Protecting Our Environment
I have been a long-time champion of Lake Erie and
the Great Lakes, which provide 20 percent of the world's fresh
drinking water and are a huge economic machine for our state. I
worked with former Sen. John Glenn to reauthorize the federal law
that curbs the menace of invasive species, and served as the
long-time chair of the Great Lakes Task Force. I also stopped the
EPA from fining recreational boaters up
to $32,500 for pollution if they allowed water to slosh over their
boat's deck or dumped a cooler of water into the lake. I have been
a leader in Great Lakes restoration efforts, including the
successful cleanup of Ashtabula Harbor. I support the
Adminstration's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a multi-year
effort to restore this ecosystem and play a key role in ensuring
its funding as a Member of the Interior, Environment and Related
Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee.
I also have devoted a great deal of time and effort to
conservation efforts and was able to preserve green space and add
bike and walking trails in dozens of communities and park systems,
including the many county park systems in NE Ohio and Cuyahoga
Valley National Park. I support reasonable and achievable clean air
and water standards and know how hard my communities work to meet
federal guidelines. Complying with the guidelines is very costly
and often takes years, and if we're going to make demands we should
help defray the costs to communities. I also believe there must be
genuine science to warrant tightening of standards, and the
associated costs.
As an Ohioan, I am keenly aware of the danger of a massive
cap-and-trade bill to reduce carbon emissions. This legislation
will be devastating to states like Ohio that are dependent on coal
to produce electricity. This will be a job killer like no other,
and goes too far too fast. Families make decisions every day about
wants and needs, and those decisions are often based on your
financial position right now. We cannot afford this now.