How Green Is Edwards?

By Amanda Griscom Little, Grist.org. Posted July 20, 2004.

When John Edwards was tapped to be John Kerry's veep, everyone interested in ousting Bush erupted into convulsions of praise – and the enviros were no exception.

"An excellent choice that sends a clear message about the need for change and renewed optimism in our nation's leadership for conservation, public health, and other issues important to the American people," said the League of Conservation Voters.

"Yet another strong environmental leader [on] the Democratic presidential ticket," said Environment2004.

"Sen. Edwards consistently stands up to preserve and strengthen the laws that keep Americans' air, water, and public land clean and safe," said Debbie Sease, the Sierra Club's legislative director.

So it may come as a surprise that Edwards' lifetime voting record on the environment, determined by LCV's scorecard, is 63 percent (that would be a D-) – quite a bit lower than Kerry's 92 percent, one of the highest records in Senate history.

But Betsy Loyless, LCV political director, insists that one shouldn't jump to the wrong conclusion about what appears to be a near-flunking grade: "Anything above 60 percent is considered a very solid rating. Keep in mind that the average score among senators in 2003 was 41; and if you look at records of senators from his region, the Southeast, Edwards is definitely one of the highest scorers."

Also, if you look at Edwards' voting record year by year, the picture is rosier – he scored 78 in 1999, 100 in 2000, and 88 in 2001, before dropping to 59 in 2002 and then all the way down to 37 in 2003 – a measly score largely attributable to the fact that he spent so much time on the presidential campaign trail that he missed half of the environment-related votes LCV tallied. (LCV counts missed votes as negatives, which also explains why Kerry's score has dropped from 96 to 92 in the last several months.)

A quick overview of Edwards' stances on major issues should look pretty appealing to enviros: On energy matters, he has voted against drilling in the Arctic five times, supported a standard that would require 10 percent of America's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020, and consistently voted to increase CAFE standards. On global warming, he has rebuked the Bush administration for pulling out of the Kyoto treaty and he supports the McCain-Lieberman bill that would establish a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. He also supported the "roadless rule," and he opposed Bush's Healthy Forests plan, cuts to the Superfund program, and efforts to weaken the Clean Water Act and arsenic standards for drinking water.

Edwards' most aggressive efforts have been on clean air: Last year, he led the fight against Clean Air Act rollbacks in the Senate, pushing to delay Bush's proposed changes to the act's new-source review (NSR) provisions until more research had been done on the public-health consequences.

"Edwards has clearly emerged as one of the most dogged new-source review champions – a wonky issue that does not exactly score you a whole lot of glamour points on Capitol Hill," said Chris Miller, a staffer at the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. "Meaning he did it because he believes in it."

Carol Browner, EPA chief under Clinton, said that Edwards' 20 years as a trial lawyer defending average citizens against corporate and medical malpractice gave him a good foundation for environmental advocacy: "Edwards is great at understanding issues as they relate to people in their lives and their communities. He held an NSR hearing that examined what the [rule changes] would mean to local communities [out of concern] that the consequences would be particularly acute in North Carolina. It's in part from his experience of representing people who had suffered tragedies and been wronged."

Admittedly, Edwards committed a number of environmental voting gaffes early on in his Senate career, which have caused some in the environmental community to say that only very recently has he become a true believer.

During his first year in office, 1999, he voted in favor of an amendment to allow mountaintop-removal mining practices. Later, he voted to exempt pickup trucks from fuel-efficiency standards and supported the storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada (though he has since agreed to support Kerry's position that Yucca shouldn't become a dumping ground). Edwards also voted against an amendment that would have prevented farm subsidies from helping to expand industrial farms, and voted against stricter prohibitions on the use of pesticides in parks.

Amanda Griscom writes the Muckraker column for Grist Magazine.

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