Countdown to the 2000 elections: Who will you choose: Gore and Lieberman or Bush and Cheney?
Al Gore:Gore says he would continue to fight the big polluters and big oil companies. He would reduce smog, clean up the nation’s air and water and use tax breaks for new, more fuel-efficient vehicles to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
“I’m proud that in my first term in Congress, I held some of the first hearings on the dangers of toxic waste, and I've been making that fight ever since. I’m proud that even though we have far more to do, we now have the cleanest air and water in a generation.” Gore said in an August speech.
Gore and the Clinton Administration have led efforts to clean up more than 500 toxic-waste dumps — three times more than the previous two administrations combined. Gore helped lead initiatives to restore polluted waterways and protect drinking water, and he led efforts to stop the rise in global warming.
With the “Big Three” automakers, he led the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) that helped spur new technologies for cars that use less gas and create less pollution.
Gore launched the administration’s Livable Communities initiative that gives citizens and communities tools to stimulate growth, ease traffic congestion and clean up air and water supplies.
Gore has called for making the next 10 years the Environment Decade, an initiative that includes:
• Protecting forests, rivers and public lands so that families have places to hike, climb and experience nature firsthand;
• Ensuring the nation’s air and water are cleaned up;
• Encouraging smarter growth and more livable communities so every community can grow according to its own values and in a way that preserves its own character;
• Investing more in conservation, renewable energy and in fast-growing technologies that combat pollution; and
• Taking steps worldwide to reverse global warming.
Gore would dedicate part of the expected budget surplus to create a new National Energy Security and Environment Trust Fund to help protect the environment and also:
• Save energy and dramatically reduce pollution by helping power plants and industries reduce dangerous emissions;
• Reduce the nation's dependence on unreliable foreign oil with tax breaks of up to $6,000 for consumers who purchase more fuel-efficient cars, trucks and homes;
• Reduce traffic and smog and improve transportation by investing in cleaner and safer buses, light-rail and subway systems and high-speed trains; and
• Increase the reliability of the power grid to curtail brownouts.
George Bush:Bush says he is committed to a new era of environmental protection.
He feels the 30-year-old federal model of “mandate, regulate and litigate” needs to be modernized: it has yielded benefits in the past, but it encourages Americans to do the bare minimum to protect the environment and fails to reward innovation or results.
As president, Bush says he would maintain a strong federal environmental role, but would return significant authority to states and local communities.
The federal government would set high environmental standards and provide market-based incentives to develop new technologies and approaches so that Americans meet and exceed those standards.
He would also ensure that the federal government, which he says is the country’s largest polluter, complies with all environmental laws.
“Brownfield cleanups and redevelopments represent the kind of cooperative spirit and results-oriented approach that, under my presidency, will guide our nation’s environmental agenda,” Bush said in April at the site of a Pennsylvania brownfield that has been successfully cleaned up by the state.
“Every environmental issue confronts us with the same duty to be good stewards. The real debate is over how best to balance our needs of growth and progress with regard for the natural world we inherit and the world we leave to posterity,” he said.
Bush would:
• Direct the Environmental Protection Agency to establish high, but more flexible standards for brownfield cleanups to ensure the cleanups are fully protective of human health and the environment while enabling affordable cleanups and economic growth.
• Provide protection from federal liability at brownfields cleaned up under state programs that meet high federal standards. This will help remove legal obstacles that prevent brownfield cleanups.
• Focus federal efforts on developing cleanup techniques and technologies to help states and local communities clean up brownfields.
• Reform the Brownfield Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund by cutting the red tape and block granting the funds to the states.
• Extend permanently the Brownfield cleanup tax incentive scheduled to expire on December 31, 2001.
• Direct active federal facilities to comply with the environmental protection laws and hold them accountable.