By Dan Kelly

The restoration and preservation of a healthy planetary ecosystem is the most important gift we can bequeath to our children. This ideal requires consideration of areas beyond our borders and areas not usually considered 'environmental', such as world poverty, human rights, democracy, illiteracy, warfare and so on. Yet there are many specific things that we as the largest and richest state in the richest, most powerful, best educated nation in history can and should do now to deal with the environmental problems we face at home.

We must work hard for clean air, clean water, sustainable growth and a well-balanced transportation system. To do this, we need to reduce consumption of fossil fuels both by becoming more efficient and by using alternative energy sources much more extensively. We need to work for sustainable growth and build communities that encourage non-motorized transportation and clean mass transit. We need to restore and protect wetlands and waterways and address the depletion of groundwater aquifers , by providing incentives for water conservation and reclamation, and by identifying and penalizing polluters. We need to control surface run-off from both agricultural and urban lands and eliminate inefficient two-stroke engines. By using sound land use, energy and transportation planning we can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and greatly improve our air and water quality as well as the fabric of the communities we live and work in..

Less than 5% of our original forest remains after more than a century of 'multiple use stewardship' and/or 'sustainable management'. We should not view the pittance left as eligible for extraction. The Forestry Agency should adopt the preservation and restoration of our wildlands for future generations as its primary mission.

Seawalls cause devastating impacts, including increased erosion and loss of the public sandy beach. Any decision to allow a seawall should consider equally the probability of damage to adjacent stretches of coastline before approval is given. California currently has over 150 miles of seawalls along its coast. Any coastal development should prepared to risk the vicissitudes of wind and tide. Accepting these risks in development will yield fewer but wiser projects. We should severly limit seawalls and restrict development along shorelines to keep them healthy and enjoyable for all.

Mandating cleaner low and zero emission vehicles now is a good step toward cleaning our air and water. We should strive for a future with fewer vehicles, all or most of which are zero emission. We should move aggressively to increase our state's capacity for clean off-grid power generation, creating the potential to have millions of homes and businesses that are running the meter backwards with clean on-site generation, and offer strong incentives for energy conserving building design and construction.

I support a provision in California law that prohibits public projects that create disparate impacts based on race or ethnicity. We must insist on fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, and income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

Well planned cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields offer adjacent communities better health, better jobs, and a more secure future. I support restoration and revitalization of distressed communities through the use of a state toxic clean up program, funded by an ongoing assessment on the industries most likely to be contributing toxic byproducts to our environment.

We need to plan livable communities with an adequate balance of jobs, shopping and entertainment. But we must also preserve significant open and natural space in and around areas that are growing. We should actively encourage 'infilling' in existing urban areas and strengthen urban transportation, recreation and education infrastructures as we do so. We should develop regional approach to land use planning that recognizes the unique ecosphere of each region and considers the natural land, water, wind and biota patterns to be preserved and enhanced rather than obliterated .

We should reduce electrical consumption by increasing efficiency and practicing energy conservation. To meet the remaining need we must work toward alternative energy production and reduce dependence on fossil fuel. We need leaders who seek more reasonable usage of the finite resources of this very small planet.

With respect to environmental issues, the most pressing in the 12th Assembly District are: a) the health of San Francisco Bay and Lake Merced ecosystems, b) the need to restore existing but neglected open space such as Glen Canyon and Hawk Hill, by re-establishing native plant communities and building low-impact trails and observation points, c) traffic and pollution problems caused by the 19th Avenue surface level highway, and the paucity of good north-south mass transit options.

I am a current and longtime member of Sierra Club. I have also been a member of the Rain Forest Action Network and Greenpeace in the past. I assisted in the successful campaign to have Hawk Hill set aside as open space. I contribute regularly to efforts like the Tahoe Rim Trail and Land Trusts. As a San Francisco Unified School District Board member, I helped institute and volunteered in, our recycling program and supported adoption of a sustainable building and construction policy and a ban on the use of pesticides in schools. I authored our "Safe Routes To Schools Policy" and our "School Gardens Policy"