Gore Challenges Bush Anti-Pollution Claims : Environment: Visiting California, the Democrat labels as ‘hypocritical’ the President’s efforts at crackdown on offenders.

Campaigning to be the environmental vice president, Al Gore used his visit to nature-conscious California Monday to launch a broadside at the White House for being hypocritical in claiming that it has cracked down on polluters.

The Democratic nominee for vice president traveled to an oil-recycling company in the Bay Area that President Bush praised in a visit in June for its environmentally sensitive work. But Gore said Evergreen Oil Co. is actually being put out of business by the Bush Administration’s failure to encourage recycling of waste oil.

“I’d like to say to you, President Bush--with all due respect--you should have been embarrassed to come here,” Gore said, sternly pointing his finger at a bank of national television cameras. “. . . George Bush and (Vice President) Dan Quayle trying to use oil re-refining as a photo opportunity is like Bonnie and Clyde going back to the scene of the crime and asking for a free toaster.”

Gore also responded to the President’s recent efforts to portray himself as the only candidate who can be trusted to run the country.

“The American people trusted George Bush when he said he was the environmental President,” Gore said. “When George Bush came to Evergreen, he was the hypocritical President.”

Monday was the first time since he joined the Democratic ticket that Gore made a major issue out of White House performance on the environment. It is an issue at the core of Gore’s political character; he is a Senate leader on the environment and the author of a book about global warming called “Earth in the Balance.”

Gore said Bush and Quayle “are personally responsible” for the Administration’s failure to obey the 1980 Used Oil Recycling Act, which required the adoption of regulations to prohibit the unhealthy disposal of used oil.

Evergreen is part of a trade association of oil-recycling companies that has sued the federal government for not complying with the act.

Without the regulations, Gore said companies like Evergreen that recycle used oil into machinery lubricants are at a competitive disadvantage because their process is more costly than burning.

Evergreen is forced to recycle its oil because California is one of the nine states in the country that prohibits the burning of leaded fuels.

“They are struggling to survive and are surviving only because of the state regulation that he killed at the federal level,” Gore said.

Gore said 63% of the nation’s used oil is burned. Federal health officials say it is the single largest source of airborne lead pollution, which can cause cancer and interfere with child development and intelligence.

Gore said another 35% of the nation’s used oil is dumped into landfills that have produced 63 toxic sites on the federal Superfund list with an estimated cleanup cost of more than $2 billion.

“The recycling process is actually a cheaper, more efficient way to refine lubricating oil,” Gore said. “But because the Bush-Quayle Administration promotes the burning of the used oil, they not only create the single worst source of lead pollution in the air, they also hurt the competitiveness of the oil industry.”

The race for the White House has become increasingly negative since Bush warned Democrats on Friday: “Let’s see if they can take it.”

Gore has not missed an opportunity on his recent tours for some nasty jabs at the President.

When a reporter told him Sunday that Bush had criticized Bill Clinton’s health care plan, the senator quipped: “Did he speak in complete sentences?” And Monday, as he held a bucket of used oil, Gore joked: “Now this is what I call a Bush/Quayle cocktail.”

Earlier, in a visit to Irvine, the Tennessee senator tried to fuel the dump-Bush movement and to attract support in traditionally Republican Orange County. Four newspapers, including the Orange County Register, have called on Bush to pull out of the race.

“I wanted to come to Orange County because I’ve been hearing some revolutionary messages coming from some unlikely sources,” Gore said at a morning stop at an Irvine manufacturer of hospital equipment. He assured Bush supporters and former Ross Perot backers that they are welcome in the Democratic camp.

Gore was joined at McGaw Inc. in Irvine by U.S. Senate candidate Barbara Boxer. The company makes recyclable intravenous bags that are environmentally safe for disposal. Company officials said standard intravenous bags release toxic gas if disposed of by burning.