Kerry Calls for Pollution Fight in Urban Areas

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) on Tuesday urged a new offensive against inner-city pollution, an Earth Day effort to elevate the visibility of environmental issues in the Democratic presidential race.

Speaking to a group of activists in the predominantly African American and Latino community of Roxbury, Kerry proposed that Washington establish “environmental empowerment zones” to concentrate federal efforts against pollution-related health problems -- such as asthma -- in low-income neighborhoods.

“Dangers from the environment are creating a national environmental health crisis that needs to be addressed,” said Kerry, one of nine contenders for the 2004 Democratic nomination. “It is wrong when communities that don’t have the economic or political power carry an unjust burden of pollution.”

The speech highlighted what Kerry hopes will prove a valuable asset in the Democratic contest: his strong ties to environmental groups.

Other Democratic presidential hopefuls offered their own proposals at Earth Day appearances elsewhere in the country. In upstate New York, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut called for a crackdown on power-plant emissions. In Los Angeles, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards proposed a $500-million federal program to boost production of cleaner-burning energy sources, such as ethanol.

In the meantime, Republican Party Chairman Marc Racicot issued a statement hailing President Bush’s environmental record and dismissing criticism from Democrats. “Because our approach is not one-dimensional and solely reliant on government directives, some Democrats suggest that Republicans are neglecting the environment,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Environmental issues haven’t played a large role in the Democratic race so far. And officials in most campaigns believe such concerns are unlikely to emerge as a decisive factor because the differences among the candidates aren’t as great as on some other issues.

But environmental issues carry weight with many Democratic voters, especially in such states as New Hampshire, California and New York. And environmental groups -- mobilized in opposition to Bush’s environmental and energy agenda -- plan to insert themselves into the primary process more aggressively than in the past.

“We are probably going to be putting most of our resources into the presidential race, and part of that process is going to be engaging really heavily in the Democratic primary,” said Scott Stoermer, communications director of the League of Conservation Voters, an alliance founded by major environmental groups to engage in political activity.

Stoermer said the league, which did not endorse a candidate in the 2000 Democratic presidential primary, may back one this time. To start that process, the league and its California branch are sponsoring a forum for the candidates at UCLA on June 26.

Kerry, in his remarks, signaled that he plans to spotlight environmental issues. “We need to make the environment part of the daily politics of our nation; we need to make it a voting issue,” he told his audience.

For environmentalists, Kerry and Lieberman constitute the top tier in the Democratic field.

Both have high scores on the conservation league’s record of key environmental votes: Kerry at 96% and Lieberman at 93%. And both have enlisted in many of the environmental movement’s top causes.

Lieberman denounced Bush’s environmental record and called for tougher federal regulation of power-plant emissions. Standing across the Hudson River from the coal-burning Lovett power plant in Tompkins Cove, Lieberman condemned the administration’s record on the environment as “the worst since the modern environmental movement began.”

Lieberman may lag slightly behind Kerry in environmental circles. Some environmentalists consider Kerry a more passionate advocate of their cause.

“When I need help on an environmental issue and I can’t find a leader to champion it, I call Kerry,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of the late New York senator and an attorney in New York for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

In Roxbury, Kerry said Washington and the environmental movement needed to focus more on what low-income activists call “environmental justice” -- the increased incidence of health problems among inner-city residents exposed to heavy levels of air pollution and other contaminants.

In comments before Kerry’s speech, several Roxbury residents focused on the prevalence of asthma among local children exposed to mold and dust from substandard housing and aging school buildings, and pollutants from the waste facilities and auto repair shops concentrated in the area.

“The environmental movement has often been perceived as white and middle-class,” Kerry said later. “Our commitment today must be restated to be for all of America’s children, all of our people.... “

Kerry urged expanded federal efforts to track environmentally related diseases and the creation of a high-ranking position at the Environmental Protection Agency to focus on “environmental justice.”

His proposed environmental empowerment zones would launch intensified cleanup efforts in heavily polluted low-income neighborhoods chosen by a federal task force.

Among other 2004 Democratic contenders with congressional voting records, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has a conservation league score of 90%. But most major environmental groups view him as a longshot candidate.

Former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois and Florida Sen. Bob Graham both have league ratings of about 80%. Two other candidates, Edwards and Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, have lower scores: 76% for Edwards and 66% for Gephardt.

Gephardt often sides with labor unions when their interests conflict with environmentalists; he voted to oppose an increase in fuel economy standards for cars and trucks -- a cause Kerry led in the Senate.

Edwards has disappointed environmental groups when their agenda conflicts with rural and agricultural interests. He voted to exempt pickup trucks from any increase in fuel economy standards. He also has opposed efforts to ban meat packers -- an important North Carolina industry -- from owning huge hog farms, which environmentalists link to pollution problems.

Both men, however, have been reaching out to environmentalists. Gephardt has proposed an “Apollo Project” to achieve energy independence by 2010; Edwards in January led a Senate fight (which narrowly failed) to block new Bush administration regulations allowing factories and power plants to modernize without installing new pollution controls.

Edwards, speaking at UCLA Tuesday, unveiled his two-year program aimed at boosting production of cleaner-burning energy sources by creating a national competition to set up four so-called bio-refineries that would turn agricultural waste products, such as corn stalks and wood chips, into ethanol.

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Times staff writer Mark Z. Barabak contributed to this report.