One may reasonably question why Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush chose this week to pick on the federal Superfund as a way of assailing Democratic challenger Al Gore’s environmental record. One may also wonder why Gov. Bush, failing to learn from the mistakes his own father once made, chose to criticize “Earth in the Balance,” a book written by Vice President Gore that Gov. Bush says he has not read.

To do either, however, is to draw the presidential debate on the environment to the trivial. Yes, the federal Superfund program is over budget and behind schedule, as Gov. Bush noted. True, some states have had success employing their own solutions to environmental cleanups.

But it’s unfair to chastise Superfund officials without pointing out the both good it has accomplished and the ever-increasing need for toxic abatement. It is sillier still to imply that states, acting alone, have the means, skills and desire to meet the environmental good for the entire nation.

Environmental policy is about more than the Superfund or Vice President Gore’s often ambitious, occasionally overstated “Earth in the Balance.” The nation has many environmental priorities, some of them focused just on preserving the protections and goals already declared.

Take a look at the federal MTBE ban and limits on dioxin discharges. They are, effectively, extensions of the Clean Water Act, a cause championed by Maine’s own Sen. Ed Muskie during the 1970s and preserved by Sen. George Mitchell. The nation has debates over discontinuing road developments in forest lands, ending the subsidies of livestock grazing rights on federal lands and oil drilling rights both offshore and in national parks and preserves. All of those debates surround how best to preserve land the government has ostensibly earmarked for protection and preservation.

Even Maine struggles with the prospect of having the Atlantic salmon placed on the Endangered Species List, which has been maligned — sometimes deservedly — over the years, in spite of Americans’ overwhelming sentiments that any species under threat of extinction should be saved.

There are a multitude of challenges and questions for environmental policy, and we should expect the presidential candidates to clearly indicate their thoughts on such matters. Sniping at a single issue or an unread book does little to defend the environment.