Seattle mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan sent out his environmental plan this afternoon, taking on his opponent, Mike McGinn, on McGinn's home turf. McGinn is a longtime Sierra Club leader.

Mallahan's five-point plan brings up the water quality in the Puget Sound, something he spoke about often in his primary campaign. But the other four parts of his plan bear a striking resemblance to the environmental policies of Mayor Greg Nickels.

Mallahan says he wants to retrofit Seattle homes for energy efficiency -- an idea Nickels put forth at an April news conference.

Mallahan says he is committed to improving the urban tree canopy, a plan the mayor proposed in 2004 and the City Council backed up this summer with stricter tree-cutting rules.

He supports electric vehicle charging stations coming to Seattle in 2010 -- something made possible by a federal grant sought by the mayor.

Finally, Mallahan says he wants to help Seattle become a leader in green-building.That's something Nickels sought, too, with his GreenBuilding Capital Initiative, launched in April.

In the primary campaign, Mallahan was perhaps more likely than any other candidate in the race to pick on Nickels. But since voters ousted the mayor from the general election ballot, Mallahan has picked up most of Nickels' major endorsements as well as his chief fundraiser.

McGinn, meanwhile, has continued to put out a steady stream of issue papers, including recent ones on making Seattle a center for green jobs and one on how he'd approach neighborhood zoning and land use.