Mike Gravel on Environment Libertarian for President; Former Dem. Senator (AK); withdrew from Presidential primary July 2019

Eliminate all single-use plastics

1971 support of SST conflicted with environmentalists

But environmentalists killed the SST in the end. The Senate defeated a $290 million spending request to keep the project going. As I feared, a more advanced military supersonic jet was built in its place. The environmental impact made by the world’s militaries is still little understood or appreciated.

I lost, but I had battled openly--I was no ideologue. I could even side with Jackson and Nixon, my sworn enemies, and oppose environmentalists, my allies, if I believed in something.

Strengthen Clean Water Act & Clean Air Act

Gravel supports the following principles regarding the environment:
• Strengthen the regulation and enforcement of the Clean Water Act.
• Strengthen the regulation and enforcement of the Clean Air Act.
• Strengthen emission controls on all gasoline and diesel-powered engines, including cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles.
• Strengthen fuel efficiency standards on all gasoline and diesel-powered engines, including cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles.

To get Americans to conserve, change the tax structure

A: Very simple, change our tax structure. Have a fair tax where people are taxed on what they spend rather than what they earn. And our tax system is totally corrupt right now. And so if we now have a retail sales tax, you’ll take this nation of ours from a consuming nation to a savings nation. And that’s the most significant thing we can do to alter climate change.

Iraq funds could build 4 million homes for Katrina victims

KUCINICH: Absolutely. The aftermath underscores everything that’s wrong in this country about race.

GRAVEL: Yes. And just keep in mind, if we weren’t squandering our treasure on this terrible war that we didn’t have to start, we would have 4 million housing units available, & a good portion of them could go to Katrina residents.

DODD: I would as well. New Orleans and Katrina have become a symbol of everything that went wrong with this administration’s failure to respond to a people in need.

CLINTON: I have proposed a 10-point Gulf Coast Recovery Agenda, because even if we were to give people a right, there is nothing to return to.

BIDEN: It’s an American problem. We should guarantee the reconstruction.

RICHARDSON: Yes, I would support that. I would also support the Katrina Recovery Act.

EDWARDS: This is an issue I care about personally and deeply.

Support a carbon tax and stop fighting wars for oil

Sponsored bill for Congress to decide land use, not DOI.

OnTheIssues.org EXPLANATION: Public lands are open for grazing, recreational, and other public uses. Prior to this bill, the Secretary of the Interior or the President would decide when to declare parcels of public land as a "national monument," which has much more restrictive land use. This bill proposes to let Congress decide when the parcel is over 5,000 acres, instead of the Secretary of the Interior deciding without Congress.

OFFICIAL CONGRESSIONAL SUMMARY: A bill to amend the Act entitled "An Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities", approved June 8, 1906, to provide congressional review of Presidential monument proclamations, and to amend the Act entitled "Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976", approved October 21, 1976, to alter the congressional review procedures of land withdrawals.

EXCERPTS FROM BILL:

Antiquities Act Amendments of 1979
• Amends the Antiquities Act to define "objects of historic or scientific interest" to include specified items. Stipulates that such objects must be directly associated with human activities.
• Requires congressional approval of any Presidential proclamation of a national monument before it can effect a reservation of public lands in excess of 5,000 acres.
• Permits the continuance of uses of public lands within a national monument which were valid uses prior to the designation of such lands as a monument, including hunting, guiding, hiking, boating, and use of motorized vehicles.
• Stipulates that such uses must not adversely affect the objects sought to be protected by the reservation.
• Grants such provisions governing the proclamation of national monuments retroactive effect as of October 14, 1978.
• Amends the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 to require congressional approval of withdrawals of public lands in excess of 5,000 acres by the Secretary of the Interior.

Sponsored bill allowing tax deduction for recycling costs.

OnTheIssues.org EXPLANATION: This bill would make costs for recycling be tax-deductible for businesses that build facilities to handle recyclable beverage containers.

OFFICIAL CONGRESSIONAL SUMMARY: Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exclude from gross income interest on industrial development bonds the proceeds of which are to be used to provide for the construction, reconstruction, erection, or acquisition of a beverage container facility used in connection with a law prohibiting or discouraging the sale of beverages in nonreturnable containers.