Ensign defends environmental record

Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2000 | 10:53 a.m.

Sierra Club President Carl Pope stumped for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Ed Bernstein by calling Republican hopeful John Ensign a "wimp" on environmental issues.

Pope, whose 630,000-member organization frequently criticizes GOP candidates, said during an appearance Tuesday at UNLV that former Rep. Ensign favors lax environmental regulations that have led to dirty air and water.

"John Ensign's record is that of a man who believes government doesn't have a role in protecting the public from dirty air, dirty water and dirty food," Pope said.

But Ensign dismissed Pope's remarks as that coming from an outsider unfamiliar with regional issues. Ensign also criticized a study that ranked him as the nation's leading recipient of political action committee money from alleged polluters since the 1996 election cycle.

He responded that Bernstein also has accepted money from polluters, namely Florida's sugar industry.

"I believe strongly in clean air and clean water," Ensign said. "We just want regulations based on sound science. It's a question of when new regulations come forward, do we allow sound science or emotionalism to rule the day? I'd always come down on the side of sound science."

Pope repeated statements from previous visits to Nevada that Ensign would be ill-equipped to keep the nation's high-level nuclear waste from coming to Yucca Mountain 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas if Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., remains Senate majority leader.

"If John Ensign is elected to the U.S. Senate, nuclear waste will come to Yucca Mountain," Pope said. "In Trent Lott's only meeting with environmentalists he said his number one priority was to deliver nuclear waste to Nevada. That's why Nevada needs a fighter. Nevada does not need a wimp. Ed will be a fighter."

The Sierra Club leader made similar criticisms of Ensign in 1998 during a Las Vegas campaign stop for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who narrowly defeated Ensign two years ago.

Bernstein is one of nine Democratic Senate candidates nationwide endorsed by the Sierra Club. The organization last week began airing radio commercials tying Ensign to a GOP national plank that favors shipment of the nuclear waste to Nevada.

But Ensign said Pope's name calling has no room in politics and disagreed sharply over his nuclear waste remarks. Ensign, like Bernstein, is opposed to nuclear waste shipments to Nevada. Both men simply disagree on who would be the more effective advocate on this issue.

"I took on (former House Speaker) Newt Gingrich on this and beat him, and I'm absolutely willing to go toe to toe with Trent Lott to keep nuclear waste out of our state," Ensign said.

The Environmental Working Group, a research outfit in Washington, D.C., ranked Ensign as the leading recipient of alleged anti-environmental PAC money since the 1996 election cycle from industries involved in "dirty air", $623,736, "dirty water," $278,756, "global warming," $571,169, and "public land use," $324,037. The group also ranked Ensign second in money from industries responsible for "toxics," $707,731, trailing only Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, who received $766,006.

Ensign was listed as the leading recipient of campaign money from the Chemical Manufacturers Association and related PACs with $107,249. He ranked second with $197,715 from the Coalition for Vehicle Choice, $368,546 from the National Association of Manufacturers and $151,794 from the National Mining Association.

He also ranked third with $95,991 from the Grocery Manufacturers Association, fifth with $87,000 from the Global Climate Coalition, seventh with $33,247 from the Fertilizer Institute and 13th with $55,500 from the National Endangered Species Act Reauthorization Coalition.

But Ensign called the rankings misleading because many of the PACs, such as those involving mining and ranching, are leading industries in Nevada. Reid, for instance, was also ranked 23rd on the National Mining Association list with $96,000, not far behind 17th-ranked House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., $100,500, who has backed Nevada Democrats.

Ensign also questioned the research group's definition of a "polluter." The group's calculation of "dirty money" from the Grocery Manufacturers Association, for instance, included contributions from accounting firms.

"That is ridiculous," Ensign said.

Ensign turned the tables by noting that Bernstein has taken money from Florida's sugar industry, which has been accused of ruining the Florida Everglades through fertilizer runoff.

"The League of Conservation Voters, which has campaigned against me, has said the sugar industry is polluting the Everglades," Ensign said. "I fought the sugar industry because I voted against sugar subsidies. What is the sugar industry if it is not a special interest group?"

According to the Internet website FECInfo, Bernstein received $4,000 from sugar-related PACs through the first half of this year. But Bernstein spokeswoman Kelley Benander said the Democrat has informed the sugar industry that he expects them to help clean up the environment.

"He researched the problems in the Everglades and talked to the sugar PACs and they assured him that they have taken serious steps to clean up the Everglades and have worked with environmental groups," she said.

Bernstein said he would vote for clean air and water regulations favored by Democrats.

"John Ensign's record could not be any worse than it is on the environment," Bernstein said. "He has a terrible record on air and water."

Environmental groups have attacked Ensign since 1995 while he was completing the first of two House terms. His unsuccessful 1996 Democratic opponent, state Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, once accused Ensign of voting against 32 pro-environment measures.

But Ensign said then that he merely wanted to shift money from the regulatory bureaucracy to actual environmental cleanup. He has since played up his co-sponsorship of public lands bills for Nevada, his assistance in securing research money for the Desert Research Institute to study pollution detection devices and his support of tax credits for use of clean-burning fuels.