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Kevin McCauley has been an Editor at O'Dwyer's for over ten years. He can be reached at kevin@ odwyerpr.com

August 1, 2001

WHITMAN DELIVERS GOODS,
‘SECOND COMING' OF CLINTON

 

Hats off to Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christie Whitman for her gutsy move to carry out President Clinton's plan to demand that General Electric dredge the Hudson River to clean up its PCB mess.

There are many winners in Whitman's decision. The people of New York and New Jersey are bound to benefit from a cleaner river, and from the jobs created by the $460 million dredging project.

GE can benefit if it drops its stubborn resistance to dredging, which it has maintained for seemingly eons.
The company has fought the good fight. It has spent more than $200 million for PCB research, river restoration projects and PR.

GE has whipped up opposition to dredging in upstate New York communities.

But it's time to give up the fight. GE may have held out hope that a pro-business Republican administration would have supported its viewpoint.

That hope is dashed if Whitman's draft order remains in effect following a 30-day government review.

Still stubborn after all these years

A change of heart by GE, however, does not appear to be in the cards.

Jack Welch
It's not easy bein' green

Rather than accepting its corporate responsibility, GE issued an August 1 salvo blasting the EPA decision as not being based on "sound science." [That's a favorite catchword used by companies battling environmental groups who are invariably charged with basing their claims on junk science.]

GE's statement repeats the mantra that a "massive dredging of the Upper Hudson River" will "cause more harm than good."

The EPA's decision is a "loss for the people of the area who overwhelmingly oppose the project and the decades of disruption it will bring to their communities."

GE wants the EPA to make its draft decision public so that the company and local residents can review the plan and participate in the process.

Where has GE been for the past two decades? EPA did not just concoct the idea of dredging. The clean-up the Hudson fight has been argued about for 20 years.

Local residents also have put their two cents in, according to hudsonvoice.com, which is sponsored by GE.

That site claims that EPA has received more than 50,000 e-mails, postcards and telegrams against the plan.

EPA says it took so long to make a decision on dredging because it had to review the massive response it received to the proposal.

Let's get on with the dredging.

Bush is big winner

The GE dredging decision is a grand slam for President Bush.

Bush
Can score points
by backing
Whitman

He's been hurt by an anti-environmental stance. Bush has taken solid hits for supporting drilling offshore Florida and in the Arctic, and for easing restrictions of carbon dioxide emissions and opposing the global warming pact.

There's also a perception that Bush is solidly on the side of Big Business.

Bush can now score environmental points, and prove some independence from Corporate America by supporting Whitman.

Bill's bombastic return

President Clinton, meanwhile, made a triumphant return to public life when he opened his office in Harlem on July 30.

N.Y. Times
Bombastic return

He was the talk of the town. The New York Times crowed on its front page, "In Harlem, a Hero's Welcome For New Neighbor Clinton."

It slapped an above-the-fold front page picture of Clinton reaching out to shake the hands of members of his "adoring audience."

The Times also ran an editorial about "Mr. Clinton's Harlem Renaissance."

He's a "skillful drummer of vigorous centrist politics who can speak to new solutions for national and global problems."

Clinton "almost looked giddy about the end of the post-presidential exile," noted the Times.

The black community overwhelmingly supported Clinton during his Presidential campaigns, but how much of the pro-Bill coverage was due to the skillful hand of his former White House spokesman Joe Lockhart.

His Glover Park Group masterminded the "second coming" of the former President.

Lockhart, himself, was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos, another former Clinton aide, on "Good Morning America" the day of the opening.

Conservatives lick chops

One thing Lockhart can't control is the unadulterated scorn that conservatives have for Clinton.

"Why Harlem Should Boo Bill" was the headline in the Aug. 1 column by Linda Chavez in the New York Post.

She wrote that Clinton's promise during his first term to engage in a dialog on race could have been dubbed "blame whitey."

"Like many white Southern liberals who lived through the civil rights era, Clinton subscribes to the notice of collective guilt," wrote Chavez.

Tony Blankley, in the Aug. 1 edition of the indispensable Washington Times, wrote a piece called "Bubba's Curtain Call."

He envisions a Condit/Clinton Democratic dream team going up against Bush/Cheney in 2004.

Conservatives are sure happy Bill is back. It allows them to take their minds off the woes their boy, Dubya, has in the White House.

 

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Responses:

 

David Barbaras, Florida journalist (8/6):
Why do I get the feeling that Bush had very little to do with Whitman's decision?

The President 'lame-ducked' Whitman in her first week in office, so what better way to get revenege than to pass a Clinton Adminstration policy that is a slap in the face to a corporate giant and big business in general.

The EPA administrator offers a glimmer of hope for the Bush Adminstration's environmental policy -- it's unfortunate that she will probably have to act unilaterally to enact earth-friendly policy.

Russ Nichols, Daily Journal Corp. L.A. (8/6):
I was surprised to see such a positive and truthful piece blasting GE for its recalcitrance on the need for cleaning up its PCB mess. As a newspaper reporter I was amazed that a PR site would actually tell it like it is.


 

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