Bush Turns Green

George W. Bush's journey to the political center, where compassionate conservatives and "uniters, not dividers" live, took him to Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, Monday. He spoke at the US Gypsum factory, built on the reclaimed land of an old steel plant, and unveiled his plan for cleaning up brownfields, the tired, sometimes toxic sites of former factories.

His environmental rhetoric had an almost Democratic tinge, as he preached a gospel that Republicans have largely avoided for years. He said Americans must be "good stewards" of the environment, for "prosperity will mean little if we leave to future generations a world of polluted air, toxic lakes and rivers, and vanished forests."

Also atypical was his insistence on a federal role, albeit a loose one, in cleaning up these sites. Bush wants to continue federal funding for cleanups, but he'd favor giving the money to states in block grants. The Environmental Protection Agency would set the standards, but not the methods, for cleanup, and the standards would be more flexible. The government would back, and evaluate, new scientific technologies for bringing brownfields back to life.

Bush says the federal government needs to clean up its own house. He says federal facilities don't always comply with federal law when it comes to pollution control, and charges that the government hasn't restored its own contaminated sites. The Texas governor aims to "change the federal government from the worst polluter to the good neighbor it should be."

There are currently tax incentives in place for businesses to clean up and redevelop brownfields, but those are set to expire next year. Bush suggested those incentives be made permanent. And he said he'd work with Congress to protect new developers, who've just taken over an old site, from any lawsuits over the site's toxicity. Businesses that never contributed to the pollution or toxicity "should not face future liability for past damage," he asserted.

But Bush could be tilting at windmills when it comes to the environment. His rival, Vice President Al Gore, has spent years cornering the market on green issues, and most environmental or conservation groups scold Bush for a poor record in Texas. Houston recently topped the charts as the smog capital of America. "His record is not stellar," says Daniel J. Weiss, the Sierra Club's political director, who said brownfield cleanups in Texas met low standards.

Weiss dismisses Bush's call for greater flexibility in cleanup standards and his offer of liability protection. "Those are all code words for 'You don't have to do as much cleanup, and we will provide legal protection for you,'" he said.

And the Gore campaign released a statement saying Bush "has been a friend of the polluters." The statement proudly said the vice president had "led the administration's effort to redevelop brownfields," and then ticked off what it viewed as environmenal affronts under the Bush administration in Texas.

But Bush stood by his record in Texas, where he signed legislation that he said has cleaned up 451 brownfields so far. "The brownfields we cleaned up were not as a result of the federal government," Bush insisted, "They were basically in spite of the federal government."

Bush may never win an environmental showdown with Gore, but it may be enough for him to persuade voters that he at least wants to compete. The specifics of his initiatives don't matter as much as the mere fact that he's talking about the environment - and education, and that he's reaching out to Hispanics and people "on the fringes of poverty." Republicans have stumbled over these issues in the past, but Bush is all about proving he's a new kind of Republican. Here he's stealing a tactic perfected by a new kind of Democrat, Bill Clinton - grafting your opponent's issues onto yourself. "I happen to believe job growth can coexist with good environmental policy," Bush mused, a line straight out of Mr. Clinton's talk-green-but-don't-scare-industry book.

Another new kind of Republican stood at Bush's side Monday, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, frequently rumored as a potential dancing partner for Bush in the general campaign. Ridge talked about brownfield cleanups in his own state, and praised Bush's work in Texas. "We're looking to Washington for strong environmental leadership, not speeches," Ridge said as he introduced Bush's speech.