Current Green Party Platform
III. ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY


See: http://www.gp.org/

A. ENERGY POLICY

If we do not alter our energy use soon and drastically, the ecological crisis may be exacerbated past a point where it can be resolved. A comprehensive energy policy must be a critical element of our environmental thinking. Investing in ENERGY EFFICIENCY and RENEWABLE ENERGY is key to sustainability.

1. We call for the development of STATE ENERGY POLICIES that include taxes and/or fines on energy "waste", and the funding of energy research, including credits for alternative and sustainable energy use such as solar, wind, hydrogen and biomass.

2. We encourage the creation and design of human environments that are as energy-efficient as possible. We support the phasing out of the most ecologically harmful sources of energy.

3. We urge that new construction be required by the year 2000 to achieve one-quarter to one-half its heating energy from the sun. Incentives/disincentives should be put in place to move utilities toward establishing SOLAR POWER STATIONS to augment and eventually supplant fossil-fuel generated electricity. We note that recent technological breakthroughs have made central solar power cost-competitive. Greens support economies of scale in production that would greatly reduce the price of this "clean" energy.

4. "TRUE-COST PRICING", which reflects the "realistic" cost of products including ecological damage and externalities caused during the manufacturing process, must be adopted to achieve accurate financial accounting. Only with a shift in the way we are seeing, can we accurately assess our energy choices and costs - and the long-term impacts of the energy decisions we are making.

B. NUCLEAR ISSUES

1. We call for cancellation of the WASTE ISOLATION PILOT PROJECT (WIPP), the nation's first weapons complex nuclear dump, in southern New Mexico.

2. We believe environmentally sound alternatives to underground storage can be developed and we oppose the transport of nuclear waste until such alternatives are found.

3. In the meantime, we call for permanent above-ground, continuously MONITORED RETRIEVABLE STORAGE (MRS) of nuclear waste at or near the sites where it is generated

4. It is evident that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with its goal of promoting nuclear energy (most recently via so-called "fast track licensing" designed to avoid community opposition) should be replaced with a nuclear decommissioning board charged with the phase-out of nuclear power.

5. The import and export of nuclear and toxic wastes should be banned and a heavy fine imposed for violators.

6. We call for independent, public-access radiation monitoring at all commercial and military nuclear facilities.

7. We support applicable environmental impact statements (EIS) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis with citizen participation at all nuclear sites.

8. We support an immediate and intensive CAMPAIGN TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC about nuclear problems, including disposal, clean-up and long-term dangers.

C. WASTE MANAGEMENT

1. Legal requirements and standards for businesses applying for zoning permits should be formulated to require disclosure of toxics which may be used.

2. Past violations, illegal use and misuse of hazardous materials have to be remedied appropriately. Those responsible for toxic waste dumping, spills, and contamination on or off their sites should be responsible for costs of complete clean-up. In addition, we call for levying sizable fines on those found guilty of violating such standards.

3. We endorse a revisiting of "Super-Fund" legislation to make these clean up laws more effective.

4. Waste management is a critical challenge to the survival of the modern world. Real reductions in per capita consumption of materials, and significant increases in the efficiency with which materials are used, is a problem that must be faced sooner rather than later. We support RECYCLING at every level of the economy. We endorse SOURCE REDUCTION and municipal programs that particularly focus on household recycling.

5. We oppose INCINERATION of municipal solid waste, sewage, non- biological medical waste, and toxic waste. We support a moratorium on any new incinerators that burn such materials and a rapid shutdown of existing incinerators that do so.

6. We oppose shipping of toxic wastes across national borders, and the SHIPMENT OF TOXIC/HAZARDOUS OR RADIOACTIVE WASTES, without regulation, across any political borders.

7. We oppose the exportation, under any circumstances, of chemicals that are prohibited in the United States.

D. FOSSIL FUELS

1. We are aware of the environmental hazards that accompany the use of fossil fuels and of their non-sustainability and eventual depletion. We call for TRANSITION ENERGY STRATEGIES, including the use of relatively clean-burning natural gas, as a way to reorder our energy priorities and over-reliance on traditional fuels.

2. We call for a gradual phase-out of gasoline and other fossil fuels. Until gasoline driven cars can be replaced, we advocate FUEL EFFICIENCY standards, a "gas guzzler" tax on new low mileage vehicles, and a "gas sipper" rebate on high mileage vehicles.

3. We advocate fair "buybacks" of the most polluting and least efficient vehicles to remove these vehicles from the road.

4. We oppose further development of our nation's outer continental shelf for oil drilling or exploration.

5. We acknowledge the relative benefits that can be achieved in the production of and use of NATURAL GAS in current economic alternatives and transition strategies.

6. Public ownership and/or strong public regulation of UTILITIES should be encouraged to advance energy efficient policies. Appropriate tax-exempt bonds should be authorized to finance public ownership in utilities. Tax-exempt bonds should be authorized to allow publicly owned utilities to finance conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy projects.

E. RENEWABLE ENERGY

1. Overall, it is essential in the long-term that ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SYSTEMS be put in place that produce goods that are durable, repairable, reusable, recyclable, and energy-efficient, using both non-toxic materials and nonpolluting production methods.

2. We call on regulatory agencies to include "life-cycle" considerations in their standard-setting process for product approval. We promote citizen participation in this process.

3. Ultimately, environmentally destructive technologies, processes, and products should be replaced with alternatives that are environmentally benign. Producers/manufacturers must look to redesigning their products. Legislation that will assist this transition (including bans, taxation, recycled content standards and economic incentives/disincentives such as taxation, special fees, and/or deposits) will be required in a any concerted move toward system-wide sustainability.

F. TRANSPORTATION POLICY

1. We encourage providing a broad range of incentives for ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION, including natural gas vehicles, solar and electric vehicles, bicycles and bikeways, and MASS TRANSIT.

2. As a nation we must push for motor vehicle fuel efficiency, raising the standard to a minimum of 45 miles per gallon by 2005.

3. We must require that an increasing percentage of the Federal motor fleet is converted to natural gas and aims at being pollution free over the next decade.

4. We must expand our country's network of rail lines, high speed regional passenger service, and urban light rail systems.

5. We support efforts to develop inexpensive, efficient solar cells, chips and panels via "industrial grade" silicon and other advanced materials.

6. We endorse converting our nation's weapons complex and labs toward civilian RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT. We are especially interested in public/private partnerships that work to create breakthrough battery technology which would enable electric cars (and all solar electric applications) to become energy efficient and market competitive.

G. CLEAN AIR / GREENHOUSE EFFECT / OZONE DEPLETION

1. The strict, comprehensive protections of the "Clean Air Act" must be maintained and enhanced if we are to keep in place effective federal programs that deal with urban smog, toxic air pollution, acid rain and ozone depletion. State and local clean air initiatives should advance and improve national efforts. As an example, California has taken the lead in legislation moving forward stricter clean air and fuel efficiency standards, and vehicle and fleet conversions. These programs should serve as a model for other local, regional and state initiatives.

2. It is said that US industries emit over 20% of greenhouse gases globally. As a nation, we must implement public and private initiatives at every level to support the "GLOBAL CLIMATE TREATY" signed at the "Earth Summit" in 1992, committing industrial nations within a time framework to reducing emissions to 1990 levels.

3. The earth's atmosphere, according to informed scientific opinion, is in great danger due to man-made chemicals and hydrocarbon emissions. Chloro-fluorocarbons (CFC'S), hydrochloro-fluorocarbons, and other related ozone-depleting substances should be banned as soon as is possible.

4. GREENHOUSE GASES and the threat of GLOBAL WARMING must be addressed by the international community in concert, through international treaties and conventions, with the industrial nations at the forefront of this vital effort.

H. LAND USE

Greens are advocates for the Earth. All the rivers, lakes, shorelines, wildlife. This is our birthright and our home - the green Earth. When we see the first picture ever taken of our green oasis from space, photographed from the window of the Apollo flight, we marvel at the preciousness of life. We remember John Muir's and Edward Abbey's call to protect what is critical to our spirit. Experiencing the wilderness calls us to preserve pristine nature. We are advocates for our home. Our advocacy is based on our love of nature and our recognition that it is beyond us.

1. Greens look to the future and support "conservative" conservation practices as well as "liberal" approaches and programs, both having a place as long as good land stewardship is in evidence.

2. We take a BIOREGIONAL VIEW of the ecosystem, acknowledging political boundaries while noting that the land, air and water, the interconnected biosphere, is a unique and precious "community", deserving careful consideration and protection.

3. We encourage social ownership and use of land at the community, local, and regional level, particularly in the form of community and conservation LAND TRUSTS, under covenants of ecological responsibility.

4. Appropriate land-use PLANNING should serve to prevent activities that adversely affect public and adjacent lands (for example, mining operations and oil and gas extraction cannot be permitted to cause water pollution - and timber cutting cannot be allowed to destroy habitat and streams, while producing severe soil erosion).

5. We call for repeal of the "Mining Act of 1872". We demand a halt to federal mineral, oil and gas, and resource give-aways, "royalty holidays", and flagrant concessions to the mining, energy and timber industries; and an immediate crackdown on their evasions and reporting fraud draining billions of dollars annually from the public treasury.

6. We believe special attention must be given to the restoration and protection of RIPARIAN AREAS, which are critical habitats in healthy ecosystems.

7. We call for strict CLEAN-UP ENFORCEMENT of industrial activities, for example, of tailings, pits and run-off from mining operations via agreements with companies that can include posting of site-restoration bonds prior to commencement of operations.

8. We call for a halt to all current international funding policies that promote destruction of forest ecosystems and we call for an end to the trade in endangered hardwoods.

9. We support laws that promote paper recycling and mandate SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY practices.

10. We urge protection of "old growth" forests, careful restrictions of commercial cutting on federal and state lands, a ban on all clearcutting, and a reduction of road building on public lands.

11. We are sensitive to the needs of local and rural communities and do not endorse overly restrictive or punitive restrictions on local logging.

12. We support restoration of degraded forest ecosystems through the development of "value-added" economies, second-growth logging, and certified wood products.

13. We advocate raising grazing fees on public land to approximate fair market value and encourage GRAZING REFORM that brings together traditional users and concerned local citizens in new working relationships.

14. We support policies that favor small-scale ranchers over corporate operations (which are often used as tax write-offs, a practice which undermines family ranches.) Eliminating large corporate allotments will ensure more sustainable levels of grazing, benefiting the land and community.

15. We oppose any selling off of our National Parks; the commercial "privatizing" of public lands; and/or cutbacks or exploitation in our nation's wilderness areas.

16. Effective land and resource management practices must be founded on stewardship, such as incorporated in a "LAND ETHIC" as articulated by Aldo Leopold. Additional public involvement via active and well-funded RESOURCE MANAGEMENT DISTRICTS and COUNCILS will aid this long-term process on the use of federal and state trust lands (which are currently controlled by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Forest Service, National Park Service, and State Land Offices).

17. We support state bans on ANIMAL DAMAGE CONTROL (ADC), the federal agency that has been killing wildlife indiscriminately in the West since 1931.

18. We urge comprehensive, base-line mapping of our nation's biodiversity resources; consideration of "wildlife ranching" and policies that desirably increase native big-game populations; and implementation of extensive soil erosion control programs.

19. Our future is in the hands, and eyes, and dreams of our children. Recreational opportunities are the beginning of lifelong appreciation of our natural environment. We should all have opportunities to experience nature firsthand. The "call of the wild" is in all of us. Outdoor recreation, sports, hiking, adventuring, educational programs for children, nature study - these are essential to the wholeness of life.

I. WATER

Together we must look ahead and plan for future water uses, as well as today's needs. Who can disagree that clean and sufficient water resources will determine what kind of future we have?

1. With the longer term in mind, we call for elimination of wasteful subsidies on the use of water in agriculture and for municipal water rates to be set high enough, or that other INCENTIVES/DISINCENTIVES be set in place, to discourage the wasteful use of water.

2. We support the federal "Clean Water Act" setting strict requirements for sewage discharges, wetland protection and water quality standards. Recent moves to rollback protections would in effect create a dirty water act. Our right to clean water is non-negotiable.

3. Given the profound importance of clean water, we support the establishment of federal, state, and local GROUNDWATER PROTECTION agencies with authority to establish standards for the use of water; to provide tough and timely enforcement of laws enacted; and to protect our aquifers from overuse, depletion and contamination.

4. We endorse alternative solutions to water treatment and clean-up, for example CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS and biological remediation.

5. We acknowledge Native American rights regarding water, and urge fair and equitable solutions with tribes on the part of the courts and State Water Engineers.

J. AGRICULTURE

The human species is at the top of the food chain and is, therefore, very vulnerable to the degrading of the environment and the loss of species. If for no other reason than our own preservation, we should work to protect our environment and the diversity of our region's and planet's rich life forms.

1. We call for the establishment of an ecologically based sustainable agricultural system that moves as rapidly as possible towards regional/bioregional self reliance.

2. An adequate FOOD SUPPLY is tied to many of our nation's domestic, export, foreign aid, geopolitical and related overseas goals. We support anti-hunger and "Food Stamp" programs at home, and support assistance to foreign countries and their people that moves them toward SELF-SUFFICIENCY and sustainability in food production.

3. WORLD HUNGER can be best addressed by FOOD SUPPLY INDEPENDENCE. Population growth and accompanying deprivation, which has led to increased poverty and environmental destruction in the Third World, can be replaced by a decent standard of living, and sustainable populations and growth. Goals and policies that aim at sustainable production to end hunger while preserving the environment are crucial for success of these efforts. Food security is a base-line necessity.

4. We call for phasing out the use of man-made pesticides and artificial fertilizers, and funding for research to find acceptable alternatives.

5. We support "Integrated Pest Management" techniques, as an alternative to current chemical-based agriculture.

6. We support the adoption of "organic certification standards" and support regional efforts to broaden this effort by reaching out to and identifying growers and buyers of organic produce.

7. We call for a reconsideration of the potentially far-reaching and unforeseen effects of seed and plant hybridization and especially of genetic engineering in agricultural systems. We are particularly concerned about loss of and increasing threat posed to plant diversity, which must be saved, maintained and enhanced if we are to have an authentic ALTERNATIVE GREEN REVOLUTION, based on diversity, sustainable agriculture and local self-empowerment.

8. We generally oppose the patenting of life forms, including gene-splicing techniques, and call for a moratorium on agricultural genetic engineering while an evaluation of its effects on ecological and social sustainability is carried out. The implications of a corporate takeover, and resulting monopolization of genetic "intellectual property" by the bioengineering industry, are immense. With the recent introduction of the world's first genetically engineered (and duly patented) tomato, we need to reexamine our government's oversight of this untested, unproven field.

9. We advocate REGIONALIZING our food system and decentralizing agricultural lands, production, and distribution.

10. We support research, within the public and private arenas, including educational institutions, for sustainable, organic, and ecologically balanced agriculture.

K. BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

Ecological systems are diverse and interlocking, and nature's survival strategy can best be found in the adaptability that comes as a result of biological diversity. Although many people may think first of tropical rain forests in reference to the richness of (and threat to) biological diversity, we believe that diversity close to home is worthy of saving, as are the myriad species within the rain forest and its teeming canopy.

1. The Green Party supports a strong, enforceable "ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT" based on the principles of conservation biology.

2. We look to the "CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY", first adopted at the "Earth Summit" in 1992, as a primary statement of purpose regarding how we can act to preserve and sustain our common genetic resources. Greens emphasize conservation of "natural" populations and ecosystems, and we seriously question the demands of the US to amend this unprecedented international agreement on behalf of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, with their insistence upon protection of their "intellectual property" and technology transfer rights. Within these demands are inconsistencies which can threaten the Convention's overall goals.

3. We encourage support of and public access to seed banks and seed collections that emphasize "DEEP DIVERSITY", particularly through traditional and heirloom seeds.

4. We call for wide-spread education on the critical importance of efforts being made (including "backyard biodiversity" gardening) to replant indigenous plant life where it has dwindled or been lost.

5. Corporate agribusiness is founded on F-1 hybrid seeds, proprietary products that cannot be saved season-to-season and have to be bought from the company store at each new planting. We discourage monopolistic production of high-tech, hybrid seeds, the basis of the evolving industry of "MONOCULTURE" agriculture - i.e., agribusiness which relies on NON-SUSTAINABLE METHODS (single crop varieties bred with industrial traits, and grown with high energy, chemical and pesticide inputs).

6. We know that agriculture and food comprise the world's largest economic market. We find it of great concern that the practices of corporate agribusiness are leading, as scientists are beginning to point out, to diminishing yields; increasing petro-chemical fertilizer and pesticide costs; serious top-soil loss; non-point, run-off pollution of waterways and aquifers; and the return of resistant pests and blights requiring ever-larger doses of environmentally harmful pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and/or miticides.

7. Monocultures have also led to a massive loss of biodiversity as they have displaced traditional varieties and seed stocks. We encourage the use of diverse natural varieties, those passed down over many generations, called "open-pollinates" because they can be grown out, the best plants' seeds being saved season-to-season. In practice, we support this as the basis of an "Alternative Green Revolution", sustainable agriculture that is closely connected to the environment, and not dependent on outside companies and their industrial monopolies.

8. We oppose in principle international trade agreements (GATT and NAFTA in particular) which have precedent-setting provisions protecting trans-national, corporate control of the "INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY" of their genes, hybrid seeds and proprietary products.

9. Greens call for a move away from corporate control of agriculture (and the resultant extinction of traditional plant varieties) and instead envision a healthy and sustainable food system, based on crop diversity, community empowerment, self-sufficiency, cooperative marketing, recycling, seed saving, local (and fresh) production, and organic methods.

10. The struggle over the production and quality of our food supply is critical and has yet to be determined. The outcome of this struggle will have an intimate connection to our personal health and the future biological diversity of our environment. We believe strongly that we must work to bring this message every community throughout the world.

11. Finally, as Greens, we must add that the mark of a humane and civilized society truly lies in how we treat the least protected among us. To extend rights to other sentient, living beings is our responsibility and a mark of our place among all of creation. We find cruelty to animals to be repugnant and criminal. We call for an intelligent, compassionate approach to the treatment of animals.



Return to CONTENTS.