5 ideas for Barack Obama on the environment

We asked Ian Bowles, secretary of energy and environmental affairs in Massachusetts, for five green ideas for our new president-elect. Here is his report:

By Ian Bowles
Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs

As President-elect Obama has said, the environmental challenge of our time is global climate change, and the single best thing he can do as the new president is to start moving the nation, and the world, toward the clean energy economy of the future – capitalizing on opportunities to reduce energy costs, increase energy independence, and create new jobs.

Governor Patrick has been blazing this trail here in Massachusetts, and the tailwind from a new federal-state partnership can’t come soon enough. Putting that vision into place will require steps both great and small:

1. Establish a strong cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the economy, auctioning, rather than giving away, emissions allowances to provide resources that can be put to work increasing energy efficiency, promoting renewable and clean energy technologies, and creating the green jobs of the future.

2. While Congress develops this legislation, use existing regulatory authority to begin regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, as required by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA, and pushing U.S. automakers to develop a super-efficiency fleet of new cars by approving a waiver, denied by the Bush Administration, that will allow 11 states, including Massachusetts, to adopt stricter emissions standards.

3. Rejoin global climate change treaty talks and offer an affirmative American leadership proposal that will move developed and developing countries alike toward clean energy technologies and steep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

On other critical environmental issues, President-elect Obama should take action to:

4. Re-establish the “Roadless Area Conservation Rule” in order to preserve the last remaining wildlands in our national forest system. This rule, adopted by the U.S. Forest Service in 2001 but undermined throughout the Bush administration, protects 58.5 million acres of unspoiled land in 39 states and preserves them for public access and recreation, including hiking, fishing, hunting, camping and mountain biking.

5. Restore scientific credibility and legitimacy at the Environmental Protection Agency. For eight years, EPA’s regulatory process has been trumped by politics, while scientific evidence has been too often ignored. It is time to put environmental decision-making at the federal level back on solid scientific footing.

Readers, do you agree with Secretary Bowles's ideas? Have a few of your own? Let us know in our comments section.