MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Environment

Interview

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SCHULTZ: Well, all right, Dr. Jeffrey Reutter, I appreciate your time
tonight. Thanks for coming back on the Ed Show. We want to focus in on
this story no doubt. You`re a great resource.

Let me bring in Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont tonight. Senator, you
know, when does it catch the attention of deniers when the water is not
safe to drink? Toledo, Ohio, 400,000 people. I haven`t heard anything
like this in the past. We see the impacts of climate change damaging our
nation everyday. And yet the sense of urgency just isn`t there. I want
your take on what on what`s unfolding here --

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I) VERMONT: No, your --

SCHULTZ: -- and also what`s going on in Vermont.

SANDERS: OK Ed, I think the point you make is well-taken. This country
faces a lot of crisis. One of the areas that we have not focused on enough
is the situation regarding water. And it`s not just Toledo and its not
just Vermont. It is lakes all over the country that are being overrun by
algae because of phosphorus runoff. And what we have is a situation in
states and in Washington where the Republican Party basically says,
"Freedom is about allowing polluters to destroy our air, our land" and in
this case our water. And I think that is pretty crazy.

Commonsense suggest that we`ve got to do everything that we can to protect
clean, drinking water in this country. And as you`ve indicated, climate
change and global warming is making a bad situation even worse. On top of
all of that, many of us recognize that we need massive investments in
infrastructure in America. And most people think, well, infrastructural
roads and bridges and rail. Yes it is. But it is also water plants and
wastewater systems.

The truth is that for a small city or a town or a state government,
building the kind of quality wastewater plants that we need to that water -
- so that runoff getting into the water is clean, is inexpensive
proposition. And in my view the government has got to be very aggressive
in Washington in making sure we rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and
that certainly includes wastewater plants and water systems.

SCHULTZ: Well, you know, water treatment plants are not cheap. And, when
you talk about infrastructure to -- if you`re going to have this and if
you`re going to allow this kind of runoff, you`re going to have to make
some compensation for them, the other side with water treatment plants
which very extensive in their construction and in their price. So, what`s
the answer here Senator? Do we need to look at more regulation on things
like phosphates?

SANDERS: Well, of course we do. I mean we have to work with agriculture,
and here in Vermont we are working very hard with farmers to significantly
reduce the amount of phosphorus getting into our lake. But I could tell
you, I was mayor of Burlington Vermont in the early `80s. And we built --
we constructed one of the major environmental projects in the history of
the State of Vermont, and that is building a new source separation project.
It was very, very expensive, but we had help from the Federal Government.
And the Federal Government cannot continue to turn its back on the needs of
cities and towns all over this country with Republicans saying, "No, we
don`t want to invest in infrastructure". The direct result will be, more
and more situations where the water we drink will be polluted, where you`ll
have huge amounts of leakage of clean water causing all kinds of problems
in cities and towns all over America. So if we invest in infrastructure we
get clean water. If we make sure that we have sufficient regulation we can
control the amount of phosphorus getting into our lakes and rivers.

SCHULTZ: All right, Senator Sanders finally, a quick reaction from you on
China saying that they want to ban the use of all coal in their country by
the year 2020. Are they serious about it?

SANDERS: Well, I certainly hope so because China is the major carbon
polluter in the world. And they are now poisoning hundreds of thousand of
people who are dying unnecessarily in China. So, this is an important step
forward. But the bottom line here Ed to my mind is we as a planet have got
to understand that climate change is real, it is already causing
devastating problems. We have to move aggressively toward energy
efficiency and start sustainable energies as wind, solar, geothermal, and
biomass.

And when we do that, we not only transform our energy system, help save the
planet. You know what else we do? We create a whole lot of jobs. So,
that has got to be something way up there on the priority list.

SCHULTZ: Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent from Vermont. Good to have
you with us tonight, sir. I appreciate your time.

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