Smokies backdrop for Bush: Environmental tie: Group calls leader's visit 'height of hypocrisy'

Smokies backdro for Bus

ENVIRONMENTAL TIE:

Group calls leader's visit
'height of hypocrisy'

BY SCOTT BARKER
barkers@knews.com

Alleging faulty leadership and a
record of missed opportunities, advo-
cacy groups bashed President Bush's
environmental policies on the eve of
his Earth Day visit
to the Great Smoky
Mountains Nation-
al Park.

The White
House on Thursday
countered that high-
profile controversies
have overshadowed
the environmental
achievements that
should be the focus
of Earth Day.

Bush is scheduled
to help on a volun-
teer work project to-
day before speaking
on volunteerism and
environmental issues
in Cades Cove.

Environmentalists criticized Bush
on issues ranging from global warm-
ing and air pollution to the energy bill
approved earlier in the day by the
House.

"It's the height of hypocrisy for Pres-
ident Bush to come to the Smokies on
Earth Day," said Dave Muhly, who heads
the Appalachian regional office of the
Sierra Club.

Park Service employees, rangers, members of President Bush's advance team and local contractors build a stage Thursday near the Primitive Baptist Church in Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in preparation for the president's visit there today.

Jim Connaughton, chairman of the
president's Council on Environmental
Quality, defended the administration's
record, citing conservation provisions
of farm legislation, a key law to clean
up contaminated industrial sites and a
wetlands conservation initiative.

"The policies on which we're mak-
ing the greatest progress have enjoyed
massive bipartisan support, and there-
fore have not received the attention
they deserve because there's not a con-
flict," Connaughton said.

The Great Smoky Mountains Na-
tional Park is both the most visited and
most polluted national park in the coun-
try. Bush's primary air pollution pro-
posal, the Clear Skies initiative, is bot-
tled up for now in the Senate Envi-
ronment and Public Works Commit-
tee.

Stephen Smith, executive director
of the Southern Alliance for Clean En-
ergy, calls the Clear Skies initiative an
"Orwellian" measure that would gut
provisions of the Clean Air Act re-
quiring industry to install advanced
technologies to reduce emissions.

Though air pollution dominates the
debate in the Smokies, Smith called
global warming "the most important
environmental issue facing the human
race today."

Global warming could kill off fragile
ecosystems like the spruce-fir for-
est at the highest elevations of the
Smokies, Smith said.

Though the United States is the
largest contributor of greenhouse
gases like carbon dioxide, the Bush
administration has rejected the Ky-
oto agreement, the worldwide treaty
to reduce carbon emissions in de-
veloped countries.

"We have no plan right now to
curb carbon dioxide emissions,"
Smith said.

Michael Shore of Environmental
Defense said even power producers
like Duke Energy now say some-
thing should be done to curb green-
nouse gas eIDJSSlOns.

"It's time for the United States to
take action," Shore said. "President
Bush has the opportunity to lead on
this issue, and he hasn't so far."

The administration's energy bill,
which passed the House on Thurs-
day, would allow oil drilling in an
Alaska wildlife refuge and give $12
billion in tax breaks and subsidies
to oil, natural gas, nuclear and coal
producers. The House nixed a pro-
posal to require higher fuel econo-
my for cars.

Muhly said the bill would boost
polluting industries and increase
America's reliance on foreign oil,
while giving scant attention to con-
servation and alternative fuels.

Connaughton said Bush doesn't
believe oil and gas subsidies are
needed either, especially with the
price of oil above $50 a barrel.

"We do, however, need to remove
barriers to the production of oil and
gas," he said.

Connaughton deflected criticism
of Bush's global warming policies by
pointing to efforts to design a ze-
ro-emissions coal-fired power plant,
an initiative to develop hydrogen-
powered vehicles and spending $4
billion through the energy bill for
conservation measures.

"The U.S. taxpayer under Presi-
dent Bush's leadership is investing
more in climate change technology
than the rest of the world combined,"
he asserted.

Signing the Kyoto agreement
would only ship jobs to develop-
ing countries not covered by the
treaty, Connaughton said.

As for Clear Skies, Connaughton
said Congress is just now engaging
in meaningful discussion that could
lead to passage of a compromise bill.
Other measures, like tougher diesel
emissions standards, the haze rule
and the interstate pollution rule,
should yield dramatic improvements,
he said.

Though they differ in approach,
both sides link the environment to
the economy.

Connaughton said ecological ad-
vances shouldn't be made at the ex-
pense of manufacturing jobs "that
are the cornerstone of our econo-
my."

Mary Anne Hitt, executive direc-
tor of Appalachian Voices and a
Gatlinburg native, noted that the fi-
nancial health of the areas sur-
rounding the Smokies depends on
the health of the park.

Scott Barker may be reached at
865-342-6309.

A National Pali( Service employee uses a leaf blower Thursday to clean the area near where President Bush will speak today in Cades Cove.