Full 2016 Platform

46^th DRAFT Environment, Energy & the Climate Crisis

Our land and water are in trust for the public and future generations. We have a climate crisis. Every year, we see unprecedented levels of drought, storms, and flooding, causing our forests to burn, our fisheries and crops to fail, and our families to suffer—and far worse is to come. Democrats stand for a clean, safe, and healthy planet, and against floods, fire, and starvation. We acknowledge the scientific reality that immediate and drastic action is needed—and feasible—to prevent destruction. 

We support: 

1. The Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy and the Pacific Coast Climate Leadership Action Plan, together with California, Oregon and British Columbia, to make our region an international leader in climate-saving policy and economic development
2. Net-zero carbon emissions by 2050; and at least the following actions to reduce climate disruption meanwhile, based on current, best-available science:
   1. A carbon tax, starting immediately
   2. Reforesting the tracts burned out by wildfires, and expanding our forests to absorb our excess carbon production
   3. Tax incentives and subsidies for private and commercial electric vehicles, and switching to electric government car fleets, ferries and buses
   4. Replacing fossil fuel infrastructure with renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydrogen, ocean, micro-hydro, geothermal, and biomass
   5. Modernizing the energy grid at the state, regional and national levels
   6. Rejoining and enacting the Paris Climate Accords
   7. Investing in sustainable-energy research and development
   8. Tax incentives and subsidies for energy-saving systems in new and existing construction, such as insulation and solar panels; net-zero emissions in new construction by 2050
   9. Accounting for CO₂ and methane emissions in Environmental Impact Statements
   10. Lawsuits against the EPA to make it do its job and lawsuits against fossil-fuel producers to make them pay for remediation
3. Expanded programs to reduce waste and promote reuse and recycling
4. Toxic waste reduction, including at least the following actions:
   1. Cleaning up Hanford, especially securing the tank-farm waste
   2. Reinstating the Superfund Tax to make polluters pay for cleanup
   3. Encouraging alternative farming methods
   4. Fully fund the EPA, USDA, DOE and other agencies to monitor and enforce compliance with hazardous-waste regulations
   5. A national program requiring electronic equipment manufacturers to recycle and safely dispose of computers, cellphones, and other toxic-metals e-waste
5. Preserving our priceless natural environment by all available means, including:
   1. Maintaining our state and national parks, wetlands and wilderness areas as pristine national treasures
   2. Adequate development buffers and bans on road building, logging and motorized recreation to protect environmentally sensitive areas
   3. Promoting eco-diversity, including adequate river flows for wild salmon and steelhead
   4. Better regional mechanisms to combat watershed pollution and sedimentation
6. Enforcing and strengthening our state's Growth Management Act to protect farmlands and wildlife against further urban sprawl
7. Enforcing and strengthening the Marine Mammal Protection Act
8. Requiring low-impact development techniques, such as gardens and pervious pavement, for new construction and major redevelopment projects
9. Restoring our native fish and shellfish, and protecting them from invasive species
10. Full implementation of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
11. Revising the 1872 Mining Act to end exploitation and extraction in environmentally sensitive public lands and to compensate the public for the resources we own
12. New statewide rules for cement/asphalt plants based on best-available science

We oppose:

1. Shipping more waste to Hanford
2. Government subsidies for coal and other fossil fuels
3. Exporting banned chemicals or toxic waste to other countries
4. Further fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure expansion in the U.S.—especially off of our fragile coastline—beyond the minimum absolutely necessary to facilitate transition to safe energy sources: The only safe policy is to “keep it in the ground”
5. Shipping coal, oil or other fossil fuels through our communities, including oil trains that can derail and set fire to heavily populated cities and towns
6. The Keystone XL Pipeline and any government policy that facilitates drilling or moving the Alberta tar sands
7. Fracking
8. Privatization of public lands and waters