Fix Our Environment

Fix Our Environment (Legislative Agenda)

To fix our environment, the following 8-year agenda is proposed for the four two-year election cycles from 2021 to 2028.

  1. Election Cycle 1 – 2021 to 2022 (Environment):
    1. Work with Congress to provide tax incentives to encourage manufacturers to stop using new technology to force the short-term obsolescence of their existing products that are still working well to the satisfaction of their owner’s and are forcing owners to send good products to landfills.  This would revitalize the repair and product support industries and help protect the environment, and allow these older products to be resold by the owners to lower income families in this country or exported to underdeveloped nations around the world to improve their standard of living.  (Department of the Treasury)
    2. Work with Congress to initiate design contracts for the development of prototype 100% recycling plants for all metals, paper, plastics, and rubber received from daily garbage pickups and the public to (1) clean up the national landscape; (2) reduce the content of landfills to reclaim lost real estate; (3) provide recycled metal materials to rebuild the infrastructure of the nation; (4) provide recycled paper materials for the manufacture of paper products to preserve national forests; (5) provide recycled plastic materials for the manufacture of plastic products and stop the pollution of the oceans; and (6) provide recycled rubber materials for the manufacture of new and more advanced rubber products.  It is proposed that the recycled raw materials from these four areas be processed in modern, automated recycling plants that produce standard sized ingots or bricks of raw material for re-sale in the national and international market places.  As the recycled production of these recycling plants exceeds the needs of the national industrial market place, the excess production would be withdrawn from the market, at a set percentage of market value, to maintain competitive prices, and the excess recycled production would become national assets to be used for nationally sponsored environmental projects and for export trade negotiations with other nations around the world.  These recycling plants would provide new sources of revenue for state and local governments.  (Department of the Interior)
    3. Work with Congress to initiate design contracts for the development of prototype 100% recycling plants for the recycling of all waste lubricating oils from the public and oil change facilities, and establish recycling plants in strategic locations throughout the nation to prevent the contamination of fresh water resources.  Any excess production of recycled oil would be withdrawn from the market, at a set percentage of market value, and would become a national asset and be added to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to be used to help stabilize the prices of gasoline in the American market place. (Department of the Interior)
    4. Work with Congress to initiate design contracts for the development of prototype 100% recycling plants for the recycling or disposal of non-hazardous chemicals and paints collected from the public and industry, and establish recycling and disposal plants in strategic locations throughout the nation to prevent the contamination of fresh water resources. (Department of the Interior)
    5. Work with Congress to initiate design contracts for the development of prototype 100% recycling plants for the recycling or disposal all hazardous chemicals and hazardous waste products from the public and industry, and establish recycling and disposal plants in strategic locations throughout the nation to protect the public and prevent the contamination of fresh water resources. (Department of the Interior)
    6. Work with Congress to coordinate through NASA and other nations to start controlling the proliferation of space debris by developing space vehicles to recover space debris and bring it back to earth for analysis and recycling when deploying, servicing, and recovering satellites from space. (Department of Transportation, NASA)
    7. Work with Congress to include the cost of recycling and disposal in the price of new products as a tax that would go to a Federal Recycle Trust Fund, and pay a percentage of this recycle cost to individuals who bring garbage and trash to the collection facilities for recycling and disposal.  (Department of the Treasury)
    8. Work with Congress to initiate design contracts to convert a large fleet of excess large military and civilian aircraft to firefighting equipment by installing huge fresh water tanks in their fuselages with quick-fill and quick-discharge capabilities and construct runways near fresh water resources to quickly fill the aircraft fuselage tanks.  Then strategically locate these aircraft around the country at military bases and airports near fresh water sources to respond very quickly to forest fires, industrial fires, and potential terrorist attacks like 9/11.  This would substantially reduce the impact of forest fires on the environment, reduce insurance costs to citizens and the insurance industry, and save the lives and property of citizens.  The military would be responsible for the maintenance and piloting of the aircraft.  A percentage of civilian property insurance premiums would pay for the other ongoing operational support costs and the cost of all missions and flight hours. (Department of Defense, Corps of Engineers) 
  1. Election Cycle 2 – 2023 to 2024 (Environment):
    1. Work with Congress to initiate construction contracts, in conjunction with state and local governments, for the development of prototype 100% recycling plants for all metals, paper, plastics, and rubber received from daily garbage pickups and the public.  (Department of the Interior)
    2. Work with Congress to initiate construction contracts, in conjunction with state and local governments, for the development of prototype 100% recycling plants for the recycling of all waste lubricating oils from the public and oil change facilities, and establish recycling plants in strategic locations throughout the nation to prevent the contamination of fresh water resources.  (Department of the Interior)
    3. Work with Congress to initiate construction contracts, in conjunction with state and local governments, for the development of prototype 100% recycling plants for the recycling or disposal of non-hazardous chemicals and paints collected from the public and industry, and establish recycling and disposal plants in strategic locations throughout the nation to prevent the contamination of fresh water resources. (Department of the Interior)
    4. Work with Congress to initiate construction contracts for the development of prototype 100% recycling plants for the recycling or disposal all hazardous chemicals and hazardous waste products from the public and industry, and establish recycling and disposal plants in strategic locations throughout the nation to protect the public and prevent the contamination of fresh water resources. (Department of the Interior)
    5. Work with Congress to initiate construction contracts to convert a large fleet of excess large military and civilian aircraft to firefighting equipment by installing huge fresh water tanks in their fuselages with quick-fill and quick-discharge capabilities.  Then strategically locate these aircraft around the country at military bases and airports near fresh water sources to respond very quickly to forest fires, industrial fires, and potential terrorist attacks like 9/11.  (Department of Defense, Corps of Engineers)
    6. Work with Congress to initiate construction contracts to construct runways near fresh water resources to quickly fill the firefighting aircraft’s fuselage tanks or a better alternative might be to run a very large 10 inch or 12 inch water pipe from the major water sources to the airport location where the firefighting aircraft are parked, and attach a very high pressure pump to the water pipe to fill the fuselage tank of each aircraft in a short period of time.
    7. Work with Congress to initiate design and construction contracts to modify excess or outdated military ships, such as old aircraft carriers and military cargo vessels, to collect the existing concentrations of plastics and other debris that are floating in the oceans and bring them to shore to be recycled in the automated recycling plants.  This could also be a source of income for entrepreneurs.
    8. Work with Congress for funding to work with colleges and universities, the scientific community, and industry by the issuance of grants with goals and timetables and contracts to develop processes that can recycle rubber tires into new tires and other products of equal or better quality than the originals by the use of polymers or other synthetic components. (Department of Education, National Science Foundation)
    9. Work with Congress for funding to work with colleges and universities and local communities to begin job training programs for citizens to address current job shortages, new technologies, new industries, new business opportunities, and new jobs that will be generated by new governmental initiatives. (Department of Education, National Science Foundation)
    10. Work with Congress to export the processes and equipment developed from these new recycling technologies and industries to other nations to help improve the overall global environment and improve America’s balance of payments to other nations. (Department of Commerce) 
  1. Election Cycle 3 – 2025 to 2026 (Environment):
    1. Continue to initiate design and construction contracts, in conjunction with state and local governments, to complete the environmental projects identified in the previous two election cycles and continue to develop additional environmental initiatives.
  1. Election Cycle 4 – 2027 to 2028 (Environment):
    1. Work with Congress to continue to initiate design and construction contracts, in conjunction with state and local governments, to complete the environmental projects identified in the previous three election cycles and continue to develop additional environmental initiatives.

 

Detailed Discussion of Proposed Environmental Initiatives

From the very beginning God commanded humanity to subdue the earth and be good stewards of all the natural resources that were made available through the creative process which included air, water, minerals, and the soil(Gen. 1:28).  The website at https://interestingengineering.com/10-ways-humans-impact-the-environment (66) describes ten ways that humans negatively impact the environment and our natural resources which are: overpopulation, pollution, global warming, climate change, genetic modification, ocean acidification, ocean pollution, deforestation, acid rain, and ozone depletion. One of the most effective initiatives to address many of these ten negative impacts is recycling.  The website entitled “all-recycling-facts.com” provides the following information about recycling:  Recycling Statistics and Facts at http://www.all-recycling-facts.com/recycling-statistics.html (140); Recycling Benefits to the Economy at http://www.all-recycling-facts.com/recycling-benefits.html (141); Political/Ethical Importance of Recycling at http://www.all-recycling-facts.com/importance-of-recycling.html (142); and The Recycling Process at http://www.all-recycling-facts.com/recycling-process.html (143).  The following paragraphs will discuss how human government can utilize UP-2 concerning the stewardship of natural resources to immediately begin initiatives to address these ten negative impacts to our environment and natural resources.  

The following American initiatives that address the ten ways that humans are negatively impacting the environment and our natural resources will require that America first fix our relationship problems, fix some of our democracy problems, and fix our money problems.  Since these initiatives are proposing new research, new industries, and a considerable amount of coordination between state and local governments, it may take several years before the public will begin to see tangible results from project activities, but the research and planning must begin immediately.The following environmental initiatives are relisted in the order that they are likely to be planned and implemented.

  1. Work with state, local and national leaders and the agricultural community to develop agricultural reserves as a national asset to reduce the national impact of weather-related disasters, combat hunger nationally and abroad, and improve trade balances with other nations.  As agricultural production exceeds the needs of the national market place, the excess production would be withdrawn from the market by the Federal Government, at a set percentage of market value, and stored as agricultural reserves to maintain competitive prices, and the agricultural reserves would become a national asset to be used by the Federal Government for disaster relief, hunger relief, and export trade negotiations with other nations around the world. (Department of Agriculture)
  2. Develop a fleet of excess large military and civilian helicopters and transport/bomber aircraft and convert them to firefighting equipment by installing huge fresh water tanks in their fuselages with quick-fill and quick-discharge capabilities.  Then strategically locate them around the country at military bases and airports near fresh water sources to respond very quickly to local fires, forest fires, industrial fires, and potential terrorist attacks like 9/11.  Excess aircraft can be found at the website entitled “AirplaneBoneyards.com” at https://www.airplaneboneyards.com/post-wwii-military-airplane-boneyards.htm (76) and https://airplaneboneyards.com/commercial-aviation-airplane-boneyards-storage.htm (77).  This would substantially reduce the impact of fires on the environment, reduce insurance costs to citizens and insurance companies, and save the lives and property of citizens.  The military would be responsible for the maintenance and piloting of the aircraft.  A percentage of civilian property insurance premiums would pay for the ongoing maintenance/operational support costs and the cost of all missions and flight hours. (Department of Defense)
  3. Establish a 100% recycling program for the excess military aircraft identified at the above website at https://www.airplaneboneyards.com/post-wwii-military-airplane-boneyards.htm (76) and add these materials to the excess recycling assets of the nation to clean up the national landscape; provide recycled materials to rebuild the infrastructure of the nation; and produce federal revenue from the resale of these excess recycled materials to national and international markets.  It is proposed that the recycled raw materials from this program be processed in modern, automated recycling plants that produce standard sized ingots or bricks of raw material for easy storage. (Department of Defense)
  4. Re-establish nuclear power plants as a primary source of electrical power in America, by establishing a dedicated research team of scientists and engineers, similar to the WWII Manhattan Project for the atomic bomb, to determine how the half-lives of radioisotopes can be reduced or neutralized, so that the radioactive wastes and other byproducts of nuclear reactors can be recycled or safely disposed of in a relatively short period of time without potential damage to the environment.  According to the Principle of Le Chatelier (Chapter 3, Item 11), if stress, such as a change in concentration, pressure, or temperature, is applied to a system in equilibrium, the equilibrium is shifted in a way that tends to undo the effect of the stress, which may be applicable to radioisotopes.  The website, https://www.creation.com/radiometric-dating-breakthroughs (13), is an article about radiometric dating which suggests that this is already occurring in nature. (Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
  5. Work with local, state, and national leaders to establish a 100% recycling program for all metals, paper, plastics, and rubber received from daily garbage pickups and the public to (1) clean up the national landscape; (2) reduce the content of landfills to reclaim lost real estate; (3) provide recycled metal materials to rebuild the infrastructure of the nation; (4) provide recycled paper materials for the manufacture of paper products to preserve national forests; (5) provide recycled plastic materials for the manufacture of plastic products and stop the pollution of the oceans; and (6) provide recycled rubber materials for the manufacture of new and more advanced rubber products.  It is proposed that the recycled raw materials from these four areas be processed in modern, automated recycling plants that produce standard sized ingots or bricks of raw material for re-sale in the national and international market place.  As the recycled production of these recycling plants exceeds the needs of the national industrial market place, the excess production would be withdrawn from the market, at a set percentage of market value, to maintain competitive prices, and the excess recycled production would become national assets to be used for nationally sponsored projects and for export trade negotiations with other nations around the world.  (Department of the Interior)
  6. Work with local, state, and national leaders to establish a 100% recycling program for all concrete and asphalt from demolished buildings and roadways and the slag from smelting processes to reduce the content of landfills and reclaim lost real estate.  It is proposed that tax incentives be established for the design and construction of strategically located, high volume, automated recycling plants for concrete, asphalt, and slag.  As the recycled production of these recycling plants exceeds the needs of the national industrial market place, the excess production would be withdrawn from the market, at a set percentage of market value, to maintain competitive prices, and the excess recycled production would become national assets to be used for nationally sponsored projects and for export trade negotiations with other nations around the world.  (Department of the Interior)
  7. Work with local, state, and national leaders to establish a 100% recycling program for the collection of all lubricating oils from the public and industry, and establish recycling plants in strategic locations throughout the nation to prevent the contamination of fresh water resources.  Any excess production of recycled oil would become a national asset and be added to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to be used to help stabilize the prices of gasoline in the American market place. (Department of the Interior)
  8. Work with local, state, and national leaders to establish a 100% recycling program for the collection and disposal of all non-hazardous chemicals and paints from the public and industry, and establish recycling and disposal plants in strategic locations throughout the nation to prevent the contamination of fresh water resources. (Department of the Interior)
  9. Work with local, state, and national leaders to establish a 100% collection and disposal program for all hazardous chemicals and hazardous waste products from the public and industry, and establish disposal plants in strategic locations throughout the nation to protect the public and prevent the contamination of fresh water resources. (Department of the Interior)
  10. Initiate design and construction contracts to modify excess or outdated military ships, such as old aircraft carriers and military cargo vessels, to collect the existing concentrations of plastics and other debris that are floating in the oceans and bring them to shore to be recycled in the automated recycling plants.  This could also be a source of income for entrepreneurs.
  11. Work with colleges and universities, the scientific community, and industry by the issuance of grants with goals and timetables to develop processes and equipment to remove and recycle harmful chemicals from waste water such as glyphosate, estrogen, Prozac, and harmful discharges from industrial plants and sewage treatment plants before they are pumped  into lakes, rivers and streams.  Provide tax incentives for individuals and companies that convert to ecofriendly technologies and equipment. (Department of Education, National Science Foundation)
  12. Work with colleges and universities, the scientific community, and industry by the issuance of grants with goals and timetables to develop processes and processing plants to convert household organic waste, animal parts from meat processing plants, human and other animal excretions, and dead animals into commercial fertilizers with a maximum control of odor and minimum pollution of the environment. (Department of Education, National Science Foundation)
  13. Work with colleges and universities, the scientific community, and industry by the issuance of grants with goals and timetables to develop processes that can recycle rubber tires into new tires and other products of equal or better quality than the originals by the use of polymers or other synthetic components; and find more high volume uses of the slag from smelting processes. (Department of Education, National Science Foundation)
  14. Work with colleges and universities, industry leaders, labor leaders and local communities to begin training citizens for current job shortages, new technologies, new industries, new business opportunities, and new jobs that would be generated by these new governmental initiatives. (Department of Education, National Science Foundation)
  15. Establish plants and equipment for the recovery and recycling of all military debris and obsolete military equipment and aircraft left from national military operations and foreign military operations by melting them down into ingots and adding them to the National Recycled Reserves to provide raw materials for the rebuilding of the national infrastructure, new national projects, and resale to industry and foreign countries for revenue, which would reduce taxes and improve export balance of payments. (Department of the Interior)
  16. Establish a NASA-Styled program to develop vehicles for the exploration of the oceans to recover and recycle the sunken vessels from previous wars and civilian operations.  An analysis of the sunken vessels of the major powers from World War II alone reveals that the total estimated displacement tons of sunken vehicles is 2,546,359 tons, which are distributed as follows:  Japan – 1,205,232 tons; United Kingdom – 480,400 tons; Germany – 366,464 tons; United States – 342,033 tons; and Italy – 152,230 tons.  The materials not shared with the foreign nations from these sunken vessels would be recycled and added to the assets of the national recycled metal reserves.  Once established, the raw materials from this program should be much less expensive than mining the materials from scratch and much less damaging to the environment. (Department of Defense)
  17. Work through NASA and other nations to control the proliferation of space debris by developing space vehicles that can fly directly into space and recover space debris and bring it back to earth for recycling when deploying, servicing, and recovering satellites. (Department of Transportation, NASA)
  18. Work with local, state, and national leaders and industry to reopen and modernize old foundries and establish new foundries to melt down the metal debris from the major recovery and recycling operations to provide raw materials for the rebuilding of the national infrastructure and for resale to industry and export, which would create new businesses and many new jobs and reduce taxes.  Add any excess recycled metal raw materials to the national recycled metal reserves as liquid assets. (Department of Commerce)
  19. Work with state, local and national leaders toward the design and construction of a national flood control system that transfers the flood waters from flood prone areas in the East to drought prone areas in the West and replenish depleted water tables, by the use of pumps, canals, dams, tunnels, and the Grand Canyon.  The dams would provide more sources of electrical power for the nation and more sources of surface water for the nation, which would reduce the consumption of the ground water that is creating substantial subsidence in coastal areas.  The pumps and tunnels would be used to transport all excess surface water from dams and rivers to the Grand Canyon for transport to the west coast via the Colorado River. The pumps could also be used to pump properly treated waste water and flood water back into depleted aquifers to reverse the effects of subsidence.  This system would also reduce the erosion of soil and the loss of fresh water to the Gulf of Mexico. (Department of Defense, Corps of Engineers)
  20. Work with colleges and universities, the scientific community, and industry by the issuance of grants with goals and timetables to study the feasibility of designing and constructing a national underground power grid that would connect to the various sources of electrical power generation and communications, including all land-based communications cabling, which would substantially reduce the need for forest products for power and communication lines.  It might also reduce repair costs and power outages to citizens during natural disasters and national emergencies and save lives.  The excess power poles and metal from power lines would be added to the agricultural and metal recycled reserves as liquid assets. (Department of Energy)
  21. Work with colleges and universities, the scientific community, and industry to develop new ecofriendly herbicides to control weeds and find new ways to use natural predator/prey relationships to control pests and reduce the use of dangerous chemicals that kill unintended victims. (Department of Education, National Science Foundation)

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