Climate Politics

All the mus(ing) that’s fit to print

In its Sunday endorsement of Kerry and scathing critique of Bush, The New York Times spends more time on the environment than the candidates did in their three debates. (To whom does such an endorsement speak -- do any undecideds read The Times?) Amidst the many many paragraphs that lay out an argument against a second Bush administration, the patient greenie finds this one:

If Mr. Bush had wanted to make a mark on an issue on which Republicans and Democrats have long made common cause, he could have picked the environment. Christie Whitman, the former New Jersey governor chosen to run the Environmental Protection Agency, came from that bipartisan tradition. Yet she left after three years of futile struggle against the ideologues and industry lobbyists Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney had installed in every other important environmental post. The result has been a systematic weakening of regulatory safeguards across the entire spectrum of environmental issues, from clean air to wilderness protection.

The editorial spends more time condemning Bush's record than building a case for a Kerry presidency. Yet, the editorial board found space among the relatively few sentences allocated to praising Kerry to call attention to this environmental matter:

The environmental issue in the debates

In comments here, clark and da silva agree (more or less) on the following proposition:  It would be great if the environment mattered more to swing voters, but it doesn't, and the tactical goal of the debate is to move swing voters, so maybe a green rooting for Kerry should be happy the question didn't come up -- particularly given how Kerry botched it in the second debate.

Well, yes and no.

Dustup in the Wind

Proposed wind farms spark controversy in Kansas It seems that controversy over wind turbines — a common feature of the European political landscape — has crossed the Atlantic and headed for the American heartland. In the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas, farmers and ranchers are organizing to ward off plans by wind developers to build […]

Oh Brother, Where Art … Oh, There You Are

Jeb Bush borrows money to accelerate Everglades plan President Bush has made much of his devotion to wetlands, even vowing during the second debate to “increase the wetlands by 3 million.” Three whole million! But the nation’s biggest environmental initiative — signed into law in 2000 and aimed at restoring Florida’s most beloved wetlands, the […]

Martial Flaw

Bush admin fights off environmental restraints on military In the presidential campaign of 2000, Bush vowed to force the military to “comply with environmental laws by which all of us must live,” but according to a comprehensive investigation by USA Today, he has done the opposite. Since assuming power, the Bush White House has worked […]

Bush-appointed judges rule against environmental regs more often than others, report finds

Bush speaks his mind at the second debate. Photo: Joe Angeles/WUSTL. President Bush‘s remarks about Supreme Court appointees during the debate last Friday left many Americans scratching their heads, what with his perplexing reference to the 1857 Dred Scott slavery case (a coded wink to pro-life factions, as it turns out) and some classic Dubya-style […]

Tricky Richard

Pombo uses taxpayer dollars to campaign for Bush Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), chair of the House Resources Committee, has sent at least 100,000 flyers to voters in swing states praising President Bush’s environmental policies — at taxpayer expense. He’s also given his committee staff a month of vacation time immediately preceding the election, presumably so […]

Unsuitable

Lawsuits against polluters decline under Bush administration In the first three years of the Bush administration, the number of civil lawsuits filed by the federal government against polluters declined by 75 percent compared to the last three years of the Clinton administration, according to data compiled by the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project. Eric Shaeffer, who […]

Tempest in a Tight Spot

Writer Terry Tempest Williams barred from speaking on Florida campus Renowned author and wilderness activist Terry Tempest Williams is touring the country to promote her new book, “The Open Space of Democracy.” Given the subject, it’s a rather pointed irony that the board of trustees of Florida Gulf Coast University voted 11 to 1 to […]

Debate wars episode II: the empire strikes back

The second presidential debate was, by any measure, better than the first. Bush recovered from his twitchy, petulant performance of Sep. 30 and Kerry was, if anything, even more concise (lo, a miracle!) and direct. More importantly, the questions from audience members were better -- more substantive, less circumspect -- than anything asked by the "official" media-types refereeing the VP and first presidential debates.

However, Kerry flubbed one question that should have been a home run for him.  As you might guess, I'm talking about the environmental question.  Here's a policy area where, unlike many others, Kerry has a clear, consistent, and almost uniformly strong record.  Bush, on the other hand, is rated the worst environmental president ever by just about everybody -- including, increasingly, members of his own party, mid-level officials in his agencies, and conservationists from the traditionally right-leaning hook-and-bullet crowd.

But Bush dodged the bullet.