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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (2908)	2/17/2002 5:29:29 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Environmentalists take aim at Bush record By Tom Kenworthy and Traci Watson USA TODAY Several contentious environmental issues are returning to the national agenda as the political unity that grew out of the trauma of Sept. 11 fades. In a flurry of assessments of President Bush's first year in office, environmentalists largely quiet since the terrorist attacks are trying to set the stage for the 2002 elections by condemning the White House as a captive of industry and unremittingly hostile to environmental protection. ''On the major issues most Americans care about, their record is 100% bad,'' says Phil Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust. ''They are systematically gutting key protections.'' At the same time, senior administration officials are issuing score cards of their own as both sides jockey for public support in anticipation of key legislative and regulatory fights. Among the issues on which major decisions are likely to be made soon are global warming and drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Interior Secretary Gale Norton, for example, has issued a 35-page testimonial to her first-year accomplishments with her sprawling department, which manages a quarter of the nation's land. Norton says the hallmarks of her record are ''communication, consultation and cooperation,'' particularly with state officials who felt ''federal agencies seldom listened.'' The philosophy is ''to make these kinds of decisions with less of a 'Washington, D.C., knows best' approach,'' Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey says. With control of both the House and Senate at stake in November, the White House has been laboring to moderate its image on the environment. The administration endured a public relations debacle last year after initially moving to allow higher arsenic levels in drinking water, a position it subsequently reversed. In recent weeks, President Bush has traveled to Florida to complete an agreement with the state to protect the Everglades and to Pennsylvania to sign legislation on cleaning up contaminated industrial sites. Also, the administration recently announced that it would move ahead with the cleanup of PCBs in the Hudson River and continue pressing lawsuits against power plant owners who upgrade old generating plants without installing better pollution controls. Bush gets credit for those moves even from some of his environmental opponents on Capitol Hill. ''There are some things that give me hope,'' says Sen. Jim Jeffords, the Vermont independent whose defection from the Republican Party last year cost the GOP control of the Senate. Election-year pressures, Jeffords predicts, will likely bring more White House moderation. ''I would expect, knowing this is a critical year for control of the House and Senate, that we'll see some moves for getting more votes.'' Leaders of major environmental groups give Bush little credit, however. They point to a lengthy list of decisions during the first year, decisions that: * Reversed Clinton administration regulations on mining on public lands that would have given the government veto power over projects deemed harmful to nature. * Eased Clinton-era restrictions on the destruction of wetlands. * Weakened a Clinton directive protecting 58.5 million acres of national forest from road-building and other development. * Pushed an energy policy that stresses expanded oil and gas exploration on public lands over conservation and renewable sources. * REJECTED an international treaty to reduce emissions that contribute to global warming. William Meadows, president of the Wilderness Society, says the only progress the administration has made is showing more finesse in disguising its anti-environmental agenda. He cites recent directives undermining an earlier pledge to uphold Clinton's protections for roadless areas in national forests. Another issue: a low-key announcement promising review of a conservation plan for California's Sierra Nevada one day after a high-profile endorsement of the plan. ''This is their bait-and-switch philosophy,'' he says. With major issues surfacing in the next few months and with worries over terrorism easing, ''the environment could be the sleeper issue of the 2002 election,'' predicts Daniel Weiss, former political director of the Sierra Club. usatoday.com