Issues and answers: Bush v. Kerry

Natural History, Oct, 2004

When you think about it, it is not surprising that many of the leading issues in this year's--or any year's--presidential campaign are rooted in science and the natural world. Energy, the environment, the state of the nation's natural resources, human health and disease, space science, the place of scientific thinking in government, and science education are continuing concerns for readers of Natural History. Our editors sharpened and focused those issues into ten questions for the two major-party candidates in this year's presidential election, President George PV. Bush and Senator John Kerry.

When we first submitted our questions, neither campaign seemed likely to answer them directly. The Kerry campaign "was working on" the answers for two weeks before we discovered that the bureaucracy had forwarded our questions to the wrong person. The Bush campaign referred us to their candidate's Web site, and to the public record. Peter Brown's column, "Up Front" (page 8), describes the process in detail.

In the end, the press and policy offices of the Kerry campaign did prepare responses to our questions. They are signaled graphically by Patricia Wynne's charming drawing of a donkey peering out from behind the ornamental letter K. The Bush campaign decided not to provide specially prepared responses, but instead chose to let stand what we were able to find from President Bush's campaign and presidential Web sites. In those sources, most, though not all, of our questions have been addressed; Wynne's drawing of an elephant and the ornamental letter B mark the Bush responses.

Because of space limitations, we have abbreviated some of the replies; in other respects we have edited them only where necessary for clarity.

ENERGY. What actions do you favor taking with respect to the development and conservation of energy resources, both foreign and domestic, including energy from fossil fuels, nuclear power plants, and "alternative" sources?

WE'VE GOT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE conserve energy better. But, listen, we can do things in environmentally friendly ways that we couldn't do twenty years ago. We need an energy policy that makes us less dependent on foreign sources of energy. And one way to become less dependent on foreign sources is to promote alternate sources of fuel, like biodiesel and ethanol.

An important part of an energy strategy is clean-coal technology. Our budget for next year provides $447 million to encourage this vital technology. One other aspect of promising technologies is the hydrogen fuel cell, which captures energy from a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. I'm confident we can achieve this technological breakthrough to the point where I've asked Congress to spend $1.2 billion--which they have--in research into developing clean hydrogen-powered cars.

The United States and several major international partners are forming the Methane to Markets Partnership, a new and innovative program to increase energy security, improve environmental quality, and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions throughout the world. The United States will commit up to $53 million to the partnership over the next five years. Under the partnership, members will work in coordination with the private sector to share and expand the use of technologies to capture methane emissions that are now wasted in the course of industrial processes and use them as a new energy source. The important benefits of this international partnership include improved energy security and air quality from the use of clean-burning methane, improved coal-mine safety, enhanced economic growth, and reduced greenhouse-gas emissions of methane.

I think we have to have safe nuclear energy. We ought to be continuing to research and spend research dollars to make sure that we're able to properly harness nuclear energy without harming the environment.

K I HAVE A BALANCED ENERGY PLAN that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, ensure that American industries and ingenuity will lead the new energy economy, and protect our environment. Its major features include:

* Increasing energy efficiency. I will cut the government's energy bill by 20 percent by 2020--saving the federal government billions of dollars--and will challenge municipalities, corporations, universities, small businesses, and hospitals to do the same. I will also provide tax credits for energy-efficient buildings and homes. I am committed to achieving an increase in the fuel economy of automobiles, and will provide tax incentives for consumers to buy the efficient vehicles of their choice. To ensure that the cars of the future will be built in America, I will provide incentives for manufacturers to convert factories to build more efficient vehicles.

* Producing electricity from renewable sources. America needs a national market for electricity produced from renewable energy, such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and hydrogen energy. I support a national goal of producing 20 percent of our electricity from renewable sources by 2020.