Socialist Action /November 1999
Twin Cities Stadium Issue: Welfare for Billionaires
By KATHY SETIAN
Vice President Al Gore, author of the book "Earth in the Balance,"
has tried to distinguish himself from other capitalist politicians based
on his identity with the environmental movement.
Most environmental groups, while harboring some hope that Gore's rhetoric
may some day translate to action, are aware that it is mostly hot air.
For example, Gore is known as an expert on global warming, and is regularly
briefed by the nation's leading climatologists. He has given much lip-service
to this issue, calling for "vigorous action" on "the evidence
of an ecological Kristallnacht."
But what has he done? During the climate treaty summit in Kyoto in 1997,
Greenpeace accused Clinton and Gore of being in bed with Big Oil because
of their retreat on greenhouse emissions in deference to oil companies like
ARCO, Chevron, and Exxon.
When George Bush used to call Gore "ozone man" it was an unearned
compliment. U.S. News and World Report put it this way:
"Gore's vivid language in describing environmental problems is almost
never matched by equally passionate advocacy for a solution, particularly
when powerful economic interests are at stake. Conservative critics who
brand Gore an 'ozone man' have it wrong. On the environment, Gore favors
extreme rhetoric but only incremental solutions."
As a U.S. congressman, Gore's environmental voting record was nothing
to rave about. The League of Conservation Voters accorded him a mere 60
percent rating for his tenure in the House, and 73 percent for the Senate.
Like his father before him, he was beholden to home-state investment interests
associated with construction projects of the Tennessee Valley Authority
(TVA).
For example, the Tellico Dam became a national issue after biologists
discovered that it would cause the extinction of the snail darter, a tiny
fish that lived in the Little Tennessee River, making the dam a test case
for the Endangered Species Act. Representative Gore was among those voting
successfully to exempt the dam from the ESA.
Gore also supported a "breeder" nuclear reactor at Clinch River,
which was considered such a risky undertaking that the project was killed
in 1983. From 1977 to 1984, Gore voted with the nuclear industry 55 percent
of the time.
In another example, Gore's influence peddling on behalf of Champion International
Paper Company was one of his more embarrassing hypocrisies. The Republican
Party is unlikely to let him or Americans forget this one.
For 90 years, Champion had released tons of chemicals and byproducts
from bleaching wood pulp (chemicals including dioxins, some of the most
toxic substances known) into the Pigeon River in North Carolina and eastern
Tennessee. The river has been reported to have the color of coffee and
the smell of sulfur. But Gore didn't need to worry about it running through
his backyard. It mainly runs through the most impoverished towns of Appalachia.
Although Gore devoted campaign rhetoric to cleaning up the river, when
confronted with capitalist pressures during his first presidential campaign
in 1987, he succumbed to croneyism.
Two congressmen beholden to Champion Paper (Terry Sanford and Jamie Clarke)
convinced Gore to lobby EPA to cut Champion some slack in their waste discharge
permit. Then in 1996, EPA under the leadership of Carol Browner, Gore's
former staffer, granted Champion a permit that waived water quality standards.
At this point an irate citizens group intervened to save the day. Calling
themselves the "Dead Pigeon River Council", they threatened to
put up a billboard labeling Gore a sell-out. After much waffling by Gore,
EPA eventually issued a more stringent permit, and Champion spent millions
on pollution control. Finally, in a typical display of patriotism, Champion
put the plant up for sale.
Here is another example: As vice president, Gore has campaigned for a
substantial weakening of the U.S. law prohibiting the sale of tuna caught
using fishing methods that incidentally kill dolphins. This was done within
the context of international manueverings under the GATT (General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade).
As a closing vignette, much has been made of Gore's trip to China, in
which he was photographed toasting Li Peng, the Chinese leader associated
with the Tiananmen Square massacre and with leading China's market reforms.
It has been noted that Gore was embarrassed by the photograph, but what
about the occasion of the toast itself? It was a celebration of a $1.5
billion deal between China and General Motors to produce 100,000 Buick Centurys
and Regals for the burgeoning Chinese auto market.
But there is one important difference between the cars that will be produced
for China and their American counterparts-the Chinese versions will not
have pollution controls.
Socialist Action /November 1999 |