Environment

By Basia Crane

Sacramento should encourage regional planning protection of our natural resources - air, water, forests, land use,and recycling.

1. AIR: Legislation should be introduced to make the transition to non-polluting sources of power for transportation a reality.  If we are going to clean up the air in California and globally, we must turn to the hydrogen fuel cell as a substitute for gasoline engines. The oil companies are attempting to prevent this from happening.

2. WATER: Our rivers need help. Damming of North Coast rivers and logging in the North Coast watersheds has caused a sharp decline in salmon population. We should discourage developments in wetlands, have plans for wetlands restoration and encourage establishment of sanctuaries such as the one in Arcadia, California.

3. FORESTS: The state legislature should address issues of clear cutting and herbicide spraying of residual forests. We need an extensive rewrite of the Forest Practices Act.

4. LAND USE: I support regional efforts to stop suburban sprawl and encourage telecommuting. On the state level I support Bill 1219, currently in the Senate, which would require water districts to verify they have enough water for existing users before projects of 200 units or more are approved.

Sacramento should provide incentives for communities to redevelop older areas with affordable and low cost housing. However, this "smart growth" concept runs counter to Californians' desires for single family homes in low density neighborhoods.

The difficulty in curbing sprawl development is that developers and contractors are tied to government by the big money they donate to get their candidates elected. This is one of the reasons I support campaign finance reform.

5. RECYCLING: Manufacturers should be encouraged to make funds available for research on the recyclability of materials they use.