4.7.2008 8:01 AM

In Pennsylvania, Earth Day is Primary Day

None of the Candidates Stump for the Environment

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Photo: NASA

By Dan Shapley

You can read volumes about the positions on the environment, energy and global warming that Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would promote as president. But neither they, nor Republican John McCain, talks an awful lot about the environment on the campaign trail.

In Pennsylvania, the next showdown in the Democratic primary, voting day is Earth Day – April 22. Still, as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes, "they've mentioned high fuel prices and alternative energy sources – mainly wind power and bio-fuels – but couched them as pocketbook issues or 'green collar' job-generating new industries."

The economy and the war in Iraq still dominate the concerns of voters, with the environment and global warming falling far down the list of concerns in most polls. What's troubling is that no politician has boldly connected the dots between the environment, global warming, energy use and the economy, or even the war in Iraq, which sits on one of the world's biggest oil reserves.

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