Environmental issues spur political, ideological clashes

Neither Clinton nor GOPNeither Clinton nor GOPescape blame from 'green'Neither Clinton nor GOPescape blame from 'green'activists fr recent actions Despite President Clinton's recent signing of a $3.8 billion water resources bill to bolster his environmental record, critics argue he has not lived up to his pledge to run America's first "environmental administration." "Clinton has paid very little attention to the environmental agenda over the last four years," said Penn's Institute for Environmental Studies Director Robert Giegengack. "And I don't think that this latest bill is designed to do anything except attract votes." He added that many were disappointed that Vice President Al Gore -- long known as a champion of environmental issues -- has played such a small role in setting the administration's environmental policy. "There had been lots of speculation that Gore would do all kinds of things for the environment," Giegengack explained. "But very little has actually happened." He praised the administration, however, for its "commitment to the protection of bio-diversity and protection of the [Environmental Protection Agency] from Republican attacks." Those attacks came in 1994, when the newly-elected Republican congressional majority tried to roll back environmental protection, calling it overregulated and harmful to business and personal-property rights. Democrats, meanwhile, argued that Republican proposals would have gutted the EPA and rolled back more than 20 years of environmental gains. In one particularly heated debate, House Majority Whip Tom Delay (R-Tex.) referred to the EPA as the "Gestapo of government," leading EPA administrator Carol Browning to claim that Republicans had "launched an orchestrated, assertive assault" against the agency, an attack that ultimately threatened public health. Though the Republicans eventually failed to rewrite environmental legislation, Democrats have used their opposition's unsuccessful attempts to label the Republicans "anti-environment." "The environment faces dire threats from the kind of legislation that Senator [Bob] Dole and [House] Speaker Newt Gingrich tried to pass," Gore said in this month's vice presidential debate. "President Bill Clinton will protect our environment and prevent the kind of attacks on it that we saw in the last Congress." Republican vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp countered that the legislation was necessary to protect American business from "the anti-capitalistic mentality" of the Clinton administration. "This is the most over-regulated, overly litigated economy in our nation's history," he said in the debate. "That will change because we believe in democratic capitalism for everyone." But Giegengack argued that studies have shown that "environmental legislation is not a significant factor in the competitiveness of American firms." "Republican claims to the contrary are largely a myth," he said.