Kucinich on the Issues
A look at Dennis Kucinich’s environmental platform and record
Dennis Kucinich.
Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich has been active and outspoken on a wide range of environmental and sustainability issues during the decade he’s represented Ohio’s 10th district in the U.S. House. His efforts have earned him a 92 percent lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters.
Read an interview with Dennis Kucinich by Grist and Outside.
Key Points
- Proposes a Works Green Administration (modeled on Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration) that would put millions of Americans to work building and installing clean-energy technologies, retrofitting homes for energy efficiency, etc.
- Calls for extensive government funding to develop renewable-energy technologies, and for withdrawal of government subsidies for nonrenewable energy.
- Calls for a "Global Green Deal" that would push development of renewable energy in the U.S., creating jobs in the process, and partner with developing nations to provide them with affordable, clean energy technologies.
- Calls for a phaseout of all nuclear power plants, and for more stringent regulation of nuclear waste.
- Calls for a phaseout of all coal power and coal mining. Has highlighted the threat of mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants.
- Cosponsor of Rep. Henry Waxman’s Safe Climate Act, the toughest climate bill in the House, which calls for reducing carbon emissions 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050.
- Calls for a ban on logging, mining, and other resource extraction on U.S. public lands.
- Has been a vegan since 1995.