As an outdoor enthusiast and SCUBA instructor, our natural environment is important to me. Clean water, air, and open spaces guarantee a healthy environment not just for us, but also for our children and grandchildren.
I believe we don’t have to choose between a healthy economy and a healthy environment. I will work to make Wisconsin a leader in capturing good, family supporting “green” jobs. There are tremendous opportunities to build healthy, sustainable businesses as we shift to a more environmentally responsible economy.
Wisconsin has recently renewed the Stewardship Fund, safeguarding the best of our sensitive and wild places so that we can continue to enjoy these beautiful and threatened natural treasures. I was proud to be part of the tremendous effort by Senate Democrats, conservation organizations and environmental groups to accomplish this important task.
The recent passage of the Great Lakes Compact is another conservation landmark. I supported passage of this proposal to insure that we protect the Great Lakes for years to come. As your representative, I will continue to work on strengthening this legislation.
I think it is vital that the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Secretary be independent from political influence. As such, I think the DNR Board should appoint the DNR Secretary, as opposed to making it a political position. We must also increase our state’s ability to fight big polluters by restoring the Public Intervener’s office, ensuring we can continue to safely enjoy our lakes, rivers and streams long into the future.
Additionally, we need to protect our state from neighboring states that export their waste to Wisconsin and dump it in our landfills. We can do this by removing the economic incentive that makes it cheaper for Chicago waste to be dumped in Wisconsin landfills. This is particularly important given Wisconsin’s strong recycling tradition. We’ve worked hard to limit the amount of our own waste being dumped in landfills.
