Editorial
John Kerry's green political thumb

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It's a long, welcome list. Here is a sampling of what is at stake:

The Democratic presidential candidate supports the Clinton-era roadless rule that protects 58 million acres of national forest from logging, new road construction and development. The Bush administration coyly put its attempts to amend the conservation plan on hold until after the election.

Kerry opposes the president's Healthy Forests Initiative, which manipulated rules and regulations to increase logging in the name of forest fire control. Likewise, the Northwest Forest Plan, which calmed the spotted owl wars, was rolled back to boost harvest numbers.

In the second debate, Kerry aptly described the president's Clear Skies plan as having a downright Orwellian name. He said the flawed scheme adds 21 million tons of pollution a year, and specifically exempts pollutants that cause global warming.

Kerry would undo changes to "new source review" in the Clean Air Act, which allow utilities to upgrade aging power plants without installing new pollution-control equipment. This is a bipartisan issue for Northeast states whose residents suffer the airborne refuse from Midwest coal-fired plants.

He pledges to plug the United States back into international negotiations on the 1997 Kyoto Treaty on global warming. Kerry supports efforts to limit greenhouse gases and limit carbon-dioxide emissions, but he wants specific language of the treaty reworked.

President Bush's artful tweaking of the Endangered Species Act would be undone by Kerry. The incumbent has listed few new species and failed to protect critical habitat. Kerry opposes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is being pushed by the White House.

To promote environmental cleanup, Kerry would bring back the Superfund tax to pay for restoration work.

Kerry's record is strong, but not without its own parochial hiccups, as explained in an excellent Times series by reporters Hal Bernton and Craig Welch. Kerry helped craft landmark legislation to rebuild fisheries in 1996, but in anotable instance sought relief from regional harvest quotas for the strapped New England fishing industry. He argued for a fair balance between the best science and conservation.

Overall, Kerry calls a halt to Bush's four-year assault on the environment. Kerry offers a renewed sensibility that is a good fit with the environmental ethic of the Pacific Northwest.