The Presidential Candidates' Records on the Environment

By Candace Crane

With the war in Iraq and the economy taking center stage during most of the Bush administration's time in office, news on the environment has taken a back seat. This short guide will tell you how the two major candidates stack up on the issue.

George W. Bush is the first president ever to have been given the grade of “F” by the League of Conservation Voters' on the group's presidential report card. LCV uses a number of rigorous criteria to determine a president's grade, such as campaign promises, advisors, and the overall political climate. In its final report on George W. Bush at midterm, LCV wrote that he is “well on his way t o compiling the worst environmental record in the history of our nation.”

LCV also keeps scorecards of all legislators, and John Kerry has earned a lifetime score of 96 percent. He has been endorsed recently by the AFL-CIO, and has been called by both LCV and Time magazine “a champion for the environment.”

Here's a brief look at the candidates' records.

Wildlife

President Bush proposed limiting the number of species that can be protected under the Endangered Species Act. He also proposed re-introducing commercial trade in foreign endangered species, which caused a great outcry from the public. This violates the Endangered Species Act, which specifically prohibits importing foreign endangered species or their parts. He granted the Defense Department an exemption on its lands from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and the DOD is pursuing exemptions from the Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, and Marine Mammal Protection Act.

On the positive side, the president is considering regulating boat speed in right whale territory along the East Coast to protect the critically endangered right whale from boat collisions, which have taken their toll.

John Kerry served as chairman or ranking member of the Senate Oceans and Fisheries subcommittee for more than a decade and authored the Marine Mammal Protection Act Amendments of 1994, which were signed into law by President Clinton. He also introduced legislation to ban drift nets, which entangle and drown endangered marine mammals during commercial fishing operations. He fought to pass the Sustainable Fisheries Act, which has helped rebuild depleted fisheries. He voted against a Bush bill to eliminate funding to list new endangered species and against putting a moratorium on the endangered species list.

Public Lands Stewardship

President Bush proposed new regulations on national forest management that: require equal weight be given to both economic and ecological considerations, remove a requirement that forests be managed to protect native wildlife populations, and discontinue the requirement to do biological surveys for rare plants and animals before logging. He also r eversed a Clinton ban on building new roads in national forests, which already have a large road system. His action has opened remote roadless areas to development, such as Alaska 's Tongass National Forest , one of the last temperate rainforests on earth.

He halted an exhaustive review, in progress when he took office, of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands for potential wilderness protection and restricted those eligible to the ones designated prior to 1993. He has streamlined the process for acquiring oil and gas permits on these public lands and backs using them for mining and energy development.

John Kerry opposed the Bush decision to limit public lands eligible for wilderness protection and supported the ban on new roads and logging in roadless areas. He also voted to reform the 1872 mining law, which allows individuals and companies to buy public land for as little as $5 an acre. Specifically, he voted to require mining companies to pay royalties on minerals extracted and to clean up toxic waste from their operations. He supported regulations, rescinded by Bush, to give the BLM the authority to reject a mine proposal if it would unnecessarily damage the environment.

Water and Watersheds

George W. Bush has begun changing the regulations of the Clean Water Act so that it would only protect navigable waters. If his regulation becomes final, 20 million acres of wetlands and 60 percent of the nation's streams would be exempt from the Act.

Bush made it easier to fast-track permits for developing wetlands, abandoned the “no net loss” wetland requirement by which developers must replace lost wetlands acre -for-acre, and cut wetlands reserve funding in the 2005 budget. Then, he announced on Earth Day this year that he would increase wetlands by three million acres over the next five years.

He shelved President Clinton's plan to phase out the gasoline additive, MTBE. A dangerous toxic, it has leached into groundwater systems across the country.

He failed to deliver on a campaign promise to fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is the nation's major means of purchasing land for conservation and public use. His budgets have funded the LWCF at less than 50 percent.

He joined 90 countries in signing a treaty negotiated by Clinton administration that phases out a dozen cancer-causing chemicals, such as dioxin and DDT.

John Kerry proposed banning MTBE in 2001 and moving to ethanol as an alternative. He proposed a legislative amendment to increase funding for the LWCF and cosponsored legislation to preserve and restore coral reefs and estuaries, both highly productive ecosystems important to humans and wildlife. President Clinton signed both bills into law.

During reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act, Kerry voted to provide states with $7.6 billion in federal grants and loans to help communities meet quality standards. Bush cut these programs.

He supports elevating the Environmental Protection Agency to a Cabinet-level agency, with the funding and decision-making this entails.

Air Pollution

President Bush introduced a “Clear Skies” initiative, replacing Clean Air Act regulations. For example, it rescinded Clean Air Act requirements that aging power plants install pollution controls when they undertake significant renovation projects, noting this would be too expensive. It also replaced absolute limits on pollution levels for power plants with a “cap and trade” system o f credits that lets power companies buy and sell emission allowances among themselves.

John Kerry , as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts in the 1980s, co-chaired the National Governors Association's Acid Rain Task Force. As US senator, introduced the National Acid Rain Reduction Act, which set new standards for coal-burning power plants.

Recently, he joined with nine other senators in filing a legal brief to be used in a court case opposing the Bush changes to regulations for power plant emissions. The brief says the EPA acted illegally in reworking the regulations.

Energy

George W. Bush apppointed an energy task force, under Vice President Dick Cheney, to come up with a national energy plan. Now stalled in Congress, it relies on traditional energy sources, calling for more domestic oil and gas drilling and more production and use of nuclear energy and coal.

Bush strongly advocates opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the nation's largest remaining areas of wilderness, to oil and gas drilling. Geologists estimate the reserves on the refuge would fuel the U.S. for six months. This refuge is home to polar bears, grizzlies, and wolves, and is the calving ground for one of the continent's largest herds of caribou.

Bush has also taken action to open areas of Alaska 's North Slope to drilling, which some say should remain closed because of environmental sensitivity. He reclaimed offshore oil and gas leases in Florida but turned down a request to do the same for California .

The president has introduced and funded an initiative to develop a hybrid fuel cell but opposes increasing vehicle fuel efficiency in general.

John Kerry Supports an energy policy focused on developing clean alternative and renewable energy sources. He wants to set specific goals and offer incentives to both auto manufacturers and consumers to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. He supports an increase in fuel efficiency, which has been declining since the popularity of the SUV. Together with Senator John McCain (R-AZ), introduced an amendment to the 2002 energy bill to increase fuel efficiency standards from 24 mpg to 36 mpg by 2015.

He has lead the Senate fight to keep drilling out of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and c o-sponsored a bill to permanently protect a portion of the refuge as wilderness. He also fought against offshore drilling in all sensitive areas and supported a continued moratorium on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf.

He supported increased funding for hydrogen fuel-cell research and consumer incentives for purchasing alternative-fuel vehicles.

Global Warming

While even large insurance companies are starting to pay attention to this issue, President Bush withdrew the U.S. from the 1997 Kyoto climate treaty, which calls for reducing carbon-dioxide emissions. These emissions are produced by burning fossil fuels and are contributing heavily to global warming. Russia recently decided to ratify the 80-nation treaty after sitting on the fence, giving the treaty a push forward without the US .

Bush has chosen instead to fund more research into the science of global warming and give tax incentives to industry for voluntary reductions. By taking this course, he has failed to fulfill his campaign pledge to regulate industrial carbon-dioxide emissions. Closer to home, he worked to defeat what is now a new California law that requires carbon-dioxide emission reductions for all vehicles sold in the state, beginning in 2009.

John Kerry has acted over the long-term for carbon-dioxide reductions. He participated in the UN negotiations that created the Framework Convention on Climate Change at the 1992 international Earth Summit in Brazil . He also served in the congressional delegations to the 1997 Kyoto and the 2000 Hague climate talks and supports re-engaging with the Kyoto treaty. He introduced amendments to the 2001 and 2002 budgets to increase funding for voluntary programs to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions and authored a successful Senate resolution in 2002 calling on Bush to engage in international efforts to mitigate the threat of climate change.

International

George W. Bush has relaxed the “dolphin safe” label requirement for tuna sold in the United States , in response to a World Trade Organization claim that it creates a trade barrier. He also declined to participate in the second UN Summit on Sustainable Development.

John Kerry has been a global environment player since 1970, when he helped organize the first Earth Day event. In the 1980s, he called for Senate hearings into the global impact of acid rain as part of a larger, multi-pronged legislative campaign he spearheaded to deal with the problems caused by acid rain. And in the early 1990s, he sponsored a bill to permanently ban mining in Antarctica ; it passed with a compromise ban of 50 years. More recently, in 2002, he sponsored legislation to incorporate environmental and public health protections into all trade agreements.

Candace Crane is an environmental and wildlife writer based in Pollock Pines. Reach her at Candace.crane@comcast.net.