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Both parties drawing lines in debate; polls on No. 4 issue favor Democrats

Sunday, April 28, 2002

By Ann McFeatters, Post-Gazette National Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Last week's jousting over the environment between President Bush and former Vice President Al Gore might be a harbinger of a 2004 rematch, but it is certainly evidence both parties are listening to voters.

The former rivals offered opposing policy statements on Earth Day with numbers like this hovering in the background: A CNN/Time poll this month found 43 percent of Americans supporting stronger environmental laws. Only one in five said current laws are too restrictive; 26 percent said current laws are adequate.

Asked whom they trust more to protect the environment, Bush or the Democrats in Congress, 45 percent said Democrats; only 36 percent said Bush. This is one of the few areas where Democrats rank higher than the president, whose overall job approval rating remains in the high 70s.

After the Senate defeated Bush's proposal to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife refuge earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said Democrats intend to make the environment a defining issue between the two parties.

Fifty-two percent of Americans oppose drilling in the refuge. And more than six in 10 say they are willing to pay higher gasoline prices to protect the wilderness or to reduce the amount of oil imported from the Middle East. This is one reason a loyal Bush Republican, Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, stunned Washington when he joined seven other Republicans to help the Democrats block drilling in the Arctic refuge.

Among domestic issues, Americans rank the environment fourth in importance behind only education, the economy and health care. The environment is now seen as so important politically that even conservative Attorney General John Ashcroft last week made a point of saying the Justice Department is working "tirelessly" to make sure Americans breathe clean air, drink pure water and live in healthy neighborhoods. He promised tough action against criminals who smuggle wildlife, dump pollution or engage in fraudulent environmental testing.

Bush argues that his stewardship of the environment is responsible and balanced; Gore says polluters are in charge of Bush's energy and environment policies. The two men disagree on global warming, arsenic levels in drinking water, air pollution standards, vehicle fuel efficiency requirements, power plant emission limits and most other contentious environmental issues.

Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, says that one reason for elevated interest in the environment is Sept. 11. "After Sept. 11," he wrote in Sierra magazine, "people sought solace in the national parks and other wild areas, and Sierra Club chapters reported it was easier to get volunteers for all kinds of local events."

More important, he said, is the need this fall "to re-engage in politics, blending the new volunteerism and the new patriotism into a new democracy. When politicians proclaim how much they care about America, we have to ask them how they intend to care for America." All House seats and a third of Senate seats are at stake in November.

The Sierra Club is going after Bush for planning to undo more than a dozen environmental regulations. He would, for instance, allow roadbuilding in national forests, eliminate the requirement for environmental assessments for certain hardrock mining and let snowmobilers romp through Rocky Mountain National Park.

Environmental groups also are angry with the administration's approval of a plan to store nuclear waste beneath Nevada's Yucca Mountain and with proposals to exempt the military from rules against harassing, hunting or killing whales and dolphins.

Bush insists his environmental policies are balanced attempts to protect the Earth while providing for economic growth.

Last week he pointed to his Clear Skies Initiative, claiming it would significantly reduce power plant emissions, and he signaled he's ready for a fight on environmental issues: "I firmly believe that 32 years after [the first] Earth Day, America understands our obligation much more so than in the years past."