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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, October 24, 2002

Lingle fund-raiser sparks clash on environment

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

The appearance of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Todd Whitman at a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser last night for Republican gubernatorial nominee Linda Lingle generated criticism from an environmental group and local Democrats.

"... You cannot have a clean and green environment without a thriving economy," said Christie Todd Whitman, a national star of the Republican Party.

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Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Matt Matsunaga yesterday sent out a statement directed at Whitman and Lingle: "Keep Bush's Republican environmental agenda out of Hawai'i."

"The Republican Bush administration continues to put the nation's — and Hawai'i's — natural environment at risk by protecting special interests and ignoring public support for strong environmental protections and conservation measures," Matsunaga said.

Hawai'i Republican Party chairman Micah Kane said he's proud of the environmental records of President Bush and Whitman, who was also the first woman governor of New Jersey.

"For us here in Hawai'i, there's nothing better than for our governor to have a working relationship with not only the president but also the head of the EPA when the most precious asset we have in Hawai'i is our environment," Kane said. "And while certain radical small groups will try and distract us away from really talking about the issues that are important right now, I think Linda's track record is also very strong."

Whitman, a moderate Republican and a GOP star nationally, told about 280 people who attended the fund-raiser at the Sheraton Waikiki: "Very much like the president and I, Linda Lingle understands that it's not a zero-sum game, that you cannot have a clean and green environment without a thriving economy and there's no nation, no country, no state in the world that has a good economy but doesn't also have a clean environment. These things go together. Linda understands that. She's proven it."

Lingle, a former Maui mayor, lost to Gov. Ben Cayetano in 1998 by about 5,000 votes. She faces Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mazie Hirono in the Nov. 5 general election.

In a news release, Hawai'i Democratic Party chairwoman Lorraine Akiba said Bush broke a campaign promise in March 2001 to reduce harmful carbon dioxide emissions after meeting strong resistance from coal and oil industries and that Whitman said the administration considered an international treaty aimed at reducing global warming dead.

"Republicans often pit economic development against environmental protection, which is not only misleading but wrong," Akiba said.

Before the dinner, about a dozen members of the Sierra Club Hawai'i Chapter also led a demonstration outside a poolside event for Lingle at the hotel.

"By inviting the Bush EPA head out to Hawai'i to campaign and raise money, Linda Lingle is making it clear that she is of the party of big oil, of global warming, of arsenic in drinking water, and of reduced environmental protections," said Sierra Club Hawai'i Chapter director Jeff Mikulina.

Lingle campaign workers passed out material defending the environmental records of Bush and Whitman at the event.

The material mentioned that during her seven years as governor, Whitman led the way in protecting New Jersey's environment and preserved more open space and farmland than her predecessors preserved in the previous 32 years. It also notes Bush's moves to cut power plant emissions, cut greenhouse gas intensity and to establish the first international wildlife refuge.

Lingle said when she took over as mayor in 1990, Maui's sewage system was so bad it was under EPA investigation. Under her administration, it was improved to the highest level of treatment in the state and reduced the rate of spills by 95 percent, she said.

Maui also launched a waste recycling effort and her administration also put a strong emphasis on beach access and acquisition and land banking, Lingle said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.