Dean in S.F. for 1st major speech on environment

[jamesinca]

Address will urge tougher standards on factory pollution

Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer Thursday, July 31, 2003

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean is calling for an environmental policy that relies more heavily on wind and solar power, cracks down on pollution from older factories and pushes automakers to improve fuel efficiency standards.

Dean, the leading Democratic presidential candidate in the latest big California public opinion poll, is expected to deliver his first major environmental address of the campaign today at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in San Francisco. The Chronicle obtained an advance copy of his speech.

"Environmental issues are economic issues," he said in the prepared text. "The right-wing radicals want us to believe that we must choose between having a healthy environment or a healthy economy. I believe that a healthy environment will support a healthy economy."

<SNIP>

"Today, we have a Republican president who seeks to destroy (a bipartisan consensus) and reverse decades of responsible environmental policy," the speech said. "We have a president who seems to regard public resources as gifts to be handed out to special interests."

<SNIP>

"Allowing big industry to release more pollutants into the air we breathe, President Bush calls it the 'Clear Skies' program," the speech said. "Allowing Big Timber to denude our forests, the Bush-Cheney administration calls it the 'Healthy Forests' initiative."


He supports a polluter-pay system for Superfund cleanup, a requirement that 20 percent of electricity come from renewable sources by 2020 and a fuel- efficiency standard of 40 miles per gallon by 2015, plus closing the loophole on SUV gas mileage standards.

Asked how he'd handle the powerful lobbying groups in Washington, D.C., that contribute to campaigns and influence laws and policies, Dean said, "They're not contributing anything to my campaign. . . . This whole campaign is about getting out from under special interests."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/07/31/MN198644.DTL

[IDUDOYOU]

1. Will he discuss his A rating from the NRA?

Or will he stumble his way around it if called on like he normally does.

[jamesinca]

2. I don't know on that one

I do know people that will be going to the talk, and I have asked them to let me know what is said. I really do want to hear what all the candidates have to say, except Liberman.

My requirement for the Dem candidate is this: Do more good than harm. From there I will require that he does good 75% of the time. Nobody is perfect. I don't say that to make excuses either. I know not everybody agrees with me all the time either, so I ask 75% from them once they get going.

[el_gato]

4. A rating is a good thing

Unless you think it's a good thing only for right-wing morons to have guns.

[deutsey]

10. I feel the same

To be very general, I'm looking for the candidate whom I feel will do the greatest good for the most people in the country.

[w4rma]

3. He discusses (quite well) his A rating from the NRA here

...
MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to an issue that you seem to break away from liberal Democratic orthodoxy and that’s gun control. This is a brochure in your gubernatorial campaign from the NRA.

“In November we should return a truly pro-gun Governor to office by re-electing Governor Howard Dean.” And again, David Broder’s coverage of your campaign. “Dean bragged that he has ‘an A rating’ from the National Rifle Association... he argued that ‘as Democrats, we ought to say keep the federal laws we have, enforce them, but no new laws.’ Get the gun issue off the table. It cost Al Gore three states—and the presidency.”

Which states did Gore lose because of guns?

GOV. DEAN: I think Montana, Tennessee and West Virginia. There may be more, but those are the ones I would guess, given their patterns with previous elections.

MR. RUSSERT: Democrats in Congress right now are saying that at gun shows, you can buy a gun on Saturday or Sunday and there is no background check, because many law enforcement agencies are closed. They want to extend that deadline. Would you support that kind of gun control?

GOV. DEAN: What I would support—I do support closing the gun show loophole, but I would like to see InstaCheck, which is the same system that we have elsewhere, and I think if it takes keeping somebody on duty in law enforcement agencies, that would be fine. Look, let me explain to you why I take the position I do on gun control. In Vermont, in the last 11 years, we’ve had between a high of 25 and a low of five homicides per year. Most of them, the majority, are domestic related, not many of them have firearms and not one of them would be changed if we had gun control. We essentially have no gun control in Vermont. All we have is you can’t bring guns to school.

Now, I don’t believe for a moment that that’s appropriate for New York or Los Angeles or Washington, D.C. But the point I’m trying to make here is why does gun control have to be a national issue? We have some good federal laws. I support keeping them. We should close the gun show loophole with Instacheck and after that why can’t each state make its own laws? Why can’t each state address what they want to do about gun control as a state? Because what we need in Vermont is not the same thing as what you may need in Washington, D.C.

A guy in Tennessee told me, “Look, when you say gun control to me in Tennessee, it sounds like you want to take away the squirrel rifle that my father gave to me. When you say gun control in New York, it sounds like you want to get the Uzis and the illegal handguns off the street.” It’s two different problems. We have national laws. I’m not in favor of repealing them, but I think additional gun control ought be to be done on a state-by-state basis if the state wants it and we ought not to have a one-size-fits-all federal government approach.

MR. RUSSERT: But keep people traveling from state to state very easily.

GOV. DEAN: That’s right. And Virginia is a perfect example of this. New York claimed that a lot of their guns were coming from Virginia, so they had lax laws, so they signed a bill that said you can only buy one gun a month. That’s a Virginia law. It doesn’t apply to other states. It seems to me it addressed the problem in Virginia successfully. Why can’t we do that?

Democrats are getting killed on gun control. Democratic activists who basically are in favor of gun control are glad to see me coming in the West and the South, because they do not want to lose any more national elections on the gun issue.
...
http://dean2004.blogspot.com/2002_08_25_dean2004_archive.html

[Stuckinthebush]

5. That A rating will help him get Southern voters

Good.

[IDUDOYOU]

6. Oh, so it is better to pick up votes than to do the right thing

Poor rationale for doing something.

[w4rma]

9. DUers are divided on gun regulation

Visit the "gun dungeon" (Justice/Public Safety) forum here on DU and see for yourself:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=118

[LEFTofLEFT]

12. What do you think the right thing is - please tell?

?

[shanti]

13. i support dean

and i'm a yellow dog dem AND i also have no problem with his support on this issue. i'm MUCH more concerned about other issues.

THE DOCTOR IS IN!~

[nocreativename]

16. Have you looked at his statment on guns

He just said it it is up to the states, which i think is good. I live in the inner Mt. West our gun laws should be diffrent than L.A. or NY. We don't have hand gun or shooting problems here.

And he is not going to roll back any laws.

Last point he's good on 75-80% of the other issues that counts for something.

[LuminousX]

21. Support Gun Ownership because it is Correct

I don't see how this has anything to do with Dean on Environment, though. This is truly off topic.

[stickdog]

26. IDODU was just trying to make a point about thread pollution, I think (NT)

[Northwind]

7. One Issue voting

is short-sighted and ultimately self-defeating.

[jamesinca]

8. yep

do more good than harm. for the common good. I can live with a gun nut if the rest of their stuff is pretty good. I would like to add this smart remark, show me somebody who is perfect and I will show you somebody called Jesus Christ. We all have faults. You seem to fault him for his NRA rating, people are here faulting you for being a one issue voter, and I know most of you hate the health care industry; the thing that pays my mortgage and feeds my children. We are all with fault. But we are moving in the same direction here, just with different goals and reasons.

[calimary]

17. I'm not crazy about the gun issue, BUT

it's a great bone to throw the gun nuts (probably a lot in the south and places like Idaho and Montana) - to OFFSET criticism many of those same voters may feel about his approval of civil unions (read - the "dreaded" gay marriage issue). People who dismiss him as too liberal will have to take his NRA rating right in the face like a cream pie. It's a good compromise. While I'm no gun nut myself, this is something I can live with (pardon the odd irony - guns DO kill people).

[Oreegone]

22. Gun NUT?

I think that is totally out of reality. People who have not been raised in the country or on ranches do not understand the many reasons to own a gun. There are predators there are cows giving birth and one or both is dying, there are livestock and horses who break legs or have other injuries that they need to be put down. There are animals wild and tame who tangle themselves in barbed wire fences and need to be put down. Would you suggest the "Gun Nuts" just beat them to death with a rock instead?

I think Dean is totally reasonable, enforce current laws extend further safegaurds to gun shows and let States decide.

[Oreegone]

23. By the way I should have added

Great Job Dr. Dean...Our greatest hope to save us from the current spiral of destruction

Signed:
Dirt Worshipping Tree Hugger

[jamesinca]

24. Those I don't think are the gun nuts

The people that have to have the assualt rifles, not needed to put down an animal on the ranch. The people that have to have the large clip pistol, or the automatic or semi automtics those are the people that I worry about. What legit purpose does the private citizen need a 50 caliber handgun for? Yes one has been produced and released for sale thais last spring early summer.

[Oreegone]

25. I don't argue with you there

But I do think he has a point in that it should be left up to the states with the federal laws now in place. I know lots of Tree hugging Dirt Worshipers who also own guns.

[LEFTofLEFT]

11. First - I don't like the NRA

Second - If Al Gore would have shot a damn duck he would have won the election by a margin too large to cheat around.

Letting the right wing fucks box us in on issue like gun control is stupid.

[UnapologeticLiberal]

20. In an environmental speech, maybe he should

I am not sure if this is true, but somebody told me that in addition to gun rights the NRA also lobbies for strong environmental protections, because you need clean air in order to be able to see when you are hunting and hunt meat that is edible.

Does anyone know if this is true?

[realFedUp]

14. Dean should charge admission like Nader did

$5 a head.

[Cha]

15. Good Luck on your Speech today Howard Dean!

How Nice in San Francisco! One of my favorite places on Earth!

[Larkspur]

18. It sounds like Dean has read Paul Hawken

the author of "The Ecology of Commerce" and "Natural Capitalism". They were popular books in the Clinton-Gore Administration.

[glitch]

19. Great books by Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins

I highly recommend them. Also if you ever get a chance to hear either of them speak they are excellent. I think www.alternativeradio.org has some of their speeches. Amory Lovins' Rocky Mountain Institute www.rmi.org has all of Natural Capitalism available on pdf for free.
Dean's views on energy are the main reason why I am supporting him at this point. And his willingness to fight Bush.

[WilliamPitt]

27. "pushes automakers to improve fuel efficiency standards"

Michigan and Detroit just became an important battlefield for Dean.