A comprehensive energy policy must be a critical element of our environmental thinking. Investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy is key to sustainability. Just as ecological materials management is governed by the concept of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle"; ecological energy management must be governed by the principle of Conservation, Efficiency, and Clean Renewables. Of highest importance is to use less, then to use wisely, and to have clean production of what is used. Extensive conservation measures will bring huge resource savings for both the economy and the environment. Conservation, along with energy efficiency and renewables, is an essential part of an effective energy policy. The Greens call for pervasive efforts on the energy conservation front. We encourage the creation and design of human environments that are as energy-efficient as possible, recognizing that yet further conservation efforts are a significant means to meeting our future energy needs without further energy production. Similarly, we support the phasing out of the most ecologically harmful sources of energy. Greens support true-cost pricing, which reflects the actual cost of products including ecological damage and externalities caused during manufacturing processes.

1. We call for the development of a state energy policy that includes disincentives (taxes and/or fines) on energy waste, and the funding of energy research, including credits for alternative and sustainable energy use such as solar, wind, hydrogen and biomass. Hydrogen-based energy development should utilize sources of hydrogen other than fossil fuels.
2. We also support enacting mandatory carbon reduction measures with objectives that seek to minimize such emissions to the lowest levels achievable with available technology.
3. In order to aid in the rapid replacement of extremely polluting energy systems (nuclear and coal-fired power plants), natural gas power plants could help provide needed replacement power until conservation, efficiency and truly clean renewables are fully phased in. Natural gas power plants should not be used to feed an increase in energy demand.
4. We support the concept that new construction be required to achieve substantial portions of its heating energy from the sun in the next few years. Incentives/disincentives should be put in place to move utilities toward establishing solar power stations to augment and eventually supplant fossil fuel generated electricity.

B. NUCLEAR ISSUES

The Green Party of Utah recognizes that there is no such thing as nuclear waste disposal. There are no technological methods that can effectively isolate nuclear waste from the biosphere for the duration of its hazardous life. Therefore, it is essential that generation of additional nuclear wastes be stopped. The Green Party of Utah calls for the phase-out of other technologies that use or produce nuclear waste. These technologies include non-commercial nuclear reactors, reprocessing facilities, nuclear waste incinerators, food irradiators and all commercial and military uses of depleted uranium. Current methods of underground storage of nuclear wastes are a danger to present and future generations. Any nuclear waste management strategies must be aboveground, continuously monitored, retrievable and repackageable, and must minimize transportation of wastes. We call for independent, public-access radiation monitoring at all nuclear facilities.

1. We oppose Envirocare of Utah's application with the Division of Radiation Control to receive a permit that would allow shipment and storage of Class B & C radioactive wastes at the Envirocare landfill 60 miles west of the Wasatch Front.
2. The Green Party of Utah strongly opposes any shipment of high-level nuclear waste across Utah to the proposed waste repository on Goshute Reservation land or any other centralized facility. We oppose shipment of nuclear waste through Southeast Utah International Uranium Corporation's facility near Blanding, Utah for storage, reprocessing, or any other proposed activities concerning nuclear waste.
3. We support applicable environmental impact statements (EIS) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis with citizen participation at all nuclear sites.
4. We support an immediate and intensive campaign to educate the public about nuclear problems, including disposal, clean-up and long-term dangers.
5. We oppose Envirocare of Utah's application with the Division of Radiation Control to receive a permits that would allow shipment and storage of Class B and Class C radioactive wastes at the Envirocare landfill sixty miles west of the Wasatch Front.
6. We oppose shipment of nuclear waste through Southeast Utah International Uranium Corporation's facility near Blanding for storage, reprocessing, or any other proposed activities concerning nuclear waste.

C. WASTE MANAGEMENT/INCINERATION

Legal requirements and standards for businesses applying for zoning permits should be formulated to require disclosure of toxics that may be used. We support recycling at every level of the economy. We endorse source reduction and municipal programs that particularly focus on household recycling. The demand for printing paper puts pressure on dwindling forests. Clear cutting continues with all the attendant environmental damage. Alternative paper stock, and recycled papers, should become the norm in the interest of minimizing environmental damage done by commercial tree cutting operations and the pollution produced by paper mills. Environmental justice demands that poor communities, minority and under-represented communities not bear an unfair burden when it comes to disposal of toxic wastes. We strongly advocate adoption of the "precautionary principle" in assessing new products and managing existing ones. This will serve to shift the burden of proof of health damage from the public to industries seeking to release products into the environment. Past violations, illegal use and misuse of hazardous materials have to be remedied appropriately. Those responsible for toxic waste dumping, spills, and contamination on or off their sites should be responsible for the full costs of complete clean up. In addition, we call for levying appropriate fines on those found guilty of violating such standards. We endorse a revisiting of Superfund legislation to make these clean up laws more effective.

1. We oppose incineration of municipal solid waste, sewage, non- biological medical waste, and toxic waste. We support a moratorium on any new incinerators that burn such materials and a rapid shutdown of existing incinerators that do so. We support immediate replacement of the Tooele Chemical Demilitarization Facility/Chemical Weapons Incinerators with one of the non-incineration, closed-loop alternative technologies that have been developed by the Federal Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment.
2. We oppose shipping of toxic wastes across national borders and the shipment of toxic/hazardous or radioactive wastes, without regulation, across any political borders without appropriate regulation.
3. We oppose the exportation, under any circumstances, of chemicals that are prohibited in the United States. We support United States ratification of the recently negotiated Persistent Organic Pollutant Treaty (POPS), which calls for the phase-out of the "dirty dozen" most toxic human-made chemicals or chemical byproducts on Earth.
4. We support immediate replacement of the Tooele Chemical Demilitarization Facility/chemical weapons incinerators with one of the non-incineration, closed-loop alternative technologies that have been developed by the Federal Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment.
5. We support ratification of the recently negotiated Persistent Organic Pollutant Treaty (POPS), which calls for the phase-out of the "Dirty Dozen" most toxic human-made chemicals or chemical byproducts on Earth.

D. FOSSIL FUELS

We are aware of the environmental hazards that accompany the use of fossil fuels and of their non-sustainability and eventual depletion. We call for transition energy strategies, including the use of relatively clean-burning natural gas, as a way to reorder our energy priorities and over-reliance on traditional fuels. We call for a gradual phase-out of gasoline and other fossil fuels.

1. We advocate fair buybacks of the most polluting and least efficient vehicles to remove these vehicles from the road.
2. Until gasoline driven cars can be replaced, we advocate fuel efficiency standards, a gas-guzzler tax on new low mileage vehicles, and a gas-sipper rebate on high mileage vehicles.
3. We acknowledge the relative benefits that can be achieved in the production of and use of natural gas in current economic alternatives and transition strategies.
4. Public ownership and/or strong public regulation of utilities should be encouraged to advance energy efficient policies. Appropriate tax-exempt bonds should be authorized to finance public ownership in utilities. Tax-exempt bonds should be authorized to allow publicly owned utilities to finance conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy projects.
5. We call for the repeal of H.B. 320: the Questar Bill.

E. RENEWABLE ENERGY/PRODUCTS/MATERIALS

Overall, it is essential in the long-term that alternative energy systems be put in place that produce goods that are durable, repairable, reusable, recyclable, and energy-efficient, using both non-toxic materials and nonpolluting production methods. Ultimately, environmentally destructive technologies, processes, and products should be replaced with alternatives that are environmentally benign or positive. Producers/manufacturers must look to redesigning their products. Legislation that will assist this transition (including bans, taxation, recycled content standards and economic incentives/disincentives such as taxation, special fees, and/or deposits) will be required in any concerted move toward system-wide sustainability. We support incentive programs to pursue this goal.

1. We call on regulatory agencies to include life-cycle considerations in their standard-setting process for product approval. We promote citizen participation in this process.
2. We support efforts to develop inexpensive, efficient solar cells, chips and panels via industrial-grade silicon and other advanced materials.

F. TRANSPORTATION POLICY

1. We encourage providing a broad range of incentives for alternative transportation, including natural gas vehicles, solar and electric vehicles, fuel cells, bicycles and bikeways, and mass transit.
2. We must encourage that an increasing percentage of the Federal motor fleet be converted to natural gas with the aims of being pollution free over the next decade.
3. The Green Party of Utah opposes development of the Legacy Highway. We must expand the network of rail lines, high-speed regional passenger service, commuter rail, subway and urban light rail systems.

G. CLEAN AIR / GREENHOUSE EFFECT / OZONE DEPLETION

The Green Party of Utah endorses the concept that every human being has an equal right to the atmosphere. The strict, comprehensive protections of the Clean Air Act must be maintained and enhanced if we are to keep in place effective federal programs that deal with urban smog, toxic air pollution, acid rain, and ozone depletion. State and local clean air initiatives should advance and improve national efforts. As an example, California has taken the lead in legislation moving forward stricter clean air and fuel efficiency standards, and vehicle and fleet conversions. These programs should serve as a model for other local, regional and state initiatives. We urge all governments to table a list of the policies and measures they intend to adopt to attain their target, for example eco-taxes and energy performance standards.

1. An early target must still be set to prevent emissions rising so far that future reductions become even more difficult. There must be commitments for 2005.

H. LAND USE

Greens are advocates for the Earth. All the rivers, lakes, landscapes, forests, and wildlife. This is our birthright and our home - the adaptive ecology of the green Earth. Greens take a bioregional view of the ecosystem, acknowledging political boundaries while noting that the land, air and water, the interconnected biosphere, is a unique and precious community, deserving careful consideration and protection. Greens support restructuring institutions to conform to bioregional realities. We feel that, just as the planetary ecology consists of nested systems at various scales, so must our programs and institutions of ecological stewardship be scaled appropriately. Guided by our sense of stewardship, we feel that all land use polices, plans, and practices should be based on sustainable development and production.

We encourage the social ownership and use of land at the community, local, and regional level, for example in the form of community and conservation land trusts, under covenants of ecological responsibility.) Greens find inspiration in building healthy, livable communities. Communities must be designed or redesigned so that they are built with energy efficiency in mind, on a human scale, with integrated land uses. Such integrated land uses should provide, for example, ready access between home and work, and to schools, a local supply of food, shopping, worship, medical care, recreation and natural areas. Integrated land use should also de-emphasize individual motorized transport and place more emphasis on ecologically responsible mass transit, bicycling, and the pedestrian. We promote urban design and architecture that does not alienate, but fulfills, the spirit and that is compatible with human, social, artistic, and environmental values. Greens support the concepts advanced by the New Urbanism movement. As there is much to learn about human-scale development and neighborly social interaction from historical patterns of urbanism, we support historic preservation. Recreational opportunities are the beginning of lifelong appreciation of our natural environment. We should all have opportunities to experience nature firsthand.

It is imperative that we as a nation find a means to control urban sprawl. The ecological, social, and fiscal crises engendered by sprawl are becoming ever more apparent. Greens enthusiastically endorse the Metropolitics movement, which seeks to control sprawl by integrating such measures as urban growth boundaries, tax base sharing, fair housing and metropolitan transportation. Urban areas can be revitalized through Brownfields redevelopment although standards for the clean up of contaminated sites must not be lowered. Rural areas and farmland should be preserved, through such measures as purchase of development rights. Watershed planning should be undertaken to mitigate the impacts of urban development on our streams, rivers, and lakes. Storm water management, soil erosion and sedimentation control, the establishment of vegetative buffers, and performance standards for development are appropriate measures in this area. Special attention must be given to the restoration and protection of riparian areas, which are critical habitats in healthy ecosystems. Greens believe that effective land and resource management practices must be founded on stewardship, such as incorporated in a land ethic as articulated by Aldo Leopold.

1. Stringent natural resource management should serve to prevent activities that adversely affect public and adjacent lands. We call for repeal of the Mining Act of 1872. We demand a halt to federal mineral, oil and gas, and resource giveaways, royalty holidays, and flagrant concessions to the mining, energy and timber industries, and an immediate crackdown on their evasions and fraudulent reporting.
2. We call for strict clean-up enforcement of industrial-scale natural resource extraction activities, for example, of tailings, pits and run-off from mining operations via agreement with companies that can include posting of site-restoration bonds prior to commencement of operations. The regional long-term environmental and social impacts of any resource extractions should be minimized, and the land restored to a healthy ecological state.
3. We call for a halt to all current policies that promote destruction of forest ecosystems and we call for an end to the trade in endangered hardwoods. We support laws that promote paper recycling and mandate sustainable forestry practices that promote biodiversity.
4. We urge protection of old growth forests, a zero-cut policy banning industrial timber harvest on federal and state lands, a ban on all clear-cutting, and a reduction of road building on public lands.
5. We advocate raising grazing fees on public land to approximate fair market value and significant grazing reforms. We support policies that favor small-scale ranchers over corporate operations (which are often used as tax write-offs, a practice that undermines family ranches).
6. We must promote the preservation and extension of wildlife habitat and biological diversity by creating and preserving large continuous tracts of open space (complete ecosystems so as to permit healthy, self-managing wildlife populations to exist in a natural state. We oppose any selling off of our National Parks, the commercial privatizing of public lands; and/or cutbacks or exploitation in our national wilderness areas.
7. Public involvement in decision making via active and well-funded Resource Management District and Councils will aid a long-term process on the use of federal and state trust lands which are currently controlled by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Forest Service, National Park Service, and State Land Offices.
8. We support banning indiscriminate wildlife damage control practices.
9. We urge comprehensive baseline mapping of our nation's biodiversity resources.

I. WATER

With the longer term in mind, we call for elimination of wasteful subsidies on the use of water in agriculture and for municipal water rates to be set high enough, or that other incentives/disincentives be set in place, to discourage the wasteful use of water. Given the profound importance of clean water, we support the establishment of federal, state, and local groundwater protection agencies with authority to establish standards for the use of water; to provide tough and timely enforcement of laws enacted; and to protect our aquifers from overuse, depletion and contamination. We acknowledge Native American rights regarding water, and urge fair and equitable solutions with tribes on the part of the courts and State Water Engineers.

1. We support the federal Clean Water Act setting strict requirements for sewage discharges, wetland protection and water quality standards.
2. We endorse alternative solutions to water treatment and clean-up, for example constructed wetlands and biological remediation.
3. We encourage developing incentives for the use of native plants for ornamental and landscape plantings rather that the cultivation of imported lawn grasses that consume excessive amounts of water.
4. We encourage the use of segregated gray water for irrigation purposes.
5. We oppose the construction of any new dams, especially the two dams currently proposed for the Bear River.
6. We support "true cost pricing" of water as a means to encourage water conservation with the goal of preventing new massive water developments that are currently subsidized through our property tax payments.
7. We support Wild and Scenic River designations on Utah rivers as recommended by the Utah Rivers council.

J. AGRICULTURE

The human species is at the top of the food chain and is, therefore, very vulnerable to the degrading of the environment and the loss of species. If for no other reason than our own preservation, we should work to protect our environment and the diversity of our region and planet's rich life forms.

Factory farming (industrial farming) threatens to further erode the family farms and the general quality of life in our rural areas. Family farms are the basis of community-based economics and essential to rural development and a healthy, diverse economy. The consequences of factory farming are devastating. Animal wastes are allowed to discharge into rivers and streams, degrading water and air quality, killing aquatic life and posing serious threats to human health and the environment. Corporate industrial farming practices are inhumane and cause unnecessary suffering to animals. We believe that the mark of a humane and civilized society lies in how we treat the least protected among us. To extend rights to other sentient, living beings is our responsibility and a mark of our place among all of creation. We find cruelty to animals to be repugnant and criminal. We call for an intelligent, compassionate approach to the treatment of animals. Industrial farming has changed the type of food we eat, and studies are now demonstrating that nutritional value has been decreased, with resultant immune system impacts.

1. The Green Party of Utah strongly opposes the rampant and damaging policies of corporate industrial farming and calls for a shift away from these practices.
2. We support an immediate ban on the release of genetically engineered organisms into the environment and food supply. We believe the corporations developing these transgenic organisms should be required to prove their safety in the environment before releasing them into the market. Labeling should fully disclose where genetically engineered (and/or irradiated) food is being supplied. Consumer choice needs to be based on full and complete disclosure. Whether it is Bt corm, genetically modified maize, or GM oilseed that finds its way into a menu of other products, the consumer needs to know and choose.
3. We call for the establishment of an ecologically based sustainable agricultural system that moves as rapidly as possible towards regional/bioregional self-reliance.
4. An adequate food supply is tied to many of our nation's domestic, export, foreign aid, geopolitical and related overseas goals. We support anti-hunger and Food Stamp programs at home, and support assistance to foreign countries and their people that moves them toward self-sufficiency and sustainability in food production.
5. With the increase of foodborne illnesses nationally and locally, we recognize the threat of pathogens in our food supply. We call for strong food safety regulation and inspection at all levels of food production and processing.
6. We call for phasing out the use of man-made pesticides and artificial fertilizers, and funding for research to find acceptable alternatives.
7. We support Integrated Pest Management techniques, as an alternative to current chemical-based agriculture.
8. We support the adoption of organic certification standards and support regional efforts to broaden this effort by reaching out to and identifying growers and buyers of organic produce. We support the right of independent organic certifiers to uphold standards that exceed those established by the United States Department of Agriculture.
9. We call for a reconsideration of the potentially far-reaching and unforeseen effects of seed and plant hybridization and especially of genetic engineering in agricultural systems. We are particularly concerned about loss of and increasing threat posed to plant diversity, which must be saved, maintained and enhanced if we are to have an authentic alternative Green revolution, based on diversity, sustainable agriculture and local self-empowerment.
10. We generally oppose the patenting of life forms, including gene-splicing techniques, and call for a moratorium on agricultural genetic engineering while an evaluation of its effects on ecological and social sustainability is carried out. The implications of a corporate takeover, and resulting monopolization of genetic intellectual property by the bioengineering industry, are immense. With the introduction of the world's first genetically engineered (and duly patented) tomato, we need to re-examine our government's oversight of this untested, unproven field.
11. We advocate regionalizing our food system and decentralizing agricultural lands, production, and distribution.
12. We support research, within the public and private arenas, including educational institutions, for sustainable, organic, and ecologically balanced agriculture.

K. BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

Ecological systems are diverse and interlocking, and nature's survival strategy can best be found in the adaptability that comes as a result of biological diversity. Although many people may think first of tropical rainforests in reference to the richness of (and threat to) biological diversity, we believe diversity close to home is worthy of saving, as are the myriad species within the rainforest and its teeming canopy.

We look to the Convention on Biological Diversity, first adopted at the Earth Summit in 1992, as a primary statement of purpose regarding how we can act to preserve and sustain our common genetic resources. Greens emphasize conservation of natural populations and ecosystems, and we seriously question the demands of the US to amend this unprecedented international agreement on behalf of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, with their insistence upon protection of their intellectual property and technology transfer rights. Within these demands are inconsistencies, which can threaten the Convention's overall goals.

We know that agriculture and food comprise the world's largest economic market. We find it of great concern that the practices of corporate agribusiness are leading, as scientists are beginning to point out, to diminishing yields; increasing petrochemical fertilizer and pesticide costs; serious topsoil loss; non-point, runoff pollution of waterways and aquifers; and the return of resistant pests and blights requiring ever-larger doses of environmentally harmful pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and/or miticides.

Monocultures have also led to a massive loss of biodiversity as they have displaced traditional varieties and seed stocks. We encourage the use of diverse natural varieties; those passed down over many generations, called open-pollinates because they can be grown out, the best plants' seeds being saved season to season. In practice, we support this as the basis of an Alternative Green Revolution, sustainable agriculture that is closely connected to the environment, and not dependent on outside companies and their industrial monopolies.

Greens call for a move away from corporate control of agriculture (and the resultant extinction of traditional plant varieties) and instead envision a healthy and sustainable food system, based on crop diversity, community empowerment, self-sufficiency, cooperative marketing, recycling, seed saving, local (and fresh) production, and organic methods. The struggle over the production and quality of our food supply is critical and has yet to be determined. The outcome of this struggle will have an intimate connection to our personal health and the future biological diversity of our environment. We believe strongly that we must work to bring this message every community throughout the world.

Cloning is a challenge to basic Green philosophy. Since the efforts to clone animals, and eventually, humans, has been undertaken by profit-making corporations, the purpose behind such projects is to manufacture commodities. To classify a human (or any part thereof, including human DNA or body organ) as a commodity) is to turn human beings into property. Finally, as Greens, we must add that the mark of a humane and civilized society truly lies in how we treat the least protected among us. To extend rights to other sentient, living beings is our responsibility and a mark of our place among all of creation. We find cruelty to animals to be repugnant and criminal. We call for an intelligent, compassionate approach to the treatment of animals.

1. The Green Party of Utah supports a strong, enforceable Endangered Species Act based on the principles of conservation biology.
2. We encourage support of and public access to seed banks and seed collections that emphasize Deep Diversity, particularly through traditional and heirloom seeds.
3. We call for widespread education on the critical importance of efforts being made (including backyard biodiversity gardening) to replant indigenous plant life where it has dwindled or been lost.
4. Corporate agribusiness is founded on F-1 hybrid seeds, proprietary products that cannot be saved season-to-season and have to be bought from the company store at each new planting. We discourage monopolistic production of high-tech hybrid seeds, the basis of the evolving industry of monoculture agriculture - i.e., agribusiness that relies on non-sustainable methods (single crop varieties bred with industrial traits and grown with high energy, chemical and pesticide inputs).
5. We oppose in principle international trade agreements (NAFTA, GATT and the WTO in particular) that have precedent-setting provisions protecting transnational, corporate control of the intellectual property of genetic material, hybrid seeds and proprietary products.

L. POPULATION

Human population growth has stressed ecological limits and promotes excessive resource use. The population must be able to live within these ecological boundaries. This means we must practice reduction in the growth of the human population to sustainable levels with the natural ecology.

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