Dean Florez for California Lt. Governor 2010: Protecting Our Environment

“You can’t stand for your convictions if you always stand with the crowd.”
-Dean Florez

Reduce Energy Consumption

Energy efficiency is the cheapest, cleanest and fastest avenue to reducing energy consumption and dependence and must be implemented now. Dean will require California’s state and local governments to be the most energy efficient they can be by setting real goals with real consequences.

Reduce Carbon Footprints

Enforcing our global warming laws, promoting conservation and creating real and workable markets and opportunities to increase the use of renewables is the core of Dean's environmental energy policy.

Toughen Standards

Being accountable stewards of our open space and natural habitats means protecting our oceans from debris, rejecting developments in sensitive habitats, ending sludge dumping and improving the clarity of Lake Tahoe while honoring our state parks for the beauty they bring to us all. Dean believes in standards that hold all agencies accountable for enforcing tough actions against polluters.

Dean scored a 100 percent voting record with the Sierra Club in 2008, despite representing a rural, conservative Senate district. His work demonstrates his ability to stand up for all Californians.

Dean introduced Senate Bill 1550 in 2008 to create standards for an on-line listing of the climate risks posed by corporations doing business in California, giving investors the knowledge needed to make environmentally responsible decisions on how to invest their money.

Dean fought on the Senate Floor for the Global Warming Act of 2006 (AB 32), the nation’s first statewide cap on greenhouse gas emissions which seeks to reduce emissions 25% by the year 2020, and making California policy a model for states nationwide.

Dean spearheaded the community effort to stop rural Kern County from being a dumping ground for the state’s urban centers. Dean rallied Valley voters around his own initiative, Measure E, which sought to keep sewage sludge from being applied to land above the region’s clean groundwater table. The campaign fostered a new generation of activists fighting for environmental justice for poor communities.

Dean recently proposed innovative solutions to promote the health of the critical Delta, suggesting a series of hatcheries to repopulate the Delta smelt (SB 994; 2008) – which is a bellwether for the health of the Delta ecosystem – and allow for adequate deliveries of water to Central Valley farms and communities.