/* Written 5:44 pm Apr 13, 1994 by francesmike@igc.apc.org in
igc:citnet.pcsd */
/* ---------- "pcsd letter" ---------- */
LETTER TO President Clinton and Vice President Gore copies to
Katie McGinty, David Buzzelli, Jonathan Lash and Molly Olson
Sign-on deadline 4/16.
Purpose of letter: To thank the Administration and the
President's Council for their work on sustainable
development issues; to suggest a focus for the PCSD and
for the national sustainable development action strategy
that the Council is to produce by July, 1995, and to
explore ideas for follow-up after the 2-year appointment
of this first President's Council ends.
The following letter will be put on plain letterhead and
delivered to the White House and to the President's
Council at its April 18, 1994, meeting in Washington, D.C.
Organizations or individuals who wish to sign onto the
letter, please let Fran Spivy-Weber know by email by 4/16:
francesmike@igc.apc.org or fax (202)-546-7939. Please
send your own comments to PCSD as well. If you do not
have fax or cannot access Econet, please contact Fran @
1308 South Carolina SE, Washington, D.C. 20003.
Dear Mr. President and Mr. Vice President:
Thank you for taking leadership on the challenging issues
of sustainable development to achieve social equity and a
healthy environment and economy. Many of your
initiatives, including health care reform, reinventing
government, and the information highway, should make
important contributions to creating sustainability in the
United States. We also appreciate your establishing the
President's Council on Sustainable Development and
encouraging your Cabinet officers to devote time to this
collaborative effort between government and the
community.
We are writing about the focus of the national sustainable
development action strategy, which you have charged the
President's Council to produce by July, 1995, as well as
the actions that can be undertaken by your Administration
now.
As stakeholders in the future of the United States, the
undersigned encourage you and the Council to make the
strategy document a brief, readable document focused on a
process that the Administration can quickly and cost
effectively use to advance sustainability policies and
activities both here in the United States and abroad. The
process should begin with the principles developed by the
President's Council and the Rio Declaration of the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development that
establish a set of values upon which goals can be set, and
against which actions can be reviewed and revised as
needed.
We recognize that many sectors of society must take
responsibility to achieve sustainabilty, but we have
developed these four recommendations specifically because
we think the President and the Administration are uniquely
able act on them now. In addition they will reinforce the
actions of other sectors.
Our first action recommendation is that all federal
Departments review their policies and activities through
the lens of sustainability and initiate appropriate
reforms. In some Departments this is already happening
through the reinventing government initiative. For
example, the Department of Interior is reexaming its
policies and subsidies for logging, grazing, and mining
activities. But what about the Departments of Defense,
Commerce, State, Energy, Housing and Urban Development,
Transportation, and Agriculture? Each Department should
have a short-term and long-term plan for how it is going
to meet the challenge of ecologically sustainable
stewardship. To ensure a healthy critique of the plans,
the President's Council could serve as the secretariat for
a public debate and promote public participation in the
dialogue.
The second recommendation is for a short term Task Force
from government and nongovernmental organizations to
prepare a proposal on incentives for communities and
businesses to pursue sustainability policies. Like the
Health Care Task Force, the Incentives Task Force could
stimulate legislation and considerable private sector
activity and debate. Current members of the President's
Council and others should be on this Task Force. The
Council staff could provide the secretariat services for
the Task Force.
A third recommendation is that the public debate of
sustainability issues be made a high priorty by the
Administration. For example, you and the members of the
President's Council could commit to participating in
locally-organized public debates on issues such as
Sustainable Cities: Energy Efficient Transportation.
Like the Forest Summit and the Economic Summit, divergent
points of view should be part of the dialogue, and the
best or at least the most feasible ideas from these
dialogues could be acted on by the appropriate Agencies
and programs.
Finally, the Administration can challenge citizens to take
the leadership to build a more sustainable life. Forging
a sustainable path for the future of this nation must be
built through a democratic process by people acting
personally, in their homes, communities, businesses,
schools, churches, and civic organizations. Those most
active in the pioneer work on sustainability--community
leaders; state and local governments; Congress; small and
large businesses; grassroots, regional, national, and
international nongovernmental organizations--are the pool
from which you can draw advisors to work with Cabinet
officers in each part of your sustainable development
initiative. We urge you to not limit this initiative to
an advisory council.
Thank you, again, for your commitment to sustainability.
We look forward to your working even more closely with us
in the future.
Sincerely,