NEWSWEEK: Cover: Who's The Greenest of Them All?

NEW YORK, April, 6, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- If the United States wants to have a voice in setting the new course of energy and technological change in 2009, when a new international treaty on global warming is negotiated, replacing the expiring Kyoto Protocol, it will need a leader who takes the issue of climate change very seriously. Luckily, with John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House, it likely will. In the April 14 Newsweek cover package, "Who's the Greenest of Them All?" (on newsstands Monday, April 7), which is also the second annual project on "Environment & Leadership," Senior Editor Jerry Adler reports on where the three candidates stand on the environment and why some environmental advocacy groups are having a tough time deciding whom to endorse.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080406/NYSU003 )

The environment has emerged as a leading issue in this election cycle; last year more than three voters in 10 said they would take a candidate's green credentials into account, according to pollster John Zogby, up from just 11 percent in 2005. "It was clear starting all the way back in Iowa and New Hampshire that this campaign would be much more about the environment," says Dave Willett, a spokesman for the Sierra Club.

The League of Conservation Voters, which influences mainstream environmental groups when it comes to national politics, hasn't chosen a candidate for 2008. In its ranking of senators based on their positions on 15 votes in 2007 (including farm subsidies, gas mileage and biofuel standards), Obama and Clinton are considered strong environmental candidates. "It's clear from both of their voting records in the Senate that they're committed to supporting energy efficiency and slowing global warming," says league spokesman Jay Natoli. "In fact, they're too similar to say at this point that one is better than the other. [As for] McCain, his plan isn't as strong, but he has sponsored and supported legislation that shows he cares about the environment. But at this point, we're not ready to endorse." McCain's 2007 league rating is zero, putting him in the company of eight other Republicans, including the global-warming denier James Inhofe. But that's because McCain missed all 15 key votes; the league counts a missed vote the same as a vote against its position. His lifetime LCV rating, however, is 26 percent, compared with an average of 16 percent for all Republicans. As recently as 2004, when his rating for the 108th Congress reached 56 percent, the league endorsed him for re-election to the Senate.

McCain is an appealing figure to some environmentalists, and viewed as the most acceptable of the major GOP contenders, because he is a Republican from a Western state, whose occasional departures from Republican orthodoxy seem to be grounded in genuine conviction. "It's unusual to have a Republican candidate who openly disagrees with the Bush administration on the need for capping carbon emissions," says Dan Kammen, an authority on energy policy at UC Berkeley who has advised all three leading candidates and is now associated with the Obama campaign. In 2003, McCain introduced, with Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the first-ever bill to regulate carbon emissions in the United States. It never passed, but it was a landmark bill for its time. McCain has also sided with environmentalists on fuel-efficiency standards and the talismanic issue of protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. "We're waiting for [McCain] to further define his plan before we make any judgment about him," says Nick Berning, a spokesman for Friends of the Earth. "He could still surprise folks."

    Also in the cover Package:

    -- Editor-At-Large Evan Thomas and Washington Correspondent Pat Wingert
       report that to truly tackle the greenhouse effect, it will require the
       one thing from voters that few politicians dare to ask for and fewer
       achieve: massive public sacrifice. Accomplishing this would require the
       rhetoric of Barack Obama, the grit of Hillary Clinton and the courage
       of John McCain -- all combined in one leader.
        http://www.newsweek.com/id/130629

    -- Reporter Anne Underwood offers 10 fixes for the planet, based on ideas
       from scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs. The ideas include using
       LED light bulbs, driving 300-mpg cars, using enormous kites to help
       pull ships and having manufacturers produce products that are fully
       recyclable.
       http://www.newsweek.com/id/130625

    -- Senior Editor and Columnist Daniel Gross writes that the United States,
       and other developed nations, "can learn some valuable lessons from
       Iceland about what happens when a society commits to the systematic
       development of renewable energy."
       http://www.newsweek.com/id/130626

    -- National Correspondent Martha Brant reports on a new breed of M.B.A.
       students who think it's possible to make money by going green. For
       some, studying sustainable business practices just gives them a
       competitive edge. For others, it's a fresh way of thinking about
       business. These eco-M.B.A.s talk about the "triple bottom line"-people,
       planet, profit.
       http://www.newsweek.com/id/130591

    -- Editorial Assistant Matthew Philips reports on how Natural Resources
       Defense Council's Allen Hershkowitz's efforts lobbying Major League
       Baseball's teams and their facilities to go green have started to pay
       off. Last month the NRDC rolled out a team-specific greening-advisory
       system for the NBA, MLB and NHL, designed to help clubs implement
       ecofriendly practices by introducing them to local companies familiar
       with composting and energy audits.
       http://www.newsweek.com/id/130592

    -- General Editor Anna Kuchment reports on the ecofriendly looks worn by
       models during New York's fashion week. Future-Fashion, a show organized
       by the New York-based nonprofit Earth Pledge, inspired many top
       designers to work with sustainable fabrics such as sasawashi, peace
       silk and hemp. Several have since pledged to incorporate organic
       fabrics into their lines.
       http://www.newsweek.com/id/130627

    -- Senior Editor Sharon Begley writes about the errors that have plagued
       efforts to green the planet, from not recycling properly, to the
       pitfalls of hybrid cars to, "perhaps the greatest folly, ... the push
       for ethanol to replace gasoline," she writes.
       http://www.newsweek.com/id/130628

    (Read cover story at www.Newsweek.com)

    Cover: http://www.newsweek.com/id/130624