Inventing Al Gore: on Environment

Co-sponsored first Superfund bill, on Love Canal

In 1978 chemicals from an abandoned underground dump seethed into basements and backyards in he Love Canal neighborhood in upstate New York, [causing] an abnormal number of miscarriages and birth defects. [Gore’s father was a board member of its corporate owner]. Gore considered recusing himself but decided that the issue was too important. Later that year he co-sponsored passage of the first Superfund bill, mandating a joint public-private effort to clean up the sites. Source: Inventing Al Gore, p.137

Pushed for BTU tax on coal & gas, in 1993

Although Gore had toned down his environmental rhetoric during the 1992 campaign, he saw the 1993 economic package as an opportunity to push for the green movement’s tax of choice: a broad-based levy based on the use of energy as measured in BTUs (British thermal units). A BTU tax would fall most heavily on coal and other fossil fuels, encouraging industry to use less polluting sources like natural gas. Gore believed that adoption of a BTU tax, which would raise an estimated $72 billion over five years, could kindle support for similar measures in Europe and Japan, accelerating global environmental renewal. [After passing in the House and stalling in the Senate, the BTU tax was] replaced by a more politically palatable gasoline tax.

The setback, said an environmental lobbyist, seemed to yank Gore back into his campaign-season zone of caution on environmental issues, as if he had been caught straying too far ahead-and to the left-of what the political system would bear.

Source: Inventing Al Gore, p.270-1

Pushed emissions trading plan at Kyoto greenhouse summit

In Gore’s view, there could be no breakthroughs, especially on global warming, until the public saw a clear & present danger. “The people haven’t given us permission to lead on this issue,” he said.

Nevertheless, at the Kyoto summit, the administration proposed a binding commitment to return CO2 emissions to 1990 levels between 2008 & 2012. After that, a series of market mechanisms would be employed to drive emissions below the 1990 baseline by 2017. They included an international trading system in which pollution permits could be bought and sold, giving companies incentive to cut emissions and sell their rights to another firm for a profit.

In his speech to the Kyoto delegates, Gore said that the real challenge was to change the human behaviors that were causing climate change. Gore’s whirlwind visit changed the dynamics of the conference. All sides gave ground. The US promised to cut emissions 7% below the 1990 levels between 2008 & 2012; the Europeans committed to 8% and Japan to 6%.

Source: Inventing Al Gore, p.334-6

*The above quotations are from Inventing Al Gore, by Bill Turque.* Click here for definitions & background information on Environment. Click here for more quotes by Al Gore on Environment.
*Other candidates on Environment:*
Pat Buchanan George W. Bush Al Gore Ralph Nader Harry Browne Dick Cheney Joe Lieberman *2002 Candidates:* Elizabeth Dole Janet Reno Jeb Bush Robert Reich	*Withdrawn Candidates:* Lamar Alexander Gary Bauer Bill Bradley Steve Forbes Orrin Hatch John Kasich Alan Keyes John McCain Dan Quayle Bob Smith Donald Trump Paul Wellstone
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