Republicans blast Bush on environment in MN at E'04 event
Dennis Lien, Pioneer Press; Tom Meersman, Star Tribune
09/15/2004
Ex-EPA chief lashes out at Bush
He says president has weakened laws
By Dennis Lien, Pioneer Press
One of the earliest heads of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a lifelong Republican joined a group of Minnesota Republicans on Tuesday in a blistering attack against President Bush's environmental policies.
Russell Train, who headed the EPA under Presidents Nixon and Ford, called the Bush administration's environmental record over the past four years appalling and filled with paybacks to special interests.
In an interview and at a news conference at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Train accused Bush of systematically weakening environmental laws, promoting reckless development on public lands and appointing people with conflicts of interests to key posts.
"He represents a turning back of the clock, environmentally,'' said Train, who, as national chairman of Conservationists for Bush in 1988, supported the environmental policies of Bush's father.
The Bush campaign has touted a number of accomplishments, including cleaning polluted urban areas called brownfields, reducing diesel emissions and protecting wetlands.
Train's views, however, were echoed by REP America (Republicans for Environmental Protection).
"As Republicans, we can be justifiably proud of many things, but our recent environmental record is not among them,'' said Evan B. Rice, a Minneapolis lawyer and the organization's Minnesota coordinator.
"REP Minnesota exists to remind our party that if we are ever to find our way clear of a path toward further environmental degradation, Republicans must return our party to the conservative, conservationist tradition of Teddy Roosevelt and the bipartisan spirit of the 1960s and 1970s, which produced the majority of our modern environmental legislation,'' he said.
As the second EPA administrator, Train witnessed the creation of many of those laws. What he said he never witnessed was the widespread interference in regulatory decision-making that he said is being undertaken by the Bush administration.
"In my time, I do not ever recall ever having an instance of the White House telling me how to make a regulatory decision,'' said Train, who contends the public should be infuriated by the administration's willingness to use political muscle to make those scientific decisions.
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Republicans blast Bush for environmental policies
Tom Meersman, Star Tribune
Several Republican conservationists criticized the Bush administration Tuesday for weak enforcement of air pollution laws, rollbacks in wetland protection, broken promises on global climate change and a misguided approach to energy.
Russell Train, head of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Nixon and Ford administrations, called President Bush's environmental policies an "abomination."
"As a lifelong Republican, I find the Bush administration's attack on the environment profoundly disturbing," Train said. "It has tarnished the environmental legacies of Theodore Roosevelt, Richard Nixon and this president's father, George H.W. Bush."
Train, who served as chairman of Conservationists for Bush in the senior Bush's 1988 campaign for president, said that his party has become radical, not conservative, in terms of environmental protection. "Sadly, the Bush administration decided to promote the interests of its polluting campaign contributors from the energy, mining and timber industries over the interests of common citizens," he said.
Evan Rice, Minnesota coordinator for REP America, a national grass-roots organization of Republicans for Environmental Protection, said that air and water quality are too important to swing on a pendulum every four years, attached to a political party or to a liberal or conservative label. Referring to the red states that vote Republican and blue states that go Democratic, Rice said that "our 'red' and 'blue' Americas drink from the same well and breathe the same fall air."
Rice said that the environment was "notably absent" as a topic at the Republican National Convention and that increasing numbers of party members are distraught about the "wrong balance" in decisions that increase pollution and neglect cleanup.
Rice and Train spoke at a news conference in Bloomington organized by Environment2004. The political group, not authorized by any candidate, has produced ads and reports critical of the Bush administration's environmental policies.
Its leaders released an analysis Tuesday called "Poisoning the Land of 10,000 Lakes," which outlines how federal actions are affecting public health and resources in Minnesota.
They also previewed two ads about Superfund sites in Minnesota and mercury in fish. They said the spots will be broadcast on cable channels next month.
Peter Hong, communications director in Minnesota for the Bush-Cheney campaign, said he could not comment on the statements, the new report or the TV ads without further information.
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