Environment

"Over the past few weeks of Presidential WrestleMania MMIV, the Bush campaign has fired off more than a dozen press releases about John Kerry's policies on energy, nuclear-waste storage, forest and water protections, and other environmental issues - a hodgepodge of smears, exaggerations, and obfuscations intended to besmirch Kerry's pro-environment reputation," Grist Magazine's Amanda Griscom writes. Polls indicate that swing-state voters are concerned about things like pollution and wilderness conservation, prompting the Bush campaign to "neutralize" the environment as an election issue.

It used to be that the U.S. chemical industry lobbied lawmakers in Washington. Now the White House is aggressively lobbying on the industry's behalf in Brussels, opposing new European Union regulations on chemicals. The EU's proposed Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals or REACH would require chemical makers to publicly report the potential harmfulness of their products - both for new chemicals being introduced and those already available.

"One of environmentalism's biggest foes - Ron Arnold—is back, peddling the idea that environmentalism breeds terrorism," reports Bill Berkowitz. "Arnold is the same man who once bragged to the New York Times that, 'No one was aware that environmentalism was a problem until we came along.' He's been so successful, says one environmentalist, that he's now 'within striking distance' of checking off every item on his 'wise-use' agenda."

With election season in swing, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Mike Leavitt has taken his show on the road, visiting key swing states to hand out pots of money for environmental projects. "Leavitt's recent wave of swing-state politicking has won his agency the moniker 'Election Protection Agency' in Beltway circles," reports Amanda Griscom.