The LCV Scorecard provides objective, factual information about the most important environmental legislation considered and the corresponding voting records of all members of Congress. It represents a consensus of experts from more than 20 respected environmental and conservation organizations who selected the key votes on which members should be graded. Scores are calculated on a scale of 0 to 100 based on the number of pro-environment votes cast out of the total number measured. Absences are counted as a negative vote. To view the 2006 scorecard, please click here. The last six years of Dennis Kucinich’s LCV scores are above, followed by his lifetime LCV score. The lifetime LCV score represents the career average for all years served in office. For more about the Environmental Voting Record click here.

Environmental Overview

What accomplishments or experiences would you cite as influences on your approach to environmental or conservation issues? These may be professional or personal.

"I grew up on Lake Erie, part of the largest source of fresh water in the world and an environmental icon. The burning of the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, my hometown, is considered to be a catalyst of the environmental movement. I grew up witnessing the environmental aftermath of a former industrial Mecca. These are only a handful of the motivators for my connection to the environment."

Global Warming & Energy priorities for first 100 days

As you know, a common rubric for measuring the results of a new presidential administration is to evaluate priorities for its first 100 days in office. The League of Conservation Voters believes that the one issue area voters will be most focused on, when it comes to the environment, is energy and global warming. If you are sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, what will be your priorities in the energy and global warming arena for your first 100 days in office, and why? These may be achievable by executive action, legislative action, international action, or appointments.

"No issue will affect our lives more than global warming. The devastating impacts around the world of just one degree Centigrade of warming are already obvious: the melting of polar ice and glaciers, coral bleaching, increased droughts, changes in growing regions and the length of the growing season, and flooding.

We are the most prosperous country on Earth and we contribute 25% of all Green House Gas pollution responsible for warming of the Earth’s climate system. Per capita, we consume more fossil fuel than any other country on Earth--about 0.07 barrels/person/day versus a global average of 0.01 barrels/person/day. The need to address climate change coupled with increasing evidence that oil reserves have peaked around the world (oil production has declined in 27 of 51 oil-producing nations) points to the need to replace our energy sources with clean, renewable energy. The US must establish a clear vision for a future that does not depend on the fossil fuel technology of the past that has proven to be susceptible to economic perturbances and acts of terrorism. We must also transition away from coal, which is responsible for wholesale destruction of entire mountains, the spread of mercury into fish, and countless lung disorders, and a major contribution (about 40% of all CO2 emissions from the US) to greenhouse gas pollution. Transitioning from fossil fuel technology will not only free us from dependence on oil-producing countries and associated political turmoil, but will allow us to reinvigorate our economy through entrepreneurial enterprises to establish an energy system based on clean, renewable energy.

We must lead by example to redesign our future on a framework of broadly defined sustainability, and we must begin immediately with bold moves before more options are lost. Even with pledges and commitments to reduce GHGs at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and the Kyoto Treaty in 1997, GHGs have actually risen 22%. Our time is running short—by some estimates we have less than a decade--even while our targets for GHG reduction become more onerous. Solutions will require extraordinary measures that focus not only on GHG reductions, but on adaptation that includes changing our way of life, reprogramming our institutions, technological innovation and breakthroughs, and, most importantly, finding solutions as part of the global community in order to preserve humanity and help restore balance to the Earth’s systems on which all life depends."

In my first 100 days in office as President of the United States, I will:

• Bring our troops home from Iraq. We must recognize that the war in Iraq was about oil and about perpetuating our dependence on fossil fuels. America needs to move away from dependence upon fossil fuels, and I intend to lead us toward a sustainable future fueled by clean, renewable energy technologies. The mechanics of war are environmentally degrading and devastating to the human condition. Our children deserve a world without end, not a war without end. We must view a transition to sustainable fuels as vital to our national security, as well as to the future health of our planet.
• Establish a National Energy Plan that focuses on incentives and disincentives to switch from fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy sources within the next decade. The National Energy Plan will include action to:
• Enact Federal Regulations that puts in place an immediate cap on CO2 emissions
• eliminate oil, gas and coal subsidies (approximately $50 billion in 2006) and direct those incentives toward renewable energy. Some technologies are on the shelf waiting for federal assistance. Others will require research and development in order to become viable down the road.
• place an immediate moratorium on coal plants that do not have proven CO2 capture and sequestration technologies in place. However, there must be certainty that the stored CO2 will not leak out into the atmosphere. If it does, we could find ourselves with dramatic overnight climate change – a potentially disastrous scenario.
• establish a National Energy Center to provide policy innovation to accelerate the transfer of clean energy to market, to be a source of independent advice to business, government, citizens and other stakeholders.
• establish NASA as the R & D clearing house for renewable energy technology development, and plans for decentralization and diversification of our energy system to regionalized systems based on photovoltaic solar technology, Concentrated Solar Power, wind turbines and wave and tidal technology, and hydrogen power (depending on location and relative abundance of these energy sources) with backup energy system of coal power with CO2 scrubbers and sequestration
• Begin immediate phase-out of existing nuclear power plants, beginning with those that have the worst safety records, generate the most amount of nuclear waste, and/or require the greatest subsidies for operation.
• Create incentives to increase use of mass transit, walking and bicycling
• Create a plan for every Federal agency to conduct an energy audit, establish a new program to integrate objectives of energy efficiency, conservation and transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy technology and zero GHG emission goals.
• Establish a new, super-cabinet post of Climate Change Secretary to oversee:
• The global warming impact of all Federal legislation and agencies
• Transition of all US based multinational corporations and utilities to low or carbon-neutral businesses.
• Interaction with other governments to provide global leadership for international goals for GHG reduction.
• Federal program to spur entrepreneurial innovation for non-carbon based green technologies.
• A Federal program to conduct life-cycle analysis for carbon impact coupled with independent “carbon impact” certification for all products made in the United States.
• A Works Green Administration with regional oversight and funding to create new jobs and economic opportunities especially in low socio-economic regions to implement our plan to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.

  Call for a first meeting (and subsequent meetings every three months) with G8 leaders, China, India and Brazil to promote:

• Withdrawal of subsidies for oil and gas companies, and establishment of equivalent subsidies for clean energy R & D.
• Establishment of a World Environment Organization (like the World Health Organization) to oversee a large international fund through tax on global commerce and/or international currency transaction and international air travel to enable transfer of clean energy technologies to developing countries and to enforce GHG emission reductions.
• Establish new appliance efficiency standards that put American ingenuity to work. Every year the efficiency standard would be reset to be the same as the most efficient appliance in the previous year. Such a system creates powerful competitive incentives to innovate.
• Leadership to establish a “Forests for the Future” initiative with participation in bi-lateral and multi-lateral government efforts to provide technical and financial support to tropical developing countries (e.g. Guyana, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Brazil). The initiative would help them protect their rainforests, the “lungs of the world”, understand how to sustainably utilize the genomic, pharmaceutical, and other potential resources of the rainforest, while helping these countries maintain the globally critical functional ecological processes and rich biological diversity of the world’s remaining rainforests.

Please respond to the previous question but focus on environmental issues outside of the energy and global warming arena.

"Clean air, water and food are basic human rights. I believe that one of the most important roles of our government is to protect these basic necessities for all of our citizens. I will end the assault on the environment of eight years of the Bush Administration that have weakened protective legislation for our natural resources, and have relegated science to the back seat. I will appoint the best scientists to the President’s Science Advisory Council to inform policy decisions at the highest levels of all government agencies in order to protect our natural resources.

However, even if fully funded and enforced, the nation’s patchwork of legislation designed to protect the environment is drastically insufficient to protect the environment. Chemicals continue to pour into our environment as polluters save money by dumping into the commons. Major corporations continue to follow the economic incentives laid before them. As long as it profitable to destroy the Earth, the Earth will continue to be destroyed. The Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Superfund, TSCA, FIFRA, EPCRA, and dozens of other federal environmental protection laws have had some successes but have, on the whole, failed.

They way we handle chemicals is a perfect example. Chemical companies and plastics manufacturers can now release a chemical into the marketplace with minimal, if any testing for human health effects. And it is nearly impossible to have a chemical removed from store shelves, much less cleaned up from the environment. People are expected to know all the different chemicals that are out there and be able to steer clear of them if they are fully informed. This is unrealistic and places the burden in the wrong place. Instead, we should make the Precautionary Principle into law. Under the Precautionary Principle, a company must prove a chemical is safe to human health and to the environment before releasing it into the marketplace. Furthermore, the company that stands to profit from the chemical must pay for independent, third party testing. Finally, the agency in charge would not only have to ask whether the chemical was safe. They would also have to ask bigger picture questions like: is there a way to perform the same task without this chemical in a way that would do less environmental damage (like using Integrated Pest Management instead of a new pesticide)?

The Clean Air Act, intended to protect our air quality is another example of failed environmental policy. (See my answer to Question 13 below). Air and water pollution has also become a social environmental justice issue because polluting factories are often located in poor communities or communities of color. The only way to prevent such environmental injustices is to ensure the community has a legally binding voice on par with the regulators and the polluter, and to ensure that the polluting companies are responsible for clean-up and better yet, measures to prevent toxic chemicals from polluting our common air and water resources. When polluters have to treat the public as equals instead of obstacles, there will be less pollution.

To ensure that our food is safe and produced in ways that minimize impact on our environment, I will lead efforts to enact a new Food and Farm Bill that supports sustainable agriculture and fishing methods. This will restore the vitality of our critical soil resources, diversify our crops and find ways to encourage young people to enter into the noble profession of farming, and take away welfare subsidies for huge agribusinesses. Our ocean resources have also been endangered by years of abuse by unsustainable fishing practices and destruction of marine habitats. Overfishing is neither economically nor environmentally sustainable. I will require fishing methods that ensure the long-term viability of the stock and the marine ecosystem.

The government must lead by example. I will ensure that “sustainability” is an operating principle for every government agency by transitioning to clean energy technology, retrofitting of buildings, and raising awareness among all government employees of the importance of this principle in their work and daily lives.

And finally, in the international arena, I will join with world leaders to reinforce measures that protect globally important rainforests, waterways, and seas. I will work to enact a Great Lakes Basin Compact that ensures that the critical water resources of the Great Lakes are sustainably managed, that water is considered to be public trust, and that does not place bottled water companies above the law. I will first withdraw from NAFTA and the WTO, and dismantle other trade agreements and economic policies that endanger human workers or result in unsustainable use of natural resources. What is good for our country and citizens must also be promoted for all other countries and their citizens.

One of the most important things I will do to protect the environment is to reign in corporate power that has been growing while individual economic power has been shrinking. I will ensure elections are clean. I will revisit the corporate charter to reflect the original intent of the charter, which was to make sure any corporation’s primary directive was to serve the public good. I will return to trust busting to reverse the destructive consolidation and homogenization of entire economic sectors from oil to health care to media ownership.

Our natural resources are the source of our wealth and our welfare. We must do all we can to protect them."

Priority compared to other issues for first 100 days

Many candidates for office, not just for president, intend or promise to do great things on many issues. How would you say environmental or conservation issues would rank as a priority for you in your first 100 days when compared to other issues? Why? Do you intend to personally attend to these issues?

"Our global environment is the foundation for all life on earth and it is being assaulted on many fronts. Minimizing our impact on the environment will be a fundamental principle of my administration, and it will be integrated at every level. As indicated in Question 1, I will work to transition the country from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy to address climate change. This will be my top priority. Protecting our air, water, soil and ocean resources also ranks very high on my agenda. I recognize that addressing environmental issues at the same time addresses many social, economic and health problems we face, and that is why I consider caring for the environment as fundamental to all these issues. Action needs to be taken on many fronts to face these challenges. I see the world as interconnected and interdependent through trade, through Internet communications, and through global resources--the atmosphere and the oceans--we share. I will therefore move the United States in an entirely different direction in our relationship with the rest of the world. President I will be ready to take on these challenges and reach out to the global community."

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