What If Bush Wins?

By Terry McCarthy

How much of Clinton's environmental legacy could a Bush presidency undo? The short answer: as much as Bush dares.

On the surface it would seem foolish after such a close election for Bush to savage the green agenda. But many environmentalists fear that Bush would have to repay his campaign backers, notably oil and timber interests that drill, pump and chop for a living.

Most devastating, they say, would be a delisting of some or all of the 13 national monuments with Clinton's signature on them. This can be done by congressional action--and possibly by presidential fiat, although that has yet to be tested in court.

More likely is that Bush would use subtler means to compromise Clinton's legacy. He could appoint agency chiefs who would hold up environment-protection plans, and omit funds in his budgets for projects drawn up by Clinton, leaving them to die on the vine. Unsympathetic officials could slow down the cleanup of PCBs from the Hudson and the implementation of the Kyoto climate-change treaty by sheer foot dragging.

One of the greatest concerns expressed by conservationists is that Bush would allow environmentally damaging riders attached to otherwise popular spending bills to creep out of Congress and become law without the threat of a presidential veto. "Rolling back is not going to be easy," says George Frampton of the Council on Environmental Quality. "But sitting on one's hands for four years is going to be easy, and we can't afford that."

--T.M. With reporting by Dick Thompson/Washington

With reporting by Dick Thompson/Washington