Proving You Can Grow the Economy and Protect Our Environment

Preserving Our Natural Treasures

• President Clinton protected tens of millions of acres of public and private lands, from the red rock canyons of Utah to the Florida Everglades.
• The Clinton-Gore Administration has reached historic agreements to protect Yellowstone from mining and save the ancient redwoods of California's Headwaters Forest.
• In the FY 2000 budget, President Clinton and Vice President Gore won $651 million (a 42 percent increase) for Lands Legacy, a historic initiative to strengthen federal efforts to preserve national treasures and provides communities with new resources to protect local green spaces.

[source: Protecting Our National Treasures, Department of Interior]

Preserving Our National Forests

• President Clinton directed the National Forest Service to develop and propose regulations to provide long-term protection for 40 million acres of “roadless” areas within national forests and ensure that future generations will be able to enjoy the pristine wilderness. The proposed regulations would ban road building in these areas and could also prohibit logging or other activities that harm their unique ecological value.

[source: Executive Memorandum, 10/13/99]

Accelerating Toxic Cleanups and Brownfields Redevelopment

• The Clinton-Gore Administration has cleaned up over 500 Superfund sites -- nearly three times as many in six years as the previous administrations did in twelve -- with clean up of more than 90 percent of all sites either completed or in progress. The Administration has also leveraged nearly $1 billion in private sector investment for brownfields redevelopment.

[source: EPA, Superfund NPL Construction Completions Since 1/20/93 to 6/22/99]

Keeping Our Drinking Water Safe

• President Clinton proposed and signed legislation to strengthen the Safe Drinking Water Act to ensure that our families have healthy, clean tap water.
• The Clinton-Gore Administration has required America's 55,000 water utilities to provide regular reports to their customers on the quality of their drinking water.
• The President proposed a new rule to reduce dirty runoff and strengthen protections for 20,000 rivers, lakes and other waterways too polluted for swimming and fishing.
• Since 1992, the number of Americans receiving drinking water that meets all federal health standards has grown by nearly 18 million. Eighty-nine percent of America's tap water from community drinking water systems now meets all federal standards.

[source: White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 8/6/96; Council on Environmental Quality, 4/22/99]

Clearing the Air of Unhealthy Pollution

• President Clinton has adopted the toughest standards ever on soot and smog and significant reductions in tailpipe emissions from cars, light trucks and SUVs.
• President Clinton and Vice President Gore have launched a long-term effort to restore pristine skies over our national parks and wilderness areas.
• Since 1992, the number of Americans living in communities that meet federal air quality standards has grown by 36 million.

[source: White House Council on Environmental Quality, 5/1/99]

• The Clinton-Gore Administration negotiated an international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an environmentally strong and economically sound way.
• President Clinton and Vice President Gore secured $1.1 billion in FY00 for research and development of clean energy technologies. The President has set a goal of tripling U.S. use of bio-energy and bio-products by 2010.
• President Clinton issued an Executive Order directing agencies to dramatically improve energy efficiency in federal buildings, saving taxpayers over $750 million a year when fully implemented.