Bush’s ‘Old Ways’ Threaten Environment, Clinton Says : Politics: Democratic candidate will lay out aggressive ecological agenda in a speech to be delivered today.

In a wide-ranging address scheduled for delivery today, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton intends to accuse President Bush of allowing the environment to deteriorate because he is “trapped by old ways of thinking and an outdated world view” that sees economic growth and ecological protection as incompatible.

According to a copy of the speech obtained by The Times, the Democratic presidential candidate plans to outline an aggressive environmental agenda that departs sharply from the Bush Administration’s approach on issues ranging from global warming to automobile fuel efficiency to international population control.

Clinton’s speech also vigorously defends his environmental record in Arkansas--an issue that arose Tuesday as he campaigned in Pennsylvania and was asked to respond to a newspaper story about water pollution problems in his state.

In perhaps the most pointed section of the speech--which he is to deliver in Philadelphia to coincide with Earth Day--Clinton calls on Bush to attend the international summit on global climatic changes scheduled for Brazil in June and to accept strict limits on fossil-fuel emissions, believed to be a main cause of global warming trends.

Bush, who has resisted calls for the United States to set such limits, said Tuesday he has not yet decided whether to attend the conference.

Clinton’s specific proposals include requiring U.S. auto manufacturers to raise average fuel efficiency to 45 miles per gallon from the current 27.5. Bush, in contrast, promised beleaguered auto makers on a campaign swing through Michigan last month that he would fight any toughening of fuel-efficiency standards.

Clinton’s speech is the second in a series of major policy addresses he plans to deliver in the near future; last week, he laid out his overall plan for a national economic strategy.

Today’s speech also continues Clinton’s effort to shift his campaign’s focus away from the primaries and toward the general election; the address never mentions former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., his sole remaining major foe for the Democratic nomination.

Although Clinton has previously addressed many of the issues covered in the speech, it offers considerable new detail on his environmental priorities and proposals. Perhaps as important, the speech’s effort to paint Bush as imprisoned by outdated ideas illustrates what may become a broader campaign theme of generational change that Clinton hopes to use against the President.

“I don’t believe President Bush is bent on destroying the environment,” Clinton says in the draft of the speech. “But his views were shaped in another era, when the world faced other threats, and economic growth and environmental protection were seen as mutually exclusive.”

Clinton himself has already faced the charge of favoring economic growth over environmental protection when the two conflicted in Arkansas, and the issue is likely to continue surfacing.

Even as Clinton’s aides put the finishing touches on today’s speech, he spent part of Tuesday defending himself against accusations that his Administration failed to aggressively combat pollution in Arkansas’ northwest corner because it did not want to take on the state’s powerful poultry industry.

Bush aides see the pollution problems of Arkansas’ White River and its tributaries--major portions of which have been contaminated by runoff from poultry plants and farms--as a target reminiscent of the fouled Boston Harbor that became the basis of attacks against Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis in 1988.

Asked Tuesday in Pittsburgh, Pa., about the comparison to Boston Harbor, Clinton said that in both cases, the real culprit was federal inaction. Clinton said that in the 1988 campaign, Dukakis should have explained “that he tried to clean up the Boston Harbor” but that former President Ronald Reagan’s Administration failed to do its share. “The same thing is true” in Arkansas, he said.

Clinton added: “I spent a lot of money on the White River. I’m going to get the whole record out, and it will be one more example of how George Bush tries to blame other people for problems he won’t take responsibility for.”

Regarding a story in the New York Times that the Bush campaign might film an advertisement at the White River, Clinton said: “I hope they come down there and show what a problem it was.”

In the early stages of the primary campaign, Clinton’s environmental record in Arkansas generated fodder for attacks by Brown and caused concern among environmentalists. But as he has moved within sight of the nomination, Clinton has won increasing praise from environmental leaders.

“He’s got a weak record as governor of Arkansas, but he’s put together a rock-solid platform,” said Jim Maddy, executive director of the League of Conservation Voters.

In today’s speech, Clinton is to call for:

* Limiting the growth of carbon dioxide emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels so that total emissions in the United States are no greater in the year 2000 than in 1990.

* Sharply limiting development on endangered wetlands.

* Setting a national goal of increasing energy efficiency 20% by the year 2000.

* Restoring U.S. funding for United Nations international population control efforts.

* Shifting federal research spending away from defense toward renewable energy and fuel-efficient light-rail vehicles.

Times staff writer Paul Richter contributed to this story.

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