I believe the federal government has an important role in protecting the environment. Our main focus needs to be on reducing the emissions responsible for global warming. The way to accomplish this is focusing on low- or no-emission renewable energy sources.

We also need to reverse the Bush Administration policies that have given away federal natural resources as rewards for campaign contributions. The "Dirty Skies Initiative" and the "No Tree Left Behind" programs are examples of the Republican plundering of our public resources which I will fight against if I am elected.

One of the main reasons I am running is because I fear we are leaving our children a nation in worse condition than the one we inherited. I feel we are committing a moral wrong. I want my four children to have clean air and water, unspoiled lands, and a climate system that isn't spiraling out of control.

For the 30 years since our last oil crisis, our leaders have spent their time doing exactly nothing to push America toward a sustainable energy policy. Thanks to this failure of leadership we find ourselves with crushing energy prices. It's time to do what we should have been doing all along - and what Carter tried to get us to do - use less fossil fuels.

In fact, I believe it is time for our country to focus on moving beyond fossil fuels altogether. Even folks that are not swayed by the large body of scientific evidence pointing toward global warming’s existence should certainly be willing to agree the frequent smog alerts around our area should drive us toward low or no emission energy sources. Although the US has coal, it also has sunlight, wind, and biomass. We need to have America out front blazing a path toward sustainable energy.

P.S. Any talk of "clean coal" is currently wishful thinking. And even if we reach zero-emission coal plants, we should consider the effects of mountaintop removal and strip-mining before we ever label coal as "clean." That said, we must quickly develop clean coal technology and share it with China because they have even more coal than us, and they WILL burn it regardless of the carbon-emission consequences. We have to get China using clean coal as an act of planetary self-defense.