Here is the first half of my Dad's response to this question.
Last night we played, “I wish I could have answered the Presidential debate questions,” and guess what? My Dad had a lot to say.

Here is my Dad, Roy McAlister’s, answer:

What would you do within the first two years as President on the environment?

Attention presidential candidates seen and unseen,

The "economy" is what Civilization does with energy and the environment. Energy is required to accomplish all phases of the economy including food production, mining, manufacturing, construction, transportation, communication, healthcare, entertainment, home making, etc. The “environment” is where the economy occurs and what the economy uses. The environment provides indispensable support and facilitates the economy with light, air, water, food, and every organic and inorganic material substance that the economy utilizes. The environment is used and may be abused by the economy.

The economy is not what "Wall Street" or "Washington" has built. It is what Wall Street and Washington benefit from when and if energy is abundant -- but both of these institutions have acted in various ways to hamper the economy.

It is a very big mistake to harm the environment with fossil fuel combustion products that cause environmental pollution, greenhouse warming, and sacrifice of the best use of carbon as a constituent of durable goods. America leads the world in manifesting this mistake. This mistake is causing extremely expensive harm to the environment, the health of all living things, and drives up Americans' costs for health care.

Inflation, hardships, conflicts and extremely expensive wars are caused by Civilization's dependence upon burning over one million years' of fossil accumulations each year.

Although it is often touted as being inexpensive or pollution free it is neither. Nuclear power is the most expensive energy because of the enormous government subsidies it has received and will continue to require and because of the enormous eventual costs of decommissioning the sites and plants that produce, refine and utilize radioactive fuels. Radioactive wastes must be contained and protected from causing contamination of the environment by human errors, natural disasters, and terrorists. Before any electricity is produced by a nuclear power plant, enormous amounts of fossil coal, oil and natural gas fuels are burned to produce pollution and greenhouse gases. Nuclear power plants and the radioactive fuels they use are produced from finite mineral resources that are mined, refined, manufactured, transported, and assembled. Each step requires large expenditures of fossil fuels.

The Industrial Revolution has been based on “accounting” that neglects the replacement cost of energy produced by burning fossil fuels that were deposited hundreds of millions of years ago. Neglecting to account for the replacement cost is also what a thief does when something is stolen. In both instances it is harmful to refuse or neglect to account for the replacement cost! But in both instances the takers deny the need for recognizing or paying the replacement cost or the costs of environmental degradation and health care expenses due to their actions.

The least expensive and most environmentally beneficial energy is solar energy and derivatives of solar energy including wind, moving water, and biomass wastes. The cost of such renewable energy is the replacement cost. Comparing the cost of solar energy to burning a fossil fuel contrasts the replacement cost of renewable energy to the cost of depleting a finite resource. If the replacement cost of fossil fuel is compared to solar energy it becomes even more evident that burning fossil substances is actually a very expensive mistake.

Geothermal energy is also vast and in many areas can be harnessed with minimal environmental impact.

Harnessing renewable resources will employ far more people and facilitate far more economic development than continued dependence upon fossil and radioactive fuels.
What would you do? Do you have an opinion? Please add to the discussion.