Mike Leavitt on Energy & Oil Director of the E.P.A.; former Republican UT Governor

Ban nuclear waste & fuel rods from the state

Voluntary partnerships reduce greenhouse gases economically.

Considering the evidence and the risks of both overreaction and underreaction, the Governors recommend that the federal government continue its climate research, including regional climate research, to improve scientific understanding of global climate change. The Governors also recommend taking steps that are cost-effective and offer other social and economic benefits beyond reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, the Governors support voluntary partnerships to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while achieving other economic and environmental goals.
• The Governors are committed to working in partnership with the federal government, businesses, environmental groups, and others to develop and implement voluntary programs that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in conjunction with conserving energy, protecting the environment, and strengthening the economy.
• The Governors urge that those who have successfully achieved reductions of greenhouse emissions receive appropriate credit for their early actions. The Governors strongly encourage these kinds of voluntary efforts.
• The Governors believe that federally required implementation of any treaty provisions, including those that mandate limits or reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, must not occur before the U.S. Senate ratifies an international agreement and Congress passes enabling legislation.
• The Governors support continued federal funding for research and development technology in this area. They also believe it is essential to engage the private sector by fostering technology partnerships between industry and government. Public-private partnerships serve to achieve desired environmental goals, speed the introduction of new technologies to the marketplace, and meet consumer needs and product affordability goals, while avoiding market distortions and job losses.

Kyoto Treaty must include reductions by all countries.

The Governors recommend that the federal government continue to seek the advice of state and local officials and nongovernmental organizations with expertise in economic, trade, jobs, public health, and environmental issues and assess the potential economic and environmental consequences of proposed policies and measures, including a thorough and broadly accepted analysis of costs and benefits. The Governors recommend that the US:
• not sign or ratify any agreement that mandates new commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the US, unless such an agreement mandates new specific scheduled commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for developing countries within the same compliance period;
• aggressively undertake strategies for including emissions-reduction commitments from developing countries;
• not sign or ratify any agreement that would result in serious harm to the US economy;
• support flexible policies and measures in continuing negotiations that provide an opportunity for the US to meet global environmental goals without jeopardizing US jobs, trade, or economic competitiveness;
• insist on flexible implementation timetables in continuing negotiations that permit affected parties adequate time to plan strategies for meeting commitments; and
• ensure that no single sector, state, or nation is disproportionately disadvantaged by the implementation of international policies.

Federal tax incentives for energy, with state decisions.

1. Western Governors find that states must continue to play a pivotal role in electric power decisions. Specifically:
   • The existing authority of states over retail electric power sales and transmissions must be retained.
   • Congress should allow states to create regional mechanisms to decide regional power issues.

1. We need to pursue a national energy policy that will result in a diverse energy portfolio:
   • New energy development: Enable exploration and development of promising domestic oil, gas, coal, geothermal or wind resources.
   • Coal: Implement R&D and tax incentives to promote the development and deployment of new technologies.
   • Renewables: Accelerate the development and deployment of promising renewable energy technologies through the extension and expansion of state and federal production tax credits.
   • Environmental Regulation: Review environmental and natural resource policies to ensure they are as efficient as possible.
   • Permitting Energy Facilities: Streamline state, tribal and federal processes for siting new generation, electric transmission and natural gas pipelines.
   • Energy Infrastructure: Support economic and environmentally sound energy infrastructure investments to transport energy to markets

1. Energy efficiency and conservation: At a minimum:
   • Encourage rate structures that give utilities and customers an incentive to reduce consumption.
   • Encourage long-term stability of government and utility conservation programs.
   • Review and improve the energy efficiency of building codes and appliance efficiency standards that recognize the unique conditions in the West (e.g., dry climates).
   • Support federal, state and tribal tax incentives to accelerate the introduction of new energy efficient technologies.

Maintain federal funds for transit funding above 12.5% cap.

On behalf of the nation’s Governors, we are writing to express our serious concerns regarding the transit cap provision included in the fiscal 2000 appropriations bill for the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies.

Governors are concerned that with this provision included the bill does not honor the funding guarantees in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). Specifically, capping a state’s share of transit funding at 12.5 percent of total transit spending abrogates the commitment that Congress made to the states just last year in TEA-21. Congress, with the support of NGA, recently opposed the administration’s attempt to reopen TEA-21 state allocation formulas in the Fiscal Year 2000 budget and should oppose the Appropriations Committee’s action as well.

Your critical leadership on TEA 21 assured that adequate funds were authorized to create a balanced federal transportation program to meet the nation’s varied needs. Transit funding formulas were balanced with hard-won agreements on highway funding formulas. Members made agreements and compromises based on the total surface transportation funding package for their states. We strongly urge you and your colleagues to oppose efforts to reopen the transit and highway allocation formulas through the appropriations process. This will preserve the structure and intent of TEA-21.