Issue Position: Environment

Issue Position

ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTOR

The Treasurer is a member of the Illinois State Board of Investment, and in that role Mike will push to invest in Illinois public works, affordable housing, and environmental sustainability projects.

Mike is an advocate of programs that provide incentives to residents and businesses to become more energy efficient by offering low-interest loans for energy efficiency projects. Mike knows that in the long run, this money gets paid back in energy savings while also creating good paying jobs here in Illinois. These programs were eliminated or greatly reduced under Republican leadership. Mike thinks it's time to bring them back.

Mike will see that the new manager of the Bright Start program will have a socially responsible investing option that could target investments in renewable energy projects in Illinois. This will help bring needed funds to Illinois' growing clean energy sector, and provide a solid return to Bright Start participants.

Finally, the Treasurer's office can take the lead on environmental sustainability practices internally. Mike will move from paper to digitized records and communications wherever possible. He will encourage the use of office supplies and products that are environmentally friendly, and using post-consumer materials where possible will be a priority.

Mike will improve the overall fuel efficiency of the agency's fleet as vehicles come up for replacement. He will leverage technology to reduce the need for travel whenever possible.

MIKE'S RECORD ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

In the state Senate, Mike authored legislation to create a higher-education green jobs and technology group, made up of public universities and community colleges that is charged with finding was to collaborate on green technology issues.

This working group will help enhance the growing clean energy sector in Illinois and help create better working relationships between the state's universities and private sector, which has been shown time and time again to be a real job generation for states across the country.

Mike also was the lead author of the nation's strictest regulatory bill governing hydraulic fracturing or "fracking." Mike convened all of the key stakeholders in the energy arena and hammered out a unique compromise on "fracking" that will bring thousands of jobs to struggling communities in Southern Illinois, provide needed revenue for state government, while maintaining the strictest regulations and oversight in America to protect the Illinois environment for generations of Illinois citizens to come.

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