That''s what the Sierra Club believes, and that''s one reason they have endorsed him.
"One of the specific ways the Vice President has said he''s going to fight to have a stronger environmental program than the President is by blocking logging in roadless areas of the national forests," said Allen Mattison, Sierra Club spokesperson.
This is a position most companies, aside from logging firms, should welcome, according to Mattison. Clear-cutting hillsides leads to silt that can build up and clog intake filters for many industrial facilities and water filtration plants downstream from the parks.
President Clinton has come out against building roads in wilderness areas of the national forests, but he has taken no position on logging, which can still be done with helicopters.
The Sierra Club also said that as Vice President Gore had often pushed President Clinton to go farther in protecting the environment.
"As Vice President, Al Gore helped strengthen clean air health standards, sped clean up of Superfund toxic waste sites, and protected America''s spectacular landscapes," said Sierra Club volunteer President Dr. Robbie Cox.
Governor Bush, on the other hand, "will weaken toxic-waste clean-up standards," according to Cox.
The Sierra Club voted overwhelmingly to endorse Gore. Thirty-nine chapters representing 413,854 favored a Gore endorsement. His closest competitor won a single chapter with 3,006 members, but the runner-up was not George W. Bush -- it was Green Party candidate Ralph Nader.
by James Nash