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I hear over and over again from local leaders and business owners that one of the best ways we can revitalize our cities and towns is to support brownfields cleanup efforts.

We have increased conservation spending, enacted legislation that enables us to clean up and redevelop abandoned brownfields sites across the country, and implemented new clean water standards that will protect us from arsenic.

In some cases, it's not just about cleaning up the factories. It's about cleaning up the nearby rivers and lakes that have been tainted with heavy metals.

Corporate tax dodging impacts us across generations and over time. It is corrosive. It is unethical. It is unsustainable.

Over and over, we hear politicians say they can't spend our tax dollars on environmental protection when the economy is so fragile.

We have been getting ready to recycle more e-waste by investing in infrastructure, providing grants to local government and working with industry.

We say that anytime budgets are balanced and an ample savings account has been set aside, government should just stop collecting taxes. Better to leave that money in the pockets of those who earned it, than to let it burn a hole, as it always does, in the pockets of government.

The whole tax code should be looked at, all the way from farm subsidies to carried interest to - to corporate loopholes, because we really need to raise more revenue.

I think there is a direct correlation between interest shown by a member of Congress on these projects and the progress that is made. I think it gives the Superfund effort some credibility, lets citizens know we are serious about these cleanups.

In 1833, protection was abandoned, and a tariff was established by which it was provided that we should, in a few years, have a system of merely revenue duties.