He also plans to participate Saturday in Earth Day celebrations on the National Mall. Public opinion polls, including a Gallup survey this week, suggests voters will reject an anti-environment candidate although they rank the issue behind the economy, health care and education. Still, few topics distinguish the two presidential candidates more than this.
Environmentalists say that stymied air quality improvements in the state.
He cites state progress in cleaning industrial areas, known as brownfields, while the federal Superfund toxic cleanup law has struggled. Dan Bartlett, a Bush campaign spokesman, said that while Bush believes in states being given greater flexibility, he is not advocating they ignore federal environmental laws. While many Republicans and a range of business groups have sought to portray Gore as an environmental extremist, he has had some rough going with environmentalists. The issue also has been a sore spot for Bush. Last summer, for the first time, Houston overtook Los Angeles for having the worst smog.