A Yankee Presidency: Protecting our Coasts and Rivers

[Associate Justice PiT]

New Orleans Mercedez-Benz Superdome

     Throughout my years of service I have consistently put regionalism and regional solutions to problems foremost. I advocate regions having control over these domains in their policy across many issues, including policy concerning coastal regions.

     The simple truth is that every part of our country is different, and these differences provide unique challenges. Just as an example, there are many rare species in the Everglades, the only place in the world where both alligators and crocodiles are found. My region is also home to the famous Bayou, a biome unique in its own right. Handling this biodiversity is a task that I believe is best handled by the people who know the region, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all approach handed down by the federal government.

     The recent disaster of Hurricane Matthew indicated some of the problems that face the Southern region. We need to develop hurricane preparedness plans, tackling a natural disaster that hits our region hardest of all. We need to work on cleaning up coal ash, a power plant byproduct that litters our rivers and contributes to the problems of flooding. We need to work on dredging our rivers, to help prevent flooding in the future.

     When I left the Senate after two terms back in 2009, I wanted a successor who would continue to fight for the regions and giving them the prerogative to handle their own affairs. I chose North Carolina Yankee as my successor, and I had only the highest expectations for him in that role. He has exceeded those expectations, and I believe that he will continue to exceed them as President.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I want to start of by thanking Emp err Governor PiT for welcoming Rpryor and myself to the great state of

I want to start off by commending the job that Governor PiT has done. Though all regions have struggled, The South I think has gotten off to the best start and has had the most stability largely thank to the hard work of Governor PiT, but also Senator Tmth, President Leinad, Speaker Never Again and Representative Peebs and many others, who together worked hard from the beginning to make the South strong.

The Governor talked about the importance of the Regions taking the lead in many areas and yes there are many areas where it is there responsibility to do so. In those areas it is incumbent upon the federal government to encourage and support such action. We recently witnessed a natural disaster in the Carolinas that many people had never seen the like of before in their lives. Many compare it to Floyd, some say it was even worse than that. The Federal Government needs to be a ready partner to assist in preparedness, providing resources and support to those regions dealing with natural disasters. But as important as the short term reaction is both before and afterwards, we need to also to mitigate the damage by preparing long in advance and there are several ways to do this

The Federal Government needs to partner with the Regions to do the following:

Identify coastal erosion hot spots and support efforts to mitigate and restore natural buffers to Hurricanes starting with beaches but also extending to barrier islands and other natural barriers.

River infrastructure needs to be maintained and restored including not only the depth of the river, which the buildup of sediments deposited from the river reduces, and thereby worsens inland flooding from heavy rains like those we saw after Hurricane Matthew. Dams and levies need to be strengthened and improved, including earthen dams, many of which are considered high risk for failure, which would cause substantial devastation if they were to give way.

We also need to work to expeditiously and safely remove coal ash ponds from their locations. I actually live near a coal ash pond and know both the dangers and risks associated with them, these are made worse during flooding events, because the water washes over or even washes away the earthen dams, carrying the coal ash down river.

Finally, the Governor mentioned the importance of biodiversity and indeed the regions are an important player in their preservation, but this is a massive problem and migrations of wildlife does not follow regional boundaries. The Federal Government has to be an active partner working with regions to preserve bio-diversify. Our food supply faces an existential crisis if we do not stabilize the food chains starting first with our oceans, which will require international cooperation, working our way up to the declining bee populations and other troubling signs that could point towards global food shortages down the road if we don’t act now. As I mentioned in the debate climate change is indeed a reality and regardless of who is causing it, we have to do address it. As I talked about in Fremont earlier today, a robust technological investment will move us towards mitigating the impact on the climate from our energy usage, by increasing efficiency and then eventually diversifying us away from fossil fuels.

Let us be assured that partnering with the regions, does not mean the federal government is going to be sitting on the sidelines, nor on the other hand does it mean unrestrained mandates on actions and behaviors. It means we are going to be proactive partners. The Governor is correct about my commitment to the regions and working with them.

I plan to meet regularly with all three regional executives, along with my cabinet to discuss the areas where federal law involves them taking action. This will not only allow us to pursue the above mentioned priorities, but also to encourage activity by spreading awareness and interest in these issues at the regional level. At the same time this will allow regions to express concerns to the President and the cabinet members.

I want to thank Governor PiT and the great people of the South once more. It all started here, with a message about joining Atlasia and then another six months later about this crazy place called the Senate. I have loved working with my great friend and ally for the past seven years and I look forward working with him and the other Governors to create a stronger, more Welcoming Atlasia, if I am so fortunate as to earn your vote this weekend.