Does John Kerry have an ear for green concerns? [View All]

[T_i_B]

No contest according to Polly Ghazi in the UK Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1155740,00.html

John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, beats George Bush hands down when it comes to the environment. Kerry's voting record during a 20-year Senate career has received an A+ rating from The League of Conservation Voters (LCV). He has led efforts to block oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, supports legislative action on climate change, and presents energy conservation and clean technologies as a key part of his campaign platform. He even met his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry at the 1992 Earth summit.

Bush, in contrast, has repealed several hundred laws and regulations protecting clean air, water, wilderness, national parks and wetlands, and walked away from the Kyoto agreement on climate change.

With Kerry and other Democratic candidates denouncing Bush's green record on the campaign trail, there are signs that the White House is worried about his vulnerability on the issue. The administration recently abandoned its controversial efforts to slash by a third the number of streams and wetlands protected from development. And while the proposed 2005 federal budget includes $1.9bn (£1bn) worth of cuts in environmental programmes, it pointedly includes new money to help clean up contaminated land in the industrial swing states of Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Kerry presses home this advantage, frequently touting his green voting record and chastising the president on the campaign trail as leading "the worst environmental administration I've ever seen". Where Bush presents the environment as a special interest concern that costs jobs, Kerry links his plan for a mandatory industry target of 20% renewable electricity generation by 2020 as a means to save energy while creating jobs and decreasing America's dependence on foreign oil.