breathe clean and healthy air.
We need a President who protects the public's health, not polluters' pocketbooks. We need a President who will tell the truth to the American people about the risks posed by air pollution, not one who hides data and distorts the science. We need a President who understands that clean air and a healthy economy go hand in hand.
My Clean Air Plan will improve America's health and America's economy. Compared to the Bush administration's policies, my Clean Air Plan will prevent more than 100,000 premature deaths and more than two million asthma attacks through the year 2020.
Specifically, my four-part plan will:
Set tough standards for the worst sources of air pollution, starting with electric power plants;
Crack down on corporate polluters;
Use American technology and market-based approaches to meet air pollution challenges with innovative, job-creating solutions; and
Restore trust in the environmental stewardship of the White House.
Power plants produce huge amounts of air pollutants that threaten the health of millions. To protect the health of all Americans, I will set tough new standards for power plants, such as those in Senator James Jeffords' Clean Power Act.
We must also act aggressively to reduce air toxins. I will fully implement the Clean Air Act, set new national standards for the most dangerous pollutants, and revoke the Bush Administration's efforts to allow older plants to continue polluting at high rates even as they undertake massive expansion.
Plus, I'll put the environmental cop back on the beat.
The Bush Administration has cut enforcement. I will make polluters pay their way, by rigorously enforcing environmental laws, and returning EPA inspections and personnel to the levels they were at before Bush became President.
Breaking the law must never pay for a polluter. That's why I'll stiffen fines for environmental polluters and double fines against repeat offenders.
President Bush has failed to encourage industry innovation. Working with business leaders, public health experts, and state officials, I'll develop fresh incentives for businesses to modernize while reducing air pollution.
Today, innovative technologies are often slow to market because companies are skeptical about their benefits. My administration will accelerate the adoption of new technologies by providing the testing needed to assess their efficacy.
We must also use market approaches to lower compliance costs. Such programs are a proven tool for dealing with problems like acid rain which impose similar risks on residents over a large geographic area. But I will not support the trading of toxic pollutants, like mercury. When it comes to toxins, we must ensure that reductions are achieved at every site so that no community is unfairly burdened.
The Bush Administration has undermined states' abilities to adopt stronger-than-federal pollution standards. I will protect state prerogatives to advance innovation in pollution control.
We must restore trust in our stewardship of the environment.
The Bush administration violated our trust -- by censoring scientific information on the impacts of global warming, by failing to provide accurate information on air pollution risks in New York City after 9/11, by withholding information from members of Congress, and by making energy policy behind closed doors with its campaign contributors.
I will tell the American people the unvarnished truth about air pollution. I will put an end to backroom deals with big polluters.
In a Clark administration, America will resume its rightful place as the world leader in efforts to avert environmental disaster. And I'll start with real Clean Air controls.
My administration will also take on the threats posed by climate change, which range from droughts, floods, extreme storms and wild fires to financial ruin and tides of migrants.
Our President dismisses the threat of climate change, disparages the research of respected scientists and sneers at energy efficiency as nothing more than a civic gesture. The Bush Administration even argues that using existing technologies to address the threat of climate change will hurt the economy. That's nonsense.
We must recapture the lead from foreign competitors on the environmental technologies that American scientists and businesses pioneered. It's good for our environment and good for business.
Spurring energy efficiency and capturing waste energy will enhance America's competitiveness. The fastest growing energy industries in the world are wind and solar, but much of that growth is benefiting Japanese and European companies. American companies should dominate the next generation of the energy industry. If European and Japanese companies can reduce emissions and increase profitability, American companies can do it too.
We have a President who mocks environmental concerns and sacrifices our air water and forests for the benefit of well-connected companies. A President who embarrasses us abroad by lending credibility to spurious science.
Every day that I served in the Army I had to make tough decisions about the security of our country. And every day, I made these decisions based on one factor and one factor only: the best interest of the United States of America.
America deserves a president they can trust with their future, a president who understands that security means more than the projection of military might. America needs a president who will protect our borders and our environment.
I intend to be that president.
Thank you.
» Read Clark's Clean Air Plan
» Read Clark's Turnaround Pledge (PDF)
» State by State Breakdown of Goals
And here's a link to his plan to protect the environment. HE CARES.
http://clark04.com/downloads/pdf/Clark04_Environment.pdf
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