Boxer and Fiorina on the Environment

Boxer is widely recognized as one of the Senate’s leaders on protecting our environment and chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee. Senator Boxer’s record on the environment includes:

• Working to make California the hub of the clean energy economy as Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
• Introduced legislation to extend the ban on offshore oil drilling in California to protect our environment, $23 billion coastal economy, and thousands of jobs.
• Co-authored a Clean Energy bill to bring California over 100,000 new clean energy jobs, help turn the economy around, cut carbon pollution, and make California the hub of the new clean energy industry.
• Supports AB 32, California's landmark global warming law.
• Helped secure $17.5 million in funds to advance new clean energy transit technologies.
• Fought to expand the Superfund program to clean up toxic waste sites around the country.
• Protected more than 1 million acres of federal public land as wilderness.
• Wrote the law that requires the EPA to set safe drinking water standards for children.
• Led the successful fight against the Bush Administration's plan to weaken the arsenic standard for drinking water.

Endorsed by:

• California League of Conservation Voters
• League of Conservation Voters
• Sierra Club

Fiorina:

• Supports expanded offshore oil drilling and opposes a permanent ban on offshore oil drilling – even in the wake of the BP spill. Her position puts her at odds with Governor Schwarzenegger and Meg Whitman.
• Supports oil companies’ ballot initiative to repeal AB 32, California’s landmark global warming law, which she called a “terrible piece of legislation.”
• Calls climate change “the weather” and questions its relation to national security, even though the CIA established a Center on the Study of Climate Change and National Security.
• Says she’s “not sure” that climate change is real and that “we should have the courage to examine the science.”
• Opposes legislation to reduce the effects of climate change because “even people who believe global warming is real admit that a single state acting alone or a single country acting alone cannot make any difference.”
• Calls the Endangered Species Act “crazy.”
• Refers to the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters as “extreme environmentalists.”