[imc-st.louis] draft program on the environment

[Don Fitz]

At the Greens meeting Wed December 17, 08, 3026 Cherokee [at Minnesota], 
we will be finalizing the draft program on the environment [below]. 
Please join us for the discussion and post any suggested additions or 
deletions to GreensStL at yahoogroups.com before the meeting.

Don Fitz


*Green Party of St. Louis*

*Draft Platform on the Environment*

Recommended by the December 9, 2008 Elston K. McCowan for Mayor 
Education & Environmental Committee Meeting

[This is a draft and *not* the final platform, which will appear on the 
web. Paragraphs are numbered to help discussion of modifications of this 
version — numbers will be removed in the final version.]

1. St. Louis should have an ecological approach to living that seriously 
grapples with issues that confront us. Instead, the Slay administration 
has a record of “greenwashing,” or using language that sounds 
environmental while maintaining policies that are environmental disasters.

Slay’s Greenwashing

2. Though the voters of St. Louis said that they did not want to spend 
public money on a private sports stadium, Slay advocated tearing down a 
perfectly good stadium to replace it with one with fewer seats, and, in 
the process, spewed a ton of CO2 into the atmosphere for every ton of 
cement used.

3. When the West Nile virus scare hit, Slay’s Health Department ignored 
information from environmentalists that pesticide sprays could not 
reduce mosquito populations and worsened the City’s asthma problems as 
it sprayed pesticides across St. Louis.

4. When lead contamination was found in 27 St. Louis schools, the Slay 
administration was unable to help find the funds necessary to remove it; 
but, at the same time, the scandal broke that he was spending $2 million 
to “beautify” the Grand Avenue bridge. The excessive lights from the 
Kingshighway and Grand Avenue bridges involves the burning of coal to 
produce wasteful electricity.

5. Though City parks should be green spaces to unify neighborhoods [or: 
Though neighborhood parks should be green spaces to unify communities…] 
and larger parks unify the entire City, Francis Slay began the process 
of privatizing parks by attempting to sell off a portion of Forest Park.

The Green Alternative

6. In contrast, the Green Party of St. Louis has a record of active 
environmentalism.

· Greens have halted the construction of toxic incinerators and even 
shut down medical waste incinerators.

· Greens have proposed alternatives to the spraying of pesticide poisons 
to control mosquitoes.

· Greens gathered signatures for an audit of the City when it refused to 
release information on where childhood lead poisoning prevention funds 
were being spent and helped gather signatures to protect Forest Park.

· Greens have warned St. Louisans of potential dangers of eating 
genetically engineered food.

7. The next mayor should make sure that incineration is not used as a 
waste disposal method, never spray pesticides for insect control, 
propose the labeling of food with genetically engineered components and 
increase and maintain public parks throughout St. Louis (and not only in 
south City).

A New Vision

8. The Green Party calls for a visionary long range program to 
dramatically reduce pollution and greenhouse gases from transportation 
and industry in the City of St. Louis within the next five years.

9. The most important source of “alternative energy” is using less 
energy. The Greens would install solar panels on all public buildings to 
generate energy and require utility companies to purchase excess power 
produced by solar and wind generators on businesses and homes. In order 
to obtain an occupancy permit a home should be required to meet at least 
IECC-2009 standards of energy efficiency. This would include 
reflectivity standards for roofing, which would vastly cut down air 
conditioning, reduce cooling costs and result in less coal burning at 
electric plants.

10. Greens advocate making all homes as weather-proof as possible, with 
a focus on low income neighborhoods. For example, the Urban League will 
not help weatherize homes if the heat has been cut off. This forces low 
income people with their heat turned off to use space heaters which are 
dangerous, costly, inefficient and produce excessive green house gases. 
Weatherizing all homes will help low income residents financially and 
reduce the amount of energy used, thereby lowering greenhouse gases.

11. The Greens would begin a massive educational program to help people 
understand the need to use heat efficiently by wearing extra clothes and 
turning the thermostat down when not at home. The Greens would initiate 
a program to install free central heating systems in homes currently 
without central heat for occupants who agree to an external governor 
that sets the heat to no more than 68 degrees during the days and 55 
degrees during sleeping hours.

12. The City should begin a demonstration program to construct at least 
100 homes to /passivhaus/ standards by 2012, at least 30% of which must 
be for low income families. A home with the German /passivhaus/ design 
is so well insulated that it does not require a furnace. The approximate 
10–15% extra cost in construction is far outweighed by the huge savings 
in heating.

13. Policies of the Slay administration do not reflect an understanding 
of the importance of trees in urban areas. Trees reduce contaminants 
from the air. Trees help in stormwater management by slowing runoff. 
Trees are important psychologically to encourage people to spend more 
time outdoors and are important environmentally to help cool in summer 
and break winter’s chilling winds. Mayor Slay’s program to improve 
Martin Luther King Blvd. poured lots of new concrete but did not plant 
trees. The Greens advocate tree planting next to road improvements, in 
new developments and in treeless parks.

14. The Green Party advocates a jobs program to bury power lines 
underground (as already done in much of Europe) both to prevent outages 
during storms and to reduce the need to cut off tree branches. The jobs 
program would also include opportunities for youth to work for both pay 
and school credit by participating in urban gardening and city clean-up 
and maintenance.

15. One reason that St. Louisans have so many respiratory problems is 
that Missouri law prohibits air pollution rules stricter than federal 
standards. Francis Slay has done nothing to protect citizens by opposing 
this ridiculous restriction. Federal guidelines for air pollution were 
designed to be minimum standards that local governments could strengthen 
as they see fit. A Green mayor would actively lobby to overturn this 
state law and would work with US representatives to draft federal 
legislation to guarantee municipalities the right to strengthen 
pollution standards.

16. While pretending to be environmentally friendly, Francis Slay has 
not lobbied against plans to build an additional nuclear power plant in 
central Missouri at Calloway. Nuclear power is arguably the worst 
environmental disaster in human history — it risks a meltdown that could 
destroy St. Louis and Kansas City; exposes workers to excess radiation 
during routine operation; creates wastes that poison people for 
thousands of generations, and drives up utility rates so high that low 
income people cannot afford to pay them. A truly Green mayor would do 
everything possible to prevent new nukes from opening, including 
prohibiting nuclear power from being used in St. Louis.