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Bill Weld on Environment
Libertarian Party nominee for Vice Pres.; former GOP MA Governor; 2020 GOP Presidential Challenger
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I'm a lifelong environmentalist, like Theodore Roosevelt
Q: Many Republicans have praised the president's deregulatory push especially around rules around the environment. Isn't that something Republicans should be excited about?Bill Weld: No, it is not. And the regulations that the president has rolled
back are regulations dear to my heart to protect clean air & clean water in the United States. I'm a lifelong environmentalist. The Republican Party has a rich tradition in conserving our environment. Theodore Roosevelt started a national park service.
It goes all the way back to Abraham Lincoln. The Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act were enacted when Richard Nixon was president. Mr. Trump is tossing that out the window in order to do whatever might be beneficial to the coal companies.
But they deserve no credit for their deregulator efforts in the environmental area. The only other regulations they really rolled back are the regs designed to protect little people in the event of another 2008 financial crisis.
Source: Business Insider 2019 GOP presidential primary debate
, Sep 24, 2019
Protect environment with competition, not regulation
Is the climate changing? Probably. Is man contributing to that change? Probably. The question is whether politicians' efforts to regulate, tax and manipulate the private sector are effective. Governors Johnson and Weld believe that the federal
government should prevent future harm by focusing on regulations that protect us from harm, rather than needlessly costing American jobs and freedom to pursue a political agenda. Protect the Environment. Promote Competition. Incentivize Innovation.
Source: 2016 vice-presidential campaign website, JohnsonWeld.com
, Aug 8, 2016
1996 River Protection Act: 9,000 miles of land use rules
In Massachusetts's political lore, Bob Durand, a longtime environmental lobbyist, will be forever linked to Weld. In August, 1996, the two of them dove together into the Charles River, in Boston, to celebrate the passage of the Rivers Protection Act,
which placed restrictions on the use of land alongside some nine thousand miles of rivers across the state. Durand, a Democratic state senator at the time, had authored the bill, and Weld, then the governor, had signed it.
Source: New Yorker magazine on 2016 vice-presidential hopefuls
, Jun 4, 2016
Favored EPA's electric car mandate and stricter smog limits
Weld was a supporter of stricter environmental regulations being promulgated by the EPA. In 1997 he joined Governor Whitman of New Jersey in pushing the EPA to establish "stricter limits on smog."
In 1994 Weld led his administration in pushing for the EPA to require an electric car mandate. The New York Times reported: In Massachusetts, the Environmental Affairs Secretary,
Source: Conservative Review, "5 Statist Positions": 2016 Veepstakes
, May 19, 2016
OpEd: Supports expansive environmental regulations
Bill Weld truly mixes fiscal conservatism with social liberalism. Does the strange combination of thorough economic conservatism and social liberalism make Weld a libertarian?
Not unless libertarians also support expansive environmental regulations, gun control, and affirmative action.
Source: W. James Antle III in Spectator Magazine
, Aug 25, 2005
Page last updated: Feb 25, 2020