The Environment
What Hank believes:
- We cannot achieve or maintain a high standard of living if our environment is severely degraded or damaged.
- The window of opportunity to secure our natural environment against existential threats produced by human activity is rapidly closing.
- Humans are in large part responsible for climate change, a potentially devastating threat to our security and health that must immediately be addressed.
- Clean water is becoming increasingly scarce, and efforts must begin now to secure safe, clean drinking water for all Americans, today and in the future.
- We must immediately work to reduce U.S. dependence upon and consumption of oil, a scarce resource that is approaching its “peak,” or the moment after which production will continually fall.
- If it continues to proceed so recklessly without international cooperation and coordination, unregulated human economic activity will destroy our planet’s delicately-balanced ecological equilibrium.
What Hank has done:
- Awarded 100% for his environmental voting record in 2018.
- Cosponsored H.R. 2696, Executive Office of Environmental Justice Act of 2017, which establishes an Office of Environmental Justice in the White House to address impacts of climate change on minority and low-income populations.
- Cosponsored H.R. 2695, the Environmental Justice Small Grants Program Act, which establishes a small grants program for educational programs, research initiatives, and engagement with frontline communities.
- Cosponsored H.R. 1664, the Investing in America: A Penny for Progress Act, which requires an increase in federal taxes on gasoline, diesel fuel, and kerosene after 2017. The revenue from these taxes would contribute to the improvement of highways, bridges, and mass transit systems.
- Cosponsored H.R. 558, the Kennesaw Mountain National Battle Field Park Boundary Adjustment Act, which expands the park to include 8 new acres of land, currently known as Wallis House and Harriston Hill.
- Original cosponsor of H.R. 494, the Fort Frederica National Monument Boundary Expansion Act, to increase the maximum monument size to 205 acres.
- Cosponsored H.R.5264, the Clean Water Partnership Act, To direct the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, provide grants to States to facilitate the acquisition of land, water, and interests therein, made to substantially improve, preserve, or maintain water quality for an area in perpetuity, and for other purposes.
What Hank will do:
- Never compromise my commitment to the defense of non-renewable resources, healthy ecosystems, wildlife, clean air and water, and pristine national parks. Make energy independence a central cause of my service.
- Demand stringent environmental regulation of industry by the EPA, no matter who is the president.
- Continue to introduce legislation that aims to reduce our overall negative environmental impact, in broad strokes and bit by bit.
