Adam Schleifer Reveals Environmental Plan: Smart Policies To Encourage Innovation and Protect Our Planet
Schleifer Will Pass Laws to Tax Carbon; Promote Green Infrastructure that Provides Good-Paying Jobs in the Reusable Energy Economy; Restore the EPA to Protect Public Lands; and Continue His Record of Prosecuting Polluters in Federal Court
Schleifer Also Announced the Endorsement of Leading Climate-Change Policy Expert, Professor Michael Gerrard
Schleifer: “We have no higher duty than leaving our descendants a healthy, habitable planet”
White Plains, NY – On the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, Adam P. Schleifer, Democratic candidate for Congress in New York’s 17th District, today released his comprehensive policy plan detailing how he will fight to preserve the environment and combat the climate crisis in Washington. Schleifer proposes to push for tax incentives to help provide green jobs and infrastructure, protect clean air and water with a restored and robust EPA, and will support his own legacy of federal prosecution of polluters. Schleifer will fight for a progressive carbon tax, incentives for green jobs and technology, and a national Green Infrastructure Corps as part of a National Service Plan that gives those who serve free higher education. Schleifer also announced a personal announcement from climate-regulation and environmental policy expert Professor Michael Gerrard. As part of his commitment, Schleifer also renewed his existing “No Fossil Fuels Pledge,” ensuring that his campaign would not be funded by oil, gas, or coal industry executives, lobbyists, or PACs.
“We each have the right to live on a healthy, habitable planet,” Schleifer said. “The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have gravely threatened that right. As a member of Congress, I’ll fight to restore respect for science in our federal government and push to immediately enact innovative policy reforms that will combat the effects of climate change now. When it comes to saving our planet – for us and for future generations – we can’t afford to waste more time.”
Schleifer also announced the endorsement of one of the most renown climate change policy experts in the country, Michael Gerrard. He is the Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School, teaches courses on environmental law, climate change law, and energy regulation, and founded and directs the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. He also chaired the faculty of Columbia University’s Earth Institute from 2015 to 2018. He has been a Westchester resident since 1987.
Professor Michael Gerrard’s personal endorsement of Schleifer can be read below:
“Adam has an impressive record of accomplishment in state and federal government and private legal practice. His intellectual energy, honesty, and integrity are all too rare in public life, and I very much look forward to continuing our productive dialog on how carbon pricing and other federal policies can be implemented in cooperation with the states to achieve a just transition to a sustainable climate. I have no doubt that Adam will be a credit to this community, to the United States Congress, and, most important, to our planet.”
Schleifer says the coronavirus crisis illustrates what happens when we don’t plan for the future. As a new father-to-be, Schleifer is looking ahead to the biggest challenges affecting the next generation like climate change. In Congress, Schleifer will reverse Trump’s anti-science policies. He will fight climate change with a progressive carbon tax on fossil fuel companies and establish a green infrastructure service corps that rewards those who serve with free higher education.
A former-Assistant United States Attorney, Schleifer has prosecuted major federal crimes – including polluters who conspired to violate the Clean Air Act by arranging to falsely certify and sell cars emitting dirty exhaust. His plan to protect the environment calls for:
1. Implementing a progressive carbon tax upon emitters of greenhouse gasses to ensure corporations pay for their damaging emissions and fund research in emerging climate science;
2. Using strong congressional oversight to protect our air, water, and natural resources;
3. Restoring the EPA to help protect our clean air and water and to prosecute polluters;
4. Offering tax incentives to support green technology and investing federal funds in creating green new jobs that also boost our economy; and
5. Creating a Green Infrastructure Corps, a national service program that will match years of service with years of subsequent free vocational training or higher education.
As a federal prosecutor, Adam successfully prosecuted polluters who violated the Clean Air Act, as well as those who smuggled endangered species and tried to destroy Joshua Tree National Park through arson. He also took dangerous guns off the street and prosecuted Medicare fraudsters. Prior to serving in the Justice Department, Adam served as a Special Associate Counsel for the New York State Department of Financial Services, where he helped lead consumer-protection enforcement efforts against predatory payday and subprime auto lenders who were targeting minorities, veterans, and low-income New Yorkers, and took on fraud and abuse in the health insurance and financial markets. Schleifer’s successful efforts to root out unfair practices in New York and nationwide contributed to fairness, transparency, and efficiency in New York’s banking and insurance markets.
About Adam Schleifer:
Adam Schleifer, 38, graduated from Chappaqua’s public schools in 1999 and went on to attend Cornell University and Columbia University Law School, where he served as a Senior & Staff Development Editor on the Columbia Law Review. After graduating from law school, Schleifer served two years as a federal law clerk, first in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and then in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Schleifer then built a career at one of the nation’s leading law firms before reentering public service, first as a New York State consumer-protection regulator, and then as an Assistant United States Attorney. Schleifer has prosecuted regulatory and federal-criminal actions against predatory payday and subprime auto lenders; taken dangerous and illegal weapons out of communities; prosecuted crimes of sexual violence and predation; and protected our clean air by prosecuting a conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act. Adam Schleifer and his wife, Nicole, are residents of New Castle. Read more about Adam Schleifer at www.AdamSchleifer.com.
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