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A Special Report...
Where does Senator John McCain stand on environmental issues?
NOTE: In the Fall 1999 Green Elephant, we reported on the efforts of Republicans for Environmental Protection to find out about the environmental positions of the GOP candidates for president.
Governor George W. Bush’s campaign ignored our repeated requests for answers. The Governor never provided a statement or made an environmental speech, so REP had to go to his web site and published news stories to gain insights into his environmental philosophy and track record. His campaign even declined to comment when Republicans for Environmental Protection pointed out that one of his environmental advisors had just published a call for the privatization and commercialization of all our national parks, monuments, forests, wildlife refuges and military lands. (See “An Outlandish Proposal”)
At the time of this writing, the main environmental issue that Governor Bush had addressed positively was the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which we were glad to see. Still, since that seems to be the one environmental position that has been deemed “safe and acceptable” for Republicans to advocate this year (see “Three cheers for... Don Young?”), his support for LWCF doesn’t seem terribly noteworthy. And we were dismayed to hear Governor Bush proclaim his support for oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
By contrast, Senator John McCain provided straight yes/no answers to many of REP's questions and supplemented his answers with additional explanations of his positions, copies of a speech he had given to the League of Conservation Voters, press reports of his environmental accomplishments, etc. As this issue goes to print, McCain’s staff has just arranged for him to meet personally with REP President Martha Marks and Executive Director Jim Scarantino.
Looking only at John McCain’s voting record, one would probably conclude that he does not have much sensitivity to environmental concerns. He has a lifetime League of Conservation Voters’ rating of 20%.
Countering McCain’s low LCV rating, however, is a track record of initiatives to protect the Grand Canyon from noise and air pollution, expand Saguaro National Monument and create the Arizona Desert Wilderness.
McCain takes pride in--and wins praise for--his history of advocating wilderness protection. He was the first GOP member of the Senate’s Wilderness Caucus.
So Republicans for Environmental Protection asked well-known wilderness advocate Dave Foreman, a registered Republican and REP member who campaigned for Barry Goldwater in 1964 and founded the New Mexico chapter of Young Americans for Freedom in 1965, for a comment on McCain. Foreman urged Republicans for Environmental Protection to endorse McCain, adding: “John McCain is not a perfect conservationist. However, he is the best conservationist among western Republican members of Congress. McCain was a champion of wilderness in the 1990 Arizona wilderness bill. In fact, he was better than was environmental hero Rep. Mo Udall, on that bill.”
Others point out that McCain also has a good record on auto emissions.
As a national candidate, McCain seems aware that the environment matters to large numbers of Americans, including Republicans. He alone among the GOP candidates appears ready to reach out to those voters.
In a 1996 op-ed, which the New York Times published as “Nature is not a liberal plot,” McCain wrote:
“Have Republicans abandoned their roots as the party of Theodore Roosevelt, who maintained that government’s most important task, with the exception of national security, is to leave posterity a land in better condition than they received it?
“The answer must be no. But if we are to restore the people’s trust and retain the privilege of serving as the majority party, we better start proving it. We Republicans are responsible for much of the negative perception of our environmental record...
“Republicans should not allow the fringes of the party to set a radical agenda that no more represents the mainstream of Republicans than environmental extremists represent the mainstream of the Democratic Party. Only by faithfully fulfilling our stewardship responsibilities can we expect to remain the majority party.”
McCain echoed that line of thinking in an April 1997 speech to the LCV:
“Last November, voters sent Republicans back to Congress as the Majority party. I’m proud of that. But exit polls delivered another message — one that does not make me very proud. The electorate told us that they are gravely concerned about the Republican party’s commitment to the environment. In fact, it is their greatest concern about the party’s continued control of Congress, by a margin of two to one over the next issue.”
