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Cost-Cutting Conservation

posted: December 11, 2009 • Categories: Issues • Comments: 0

Among the many misconceptions about Republicans, one of the more common is that we don’t care about the environment. I believe it is our responsibility to protect our natural resources and beautiful landscape. Aside from trying to run an environmentally friendly campaign by relying on online flyers, invitations, and policy communications, I am the only candidate in the 41st district to outline some proven ways we can protect our great state while conserving costs.

Conservation and protection is not a partisan issue; it is an issue that we can all rally behind and work together solving the numerous problems ahead. A theme throughout my campaign has been “sustainability,” which rings loud and clear with this issue. Conservatives from past and present are helping lead the way toward a more environmentally friendly government—with our own Abraham Lincoln being the first to protect Yosemite National Park and Theodore Roosevelt expanding the protection across our great country.

Here in our district, there are many ways we can make small differences in how we protect the environment, ways that the government can encourage change and not force it. When elected, I don’t want to pass legislation that forces you to make changes and restrict your life. I want to introduce ways we can voluntarily help out. Listed below are a few ideas I think we can all agree will help the 41st district and Illinois take another step towards environmental stewardship.

Promote green-space and park land along our waterways

  • By encouraging conservation of land along the waterways we can reduce the risk of flooding for nearby homes, while providing quality natural space for families

Develop more stringent storm water regulations

  • This is not only another step toward protecting against flooding, but also protects our streams and rivers from overflow and pollution

Provide incentives to purchase rain-barrels and plant rain-gardens

  • Homeowners and businesses can save on their monthly water and sewer bills while keeping storm-water runoff from entering the over-taxed storm-water sewer systems

Create incentives to attract eco-friendly businesses to Illinois

  • If we can bring the eco-friendly industry to Illinois, we can have access to more energy efficient products and eco-friendly solutions

Flooding is a major issue not only for our district, but many throughout Illinois. We need to find a way to not only protect the areas around waterways, but save the municipalities, counties, and state millions of dollars during flooding periods. DuPage and Cook County can see over $2 million in damages during one flood, while Storm-water Management can spend nearly $500,000 each year in flood control operations.

I believe that with the listed proposals we can reduce the financial burden governments across Illinois see from flood control and relief. Not only will we save money for them, but also we’ll protect surrounding areas naturally with green-space and rain-barrel controls.

It is important that Springfield takes a hard stance on adopting solutions to make sure our land is beautiful for many years to come. Millions of residents are doing their part to protect the environment; it is time that Springfield joins their fight.

Having Springfield join the fight doesn’t mean we need to push any of the costs onto taxpayers. We can adopt policies that not only save the government money, but protect our wallets as well.

(More info on rain-gardens)

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