- Sen.
Elizabeth
Warren
« Blue New Deal (Oceans)
Warren for President
For Immediate Release: December 10, 2019
Warren Releases Plan for a Blue New Deal
Charlestown, MA - Today, Elizabeth Warren released her plan for a Blue New Deal to rebuild our blue economy, protect and restore ocean habitat, and adapt in a climate changed world.
Elizabeth is proud to be one of the original co-sponsors of the Green New Deal, and believes any Green New Deal must include a Blue New Deal to fully fight climate change, protect our health, and create good, high-wage union jobs in the process.
Under her plan:
- Elizabeth
will fast-track permits for offshore renewable energy, including making
sure projects are sited with care based on environmental impact
assessments. She will make additional federal subsidies or tax
benefits for large offshore renewable energy projects contingent on
strong Community Benefits Agreements, which should include requirements
for prevailing wages and collective bargaining rights. She will insist
on a clawback provision if a company doesn’t hold up its end of the
deal.
- All offshore wind infrastructure will be made with
American iron, steel and cement to ensure a completely domestic supply
chain.
- She will not allow visual and aesthetic impacts to
provide a basis for denying federal offshore wind energy permits. The
climate crisis is too urgent to let the
ultra-wealthy
complain about wind turbines
getting in the way of their ocean views.
- She
will invest in regenerative ocean farming -- including ensuring
that
ocean farmers, just like any other producers, are paid for their
contributions to the fight against climate change. Algae and seaweed
are the trees of our oceans, absorbing carbon
and
helping
to
reduce ocean acidification and pollution locally, and
are valuable sources
of
nutrition.
- She
will work to fully electrify our ports, including port equipment and
shore power. This will reduce harmful air pollution for the millions of
people, often disadvantaged communities, who live near ports, while
also supporting new manufacturing jobs in the clean transportation
sector.
- She will restore marine ecosystems including
expanding marine protected areas. She will also issue an Executive
Order directing NOAA to build a domestic blue carbon program that will
support ocean-based carbon sequestration projects, including coastal
ecosystem restoration programs, just like we have for land-based carbon
markets.
- Elizabeth has already said she will end all new fossil fuel leases offshore and on public lands. She will also work to phase out existing offshore drilling and will reinstate the Obama Administration’s Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. She will roll back the Trump administration’s decision to reduce the shallow-water royalty rate for existing offshore drilling leases. In fact, she'll go further and reassess the royalty rate to more accurately account for the social cost of carbon.
Read more about her plan
here and below:
We Need A Blue New Deal for our Oceans
In
September, I attended a CNN town hall on the climate crisis. That
night, Bren Smith, an ocean farmer from Connecticut, asked me if I
would support a Blue New Deal to restore our oceans, in addition to our
efforts to fight climate change on land. I said I would, and I meant it
-- here’s what I’ll do to rebuild our blue economy, protect and restore
ocean habitat, and adapt in a climate changed world.
The world’s oceans are in crisis.
Across
the
planet,
more than 90% of
global
fish
stocks
are fully exploited or overfished. The ocean has
absorbed 93% of
the
heat
trapped
by greenhouse gases, warming
the
waters disrupting
migration
patterns, bleaching
coral
reefs, and fueling
sea
level
rise. Around
30% of the carbon pollution we
have
pumped
into
the air has been absorbed in our oceans, leading to ocean
acidification,
changing the very chemistry of seawater. And pollution from land –
whether from manufacturing, agricultural runoff, or plastic waste – is
causing dead zones in our waterways and Great
Lakes.
Our coasts are flooding and eroding,
threatening
the 40% of
Americans
who
live
in
coastal counties. Our safety, public health, food
security, and infrastructure are at risk. If we do not act
now, things will only get worse, as climate change leads to more
severe
weather.
I am proud to be one of the original co-sponsors of the Green
New
Deal,
which charts a path to transition to a 100% clean energy future, while
rebuilding our economy from the bottom up and creating millions of good
paying, union jobs. Environmental justice and economic justice go
hand-in-hand, and I am committed to making the climate crisis and the
inequality crisis top priorities in my administration.
As we pursue climate justice, we must not lose sight of the 71% of
our
planet
covered
by
the ocean. While the ocean is severely
threatened, it can also be a major part of the climate solution – from
providing new sources of clean energy to supporting a new future of
ocean farming. That is why I believe that a Blue New Deal must be an
essential part of any Green New Deal – helping us fight climate change,
protecting our health, and creating good, high-wage union jobs in the
process.
Rebuilding our Blue Economy
Oceans already support millions of jobs, underpin our food system and
contributes $304
billion to our national GDP. They also have the
potential to be one of our strongest tools in the fight against climate
change. Three
billion people
around the world depend on wild-caught and farmed seafood as a major
source of protein. Yet decades of overfishing, pollution, and climate
impacts have
pushed our oceans to the brink of collapse. We know that we can have a
highly productive ocean. In fact, ocean-related jobs have grown at three
times the rate of the national average. It’s time
to restore our oceans and harness the potential of the Blue Economy.
Expand offshore renewable energy
As we rapidly transition our economy to 100% clean energy, we must
prioritize offshore wind and wave energy. Offshore wind is more consistent than
onshore
wind
and
could provide four
times the present capacity of our grid. By 2030,
offshore wind energy development from Maryland to Maine could
support more than 36,000 full time jobs. But the
Trump administration and government
red
tape have bogged down existing projects,
making development cumbersome and untenable. Despite a decade of
effort, the Block Island Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode
Island remains the only offshore
wind
project
operating
in the United States.
This
will change in a Warren administration. As president, I will work to
streamline and fast-track permitting for offshore renewable energy,
including making sure projects are sited with care based on
environmental impact assessments. And I will make sure that the
communities hosting this new development receive a share of the
benefits. Community Benefit Agreements can help address power
imbalances between project developers and low-income communities by
setting labor, environmental, and transparency standards before work
begins. I’ll make additional federal subsidies or tax benefits for
large offshore renewable energy projects contingent on strong Community
Benefits Agreements, which should include requirements for prevailing
wages and collective bargaining rights. And I’ll insist on a clawback
provision if a company doesn’t hold up its end of the deal. If
developers work with communities to ensure that everyone benefits from
clean energy development, we will be able to reduce our emissions
faster. Due to the urgency and complexity of building offshore
renewable energy projects, my administration will seek to execute
Project Labor Agreements to govern the construction and maintenance of
these projects so as to ensure a constant supply of qualified, trained
workers -- and creating good, union jobs in the process.
My Green
Manufacturing
plan also
calls for a $2 trillion investment to incentivize American-made clean
energy, and that includes offshore wind. My administration will work to
ensure that all offshore wind infrastructure is made with a completely
domestic supply chain, including American iron, steel and cement and
that American crews on American vessels will be used to ferry the goods
and workers to build and maintain these farms, creating more new
American jobs. And I will make sure that fishing and conservation
groups, as well as coastal communities, have a seat at the table in
developing any new project to ensure that an expanded offshore wind
industry can successfully coexist with vibrant fishing industries and
healthy ocean and coastal habitats. And I won’t allow visual and
aesthetic impacts to provide a basis for denying federal offshore wind
energy permits. The climate crisis is too urgent to let the
ultra-wealthy complain about
wind
turbines
getting
in the way of their ocean views.
Additionally, my Green
Apollo
Program commits
$400 billion over the next decade to R&D for clean energy,
including harnessing power from wave energy, so that it becomes
technologically and financially viable. I will also fight for long term
extensions to two critical tax credits for renewable energy, the
Production Tax Credit and Investment Tax Credit, while also fighting
for a fully funded Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and Bureau
of Safety & Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) so they can have the
resources they need to deploy offshore clean energy resources at the
speed the science demands.
Build climate-ready fisheries
Threats like warming oceans and overfishing have caused the ocean’s
fish population to fall by 50% over
the
last
50
years, leading to cascading ecological
consequences, hurting regional
and
local
economies,
and risking hunger
and
even
conflict.
Fully rebuilding America’s fish stocks would support
an additional 500,000
jobs and
generate an addition $31 billion in sales impacts, providing a much
needed economic boost to coastal communities who have been hit hard by
climate change. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act, our bedrock fisheries management law, provides a robust
framework for managing U.S. fisheries in coordination with state
governments. And as we continue to rebuild and sustainably manage our
fisheries, we must ensure that our regulations are able to effectively
respond to the changing ocean conditions we are witnessing as a result
of climate change. I will direct the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service to issue new
guidance and regulations to better prepare fishing industries and
communities for the impacts of climate change.
Expand community-based seafood markets
As
we work to restore America’s fisheries, we must also rebuild the
necessary infrastructure to once again support vibrant coastal
communities and a local seafood economy. Today, roughly one
in
four fish
eaten in the United States waters was caught here and sent to Asia for
processing before being re-imported for American consumers. By building
processing plants in the US, we can not only decrease the carbon
footprint of the seafood industry, but we can also create a new class
of jobs in the Blue Economy. That’s why I have committed to spending
$5
billion over ten years to expand USDA’s Local
Agriculture Market Program, funding food hubs, distribution centers,
and points-of-sale.
NOAA
should make it easier for fishermen to sell seafood directly to U.S.
consumers and include additional vulnerable species in the Seafood
Import Monitoring Program – so the public can know where their seafood
comes from and that it was caught in an ethical and sustainable way.
And I will invest in America’s young fishers by increasing funding for
new business development programs established through the Young
Fishermen’s Development Act.
Invest in regenerative ocean farming
Land-based
farmers have long been supported by the USDA, but in a world of rising
seas, increasing ocean temperatures, and ocean acidification, we must
expand that support to include ocean farming as well. Algae and seaweed
are the trees of our oceans, absorbing carbon
and
helping
to
reduce ocean acidification and pollution locally, and
are valuable sources
of
nutrition.
We must cultivate them just as we would any forest or aboveground
ecosystem that naturally absorbs carbon dioxide. These resources even
have the potential
to become a
key
ingredient in renewable fuels -- in the
future, we might power our cars and airplanes on the algae grown in our
seas.
I’ll
start by directing USDA to create a new program dedicated to research
and policy development for ocean-based farming, ensuring that ocean
farmers, just like any other producers, are paid for their
contributions to the fight against climate change. I’ll also fully
include ocean farming, including shellfish and seaweed production, in
critical agricultural programs, like the USDA Biomass Crop Assistance
Program and disaster assistance programs, because ocean farmers should
pay into and have assurance from climate-caused crop loss, just as
land-based farmers currently do. And I’ll include ocean farmer training
programs in the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program to
continue to support America’s farmers of today and tomorrow.
Build climate smart ports
If global shipping were a country, it would be the sixth-largest
polluter in
the world. And while many of those emissions come from the dirty fuel
that is used to move massive container ships through international
waters, there is also more we can do here at home to ensure every ship
entering American ports – no matter what country it comes from – meets
our standards. This includes working with the International Maritime
Organization to set aggressive emissions standards for bunker fuels, so
that shipping fuels are cleaner at home and abroad.
And we can
work towards fully electrifying our ports, including port equipment and
shore power. This will reduce harmful air pollution for the millions of
people, often disadvantaged communities, who live near ports, while
also supporting new manufacturing jobs in the clean transportation
sector. This is not about automation. We need safe and efficient ports,
and that means unionized jobs with strong wages and comprehensive
benefits. And it means standing up for American maritime workers and
the men and women who work in and around ports by ensuring cargo bound
for the United States is unloaded and transported by American workers.
On the road to electrification, we should also immediately modernize
federal trucking rules by reducing idling and congestion, empowering
local ports to drastically reduce emissions. Additionally, we will
require all
ports
to
have speed
reduction
zones, which are one of the most efficient ways for
vessels to reduce emissions. And through my Green
Manufacturing
plan, we will continue to invest in R&D so that
we can find ways to get ships off dirty diesel.
Protecting and restoring ocean habitat
Coastal and marine habitats are our best natural defense system in the
fight against climate change, storing up to 5
times
more
carbon per acre than tropical forests
-- while also often acting as cheaper and more effective sea walls. In
fact, coastal wetlands reduced
damages during
Superstorm Sandy by $625 million. It is imperative that we restore our
marine habitat to safeguard against future climate impacts, especially
as climate change continues to hit our most vulnerable communities
first and worst.
Restore marine ecosystems
We must restore damaged marine ecosystems like Florida’s mangroves,
which have been destroyed by
urban
coastal
development.
I’ll
start by fully funding NOAA’s Coastal
and Estuarine Land Conservation Program, which partners with states to
conserve coastal ecosystems. I’ve also proposed a 21st
Century
Civilian
Conservation
Corps,
which will hire 10,000 young people and veterans for new job
opportunities caring for our natural resources — including
restoration
of marine ecosystems. And I'll make polluters pay. My Department of
Justice will go after fossil fuel companies and other industry bad
actors who have harmed our ocean ecosystems, recovering the money to
fund restoration programs.
Expand marine protected areas
We
must protect ecologically and culturally-significant places in the
ocean, just like as we do on land. Marine protected areas are protected
pockets of seas, oceans, or the Great Lakes which local, state and
federal governments establish to protect threatened marine ecosystems
and to replenish fisheries. Studies show that marine
protected
areas
are
effective
management tools to rebuild fish
populations and restore damaged habitats, allowing marine ecosystems to
recover without the pressures of human activities like fishing,
drilling, and pollution. And they can
also
benefit
fishermen, because they replenish fish populations
outside boundaries of the protected area. For example, one
study
found that one hectare of protected ocean
produced five times as many fish as a similar unprotected hectare, raising
profits
for neighboring fisheries and
tourism
industries.
I
will
direct NOAA to engage in robust stakeholder
engagement processes to establish more marine protected areas, with the
goal of increasing protection of all types of marine habitats.
Invest in marine carbon sequestration
Not all carbon in the ocean is bad. Blue carbon, or carbon stored in
ocean and coastal ecosystems, is naturally
sequestered by coral
reefs
and
oyster
reefs,
mangrove forests and kelp forests, as well as seagrass beds and
wetlands. If managed correctly, the ocean can continue to naturally
sequester carbon. I will issue an Executive Order directing NOAA to
build a domestic blue carbon program that will support ocean-based
carbon sequestration projects, including coastal ecosystem restoration
programs, just like we have for land-based carbon markets.
I
will also direct NOAA to map and establish “Blue Carbon Zones” in
federal waters, so that we can identify, protect, and manage these
highly productive areas. While we can do more right now to further
support blue carbon, we also need to make sure NOAA and the National
Science Foundation have the funding they need to continue cutting edge
research on blue carbon and ocean acidification.
End offshore drilling
The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill -- the worst oil spill in our
nation's history -- caused more than $17
billion in damage to natural resources and cost
eleven lives. Years later, coastal economies and ecosystems along
the
Gulf
Coast
have still not recovered. On day one of my presidency I
will sign a sweeping
executive
order with bold actions to defeat the
climate crisis, including ending all new fossil fuel leases offshore
and on public lands.
But
new offshore fossil fuel leases are only part of the problem -- we must
also phase out existing offshore drilling, which is putting the health
and economies of coastal communities at risk. A Warren administration
will start by reinstating the Obama
Administration’s Outer
Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program that protected more than
hundreds of millions of acres in the Atlantic Ocean and Arctic. We’ll
also reinstate the
well
safety
rules
that
the Obama administration put in place after the
BP oil spill, because the fossil fuel workers who risk their lives to
power our economy deserve safe working conditions. And we’ll roll back
the Trump administration’s decision to reduce the
shallow-water
royalty
rate
for
existing offshore drilling leases. In
fact, we’ll go further: we’ll reassess the royalty rate to more
accurately account for the social cost of carbon. Over the last two
decades, some of the world’s largest oil companies, including Chevron,
Exxon, and Shell, have skirted
about $18 billion in federal royalties from
offshore drilling. That ends in a Warren Administration.
I
will direct federal ocean and coastal management agencies to begin
planning to phase out all offshore drilling. Instead, we will focus on
transitioning the offshore drilling supply chain and associated
industry to offshore wind. I am committed to leaving no
worker
behind as
we transition to 100% clean energy, and the men and women who have
tirelessly worked in the offshore drilling industry are no exception. A
Warren administration will provide job training and guaranteed wage and
benefit parity for workers who choose to transition into new
industries. And for those Americans who choose not to find new
employment and wish to retire with dignity, we’ll ensure full financial
security, including promised pensions and early retirement
benefits.
Reduce ocean trash
By 2050 there could be more
plastic by mass in the sea than fish. Ocean trash
is getting
incorporated into the marine food chain – even
ending up in the fish on our plates and in the sea
salt we use to season it. To make matters worse,
there are over 300 new
petrochemical
plastic
facilities
slated
to come online in the U.S, and
many of these mega polluters are sited for low-income communities and
communities of color. A Warren administration will start upstream
by
working to establish policies that combat marine plastic pollution by
reducing single-use plastic production, like plastic bags, and will
also work downstream to establish markets for recycled materials
through recycled-content standards. A Warren administration will follow
the lead of NGO-industry collaboratives like the Trash
Free
Seas
Alliance that
have already made progress in this fight. And through my Green
Manufacturing Plan I will invest in R&D so that we can further
understand all the implications of ocean trash and can determine the
best possible solutions to combat this issue going forward.
Hold Big Ag accountable for upstream pollution
Agribusinesses, with their overuse of
pesticides
and
fertilizers,
are responsible for
polluting
hundreds
of
thousands
of miles of upstream waterways that
flow downstream into our bays and oceans and have exacerbated toxic
algal blooms, harmed marine life and contaminated drinking water. In
fact, it is estimated that harmful freshwater algal blooms in the U.S.
result in losses of billions—primarily
from
harm
to
property values, recreation, and drinking-water supplies.
I will make agribusinesses pay the full costs of
the
environmental
damage
they wreak by closing the loopholes that
CAFOs
use
to
get
away with polluting and by beefing up enforcement of
the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, including by working with state and
local officials. And, I will reinstate the Obama-era Clean Water Rule,
which provided critical protections for drinking water sources for
nearly one-third of
the
United
States.
All
waters of the United States should be safe for
everyone to enjoy, not become a dumping ground for Big Ag.
Collective management of our international waters
And
there’s more -- because our ocean resources are connected we must
collectively work with countries around the world to protect, conserve
and responsibly govern international waters. Nearly two-thirds of
our
oceans
are
characterized
as the “high seas,” or waters outside of
any national jurisdiction. It is critical that we manage the high seas
like the collective resource that it is. Much like outer space, we must
come together as a global community to determine how we all have an
equal share in the use of this shared resource. As a first step toward
ensuring the United States is a leader and effective partner in
international waters, I will work with Congress to ratify the Law
of
the
Sea
treaty so
that we are a party to this international law and can work towards
updating provisions to better reflect the realities of climate change
on our oceans. And then I will go one step further by supporting a ban
on fishing on the high seas, as one key way to curtail illegal,
unregulated, and unreported fishing. Just 4.2% of
the
world's
fish
catch
by volume is caught on the high seas and setting
aside these waters to allow species to rebuild can have outsized
ecological impacts for our global fisheries.
I will also follow Governor Inslee and the state of Washington in
joining the International
Alliance
to
Combat
Ocean Acidification,
a global coalition of national, subational and indigenous
jurisdictions, NGOs, businesses and other partners dedicated to taking
action to protect coastal communities and livelihoods from the threat
of ocean acidification. And once we rejoin the Paris Agreement, I will
use the United States’ leadership on the international stage to
champion how the ocean can play a vital role as a critical climate
solution under every nation’s targets under the Paris Agreement.
Adapting in a changing climate
We cannot hold the ocean back -- it is rising and rising rapidly. The
world faces an increase of about 1 foot of
sea
level
rise
by midcentury if we do not curb global emissions,
putting the homes of more
than
50 million people
at
risk.
And
here
in the United States, the picture is just as bleak.
Isle de Jean Charles, a coastal island in Louisiana, has lost
98% of its land mass to sea level rise since
1955. In the coming years it could be gone—which is why for
the first
time ever
the federal government is paying an entire community to move inland to
higher ground, before it is too late. Despite efforts by the state and
federal governments, climate change has displaced several
native
Alaska
Native
communities. For the Quinault Indian Nation in
Washington, the rising sea level has made community
relocation necessary.
As our ocean continues to expand and rise as a result of climate
change, we must mitigate the damage that has already been done and
prepare for what will only get worse – sea level rise, storm surges and
extreme weather events.
Pre-disaster mitigation
As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,
and I want to ensure we protect the 40% of
Americans
who
live
in coastal counties. Studies have shown that every
dollar invested in disaster mitigation saves
$6 overall. Meanwhile, the Trump administration
has proposed to slash
funding
for
FEMA’s
Pre-Disaster Mitigation grant
program, making us less safe. Rather than cutting this program, we will
propose to quintuple it. And, as part of my administration’s
pre-disaster mitigation efforts, I will direct all federal emergency
management and coastal management agencies to take a holistic approach
to helping communities shelter from increasingly unnatural disasters.
This includes better planning for escape and evacuation plans, as well
as leading by example with the federal building fleet by not building
any new buildings within 1.5 meters of sea level, with exemptions as
necessary for military infrastructure. Across the country, nearly
half
a
million HUD-assisted households are in
flood zones. To build on the Green Public Housing Program called for in
my Protecting
and
Empowering
Renters
plan,
I will ensure that we do not build any new public housing within 1.5
meters of sea level, because it is the responsibility of the federal
government to protect our most vulnerable families, not intentionally
put them in harm’s way.
And while my administration will take a
proactive approach to guarding against future sea level rise, I will
honor our promises to vulnerable communities and prioritize climate
adaptation and mitigation resources to ensure that we keep our
communities together and intact. This includes supporting our coastal
tribes and indigenous communities with grants
from
the
federal
government to
aid in their efforts to protect, restore, and preserve areas that hold
important ecological, cultural, or sacred significance. And it includes
working with Congress to amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief
and Emergency Assistance Act, to establish hazard mitigation revolving
loan
funds so that local governments can continue
to invest in the health and safety of their communities before disaster
strikes.
Post-disaster mitigation
Studies show that the white
and
wealthy receive
more federal disaster aid, despite being comparatively better off
financially when it comes to withstanding a disaster. As outlined in my environmental
justice
plan,
a Warren administration will ensure an equitable recovery from natural
disasters, ensuring our most vulnerable populations get the help they
need to rebuild their lives after disaster strikes. Governor Inslee
rightly identified the need to protect the communities during natural
disasters that live alongside our existing fossil fuel infrastructure
and petrochemical plants that are peppered along our coasts. I will
task the EPA, NOAA, and FEMA to implement continuous monitoring for
toxic pollutants by creating “mobile monitoring” teams that track
pollution released during weather events. Such a program could have
protected thousands in Texas from the long term impacts of the more than 100
toxic releases that occurred during Hurricane
Harvey.
Flood insurance reform
The
National Flood Insurance Program is designed to help people rebuild,
but in the same places that were originally flooded. This may have
worked in the past, but given our changed and changing climate it often
doesn’t make sense to require coastal communities to rebuild in areas
that are no longer safe. Similarly, communities in the flood plains of
the midwest are surrounded by weak levees and will experience
catastrophic
flooding,
not just once, but year after year. Rather than tie flood insurance to
risk, which would make premiums skyrocket for some of our poorest
communities living in high-risk areas, I will make it easier for
existing residents to move out of flood-prone properties – both inland
and coastal – including a program to buy back those properties from
low-income homeowners at market value. And within my first term I will
ensure the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) flood maps are
fully updated, so that we can raise the standard for new construction
through the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard.
Managing for drought
Climate change is likely to cause longer,
harsher
droughts,
especially in the western United States. That means we need to plan for
increased stress on critical water supplies like the Colorado River
basin, where reservoir levels fell so far this year that Arizona and
Nevada were forced to impose the first-ever
mandatory
water
cuts from
the river this summer. As the population continues to grow and
development increases in our most drought prone states, it is important
for federal and state governments to encourage responsible and smart
growth.
And longer and harsher droughts mean more catastrophic wildfires
in
California,
which
over the past several years have been considered
the most
destructive in the state's history. Insurance
claims from the 2018 California wildfire season alone have now exceeded $12
billion, after thousands of homes were burned, nearly 100 people
were
killed.
During
the 2019 fire season, millions were
left
without
power,
putting
many of the state’s most vulnerable
communities at risk for days. These climate change fueled natural
disasters often hit our most vulnerable communities the hardest, which
is why my administration will prioritize resources for those that need
it most. And my administration will work hand in hand with U.S.
Geographical Survey and state governments to monitor and manage drought
risks with attention to climate risks and trends. And I will
collaborate with Tribal governments on drought management and land
management practices to mitigate drought, including by incorporating
traditional ecological practices wherever possible.
Investing in our Great Lakes
The Great Lakes basin is home to over
80%
of
North
America’s surface freshwater — and
over 10%
of
the
US
population depends
on drinking water from the Great Lakes Basin. But the Great Lakes are
in trouble, from climate change to invasive species like Zebra Mussels
and carp to toxic algal blooms that can be traced back to pollution
from agricultural runoff. We must invest in our Great Lakes so they can
continue to support their $7
billion
per
year fishing
industry and $16 billion per year outdoor recreation industry. I will
fight for a fully funded Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which has
proven critical for the long-term health of the Great Lakes.
*
*
*
* *
Starting
on day one of my presidency, I will take bold action to fight climate
change. And that includes harnessing the power of our oceans to be a
key part of our solution to the climate crisis. The task before us is
significant, but I am confident that America is up to the challenge --
both at home and around the world -- to conserve and sustainably use
the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. Our
oceans can underpin a sustainable food system, be a source of renewable
energy and defend against the worst of climate change. The future of
our planet depends on a healthy ocean, and we have no more time to
waste.