Editorial: Policies are more than platitudes

Friday, April 26, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

Western governors and members of the Bush administration gathered in Salt Lake City this week to talk about ways to find common-ground solutions to divisive environmental issues. Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt has dubbed this cooperative approach to the environment as "Enlibra," which roughly means "in balance." This view holds that all Westerners want better jobs, an excellent quality of life and a cleaner environment -- qualities that don't have to be mutually exclusive. "Federal agencies should be participants, not taskmasters, and the people most involved -- those who live, work and play on the lands involved -- should play a more enhanced role," Leavitt, a Republican governor, said at the time the concept was unveiled in 1998.

Despite Leavitt's enthusiasm, environmentalists are leery of "Enlibra," believing that the Bush administration will wrap the term around its policies that actually will favor the timber, mining and energy industries. The concern is justified. "Enlibra" is a nice-sounding theory, but the problem is that President Bush hasn't adopted the kind of cooperation needed to forge a consensus on environmental issues -- especially as they affect national energy policies.

Environmental concerns often are ignored by this White House. For instance, not only has Bush eschewed conservation as a way to lessen our dependence on foreign oil, but he also wants to drill for oil and gas on environmentally sensitive lands in Alaska, a plan opposed by the public and recently rejected by the Senate. And Bush, doing the bidding of the nuclear power industry, also wants to force a nuclear waste dump on Nevadans despite the fact that we overwhelmingly oppose becoming the burial ground for 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste. "Enlibra" doesn't promise to be a meaningful word in the Bush vocabulary. His energy policy should be a two-way street, but instead it has become a one-way freeway that runs over the concerns voiced by people who worry that his policies will harm the environment and possibly endanger the public's health, too.

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