March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Sen. Cohen wins support of national conservation group

Calling him “solid and committed” to environmental issues, U.S. Sen. William S. Cohen received an endorsement Monday from the chairman of a national conservation organization.

Representing the League of Conservation Voters, Brent Blackwelder, LCV chairman, joined Cohen for press conferences in Bangor and Portland to announce the endorsement. Cohen is the only Republican to date to receive the endorsement of the non-partisan group.

“We look to him for the leadership we need in the 1990s to address the environment problems facing the country,” said Blackwelder. “If we had more people in the United States Senate like Sen. Cohen, we would not be facing the kinds of serious environmental crises that confront us today.”

Commenting that he normally didn’t “play the endorsement game,” Cohen described the environmental organization as “perhaps the most effective and most important lobbying group today.” He said that the LCV endorsement meant “a great deal to me.”

Cohen, who is seeking his third term in office, also called upon Americans “to develop a wellness ethic, for ourselves and also for our environment.”

“We are a disposable society,” he said, adding that the federal government would “have to get involved in a very major way” to change people’s habits. “We have got to come back to a conservation habit.”

Democrat Neil Rolde, who is running unopposed in the June primaries for the U.S. Senate and was endorsed four years ago by LCV, said he was “deeply disappointed” that the organization endorsed Cohen.

“I don’t see how anyone who consistently votes in favor of chemical and nuclear weapons and nuclear-weapons testing can be called `a friend of the environment,’ ” said Rolde. “These weapons pose some of the most potentially serious threats to our environment. Half the nuclear waste in this country comes from military production.”

During the press conference, Cohen also commented on the anticipated release of the American hostage, Frank Reed, who was freed later in the day in Beirut, Lebanon.

Cohen called the release “a good sign,” perhaps indicating that Iran is about “to re-enter the civilized world.” He said, however, that it was not “something to be congratulated until we see all the hostages released.”

The LCV is an umbrella organization which includes representatives of such groups as the National Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Sierra Club. The organization endorsed Cohen in 1984 and recently gave him a 90-percent rating on his environmental votes in Congress. Other Republicans are expected to be endorsed this year, said a LCV spokeswoman.

Discussing future environmental legislation, Cohen said he saw the federal government taking a leadership role in solid-waste disposal issues, wilderness issues, and the overuse of pesticides.

Blackwelder also said that LCV was looking for changes in environmental tax policies to provide more tax breaks to encourage recycling and more government appropriations for environmental matters.

Asked about the impact of reduced defense spending, Cohen pointed out that “the so-called peace dividend has been spent at least 10 times over” for such things as budget-deficit reduction, foreign assistance, and health programs.

The senator predicted that with the restructuring of national defense needs and policies, “there will be funds that will be freed up to now redirect, and I think the environment will play an important part of that.”

Cohen predicted it would take about five to seven years for the peace dividend to become substantial enough to be redirected to other government priorities.

“As you start to cancel out the programs, then the money that would have been spent … would be eliminated as such and redirected,” he said.


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