In 1993 it was questionable whether Bill Clinton would have the votes to get the North American Free Trade Agreement through Congress. So he did something he almost never did for any other cause. He twisted arms and promised the world to members of Congress to get their votes. And to get the votes of 20 members from Florida and California, the Clinton Administration agreed to breach the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. That's right, to get votes for NAFTA, Clinton sold out the ozone layer to a bunch of corporate farmers who grow cardboard tomatoes.
On a molecule by molecule basis, methyl bromide is more potent at destroying atmospheric ozone than are CFCs. The United Nations, via the Montreal Protocol, had reached an agreement to phase out Methyl Bromide and this phase out was incorporated into the federal Clean Air Act.
California strawberry growers and Florida tomato growers are major users of the ozone depleting methyl bromide and several congressmen from those states wanted an exemption to Clean Air Act and Montreal Protocol requirements that methyl bromide be phased out.
So to get these desperately needed votes, Clinton agreed to extend the methyl bromide phase out.
First, Ms. Clinton's good friend and United States Trade Representative Mickey Kantor promised Florida citrus growers that he would work to make sure their commercial interests weren't hurt by any further restrictions on methyl bromide. Then, when US EPA Administrator Carol Browner signed the final rule, it had extended the deadline for phase-out by a year, to 2001. Finally, the Clinton Administration agreed to extend the phase-out date by an additional four years
Here's what Greenpeace had to say about it:
"If Bill Clinton is willing to sell out the ozone layer for a few votes, how can we trust him when he tells us NAFTA is good for the environment?" said Melanie Duchin, of Greenpeace. "Five more years of unlimited methyl bromide production means more ozone destruction and more Americans at risk of skin cancer - but to Bill Clinton, itÆs just pork-barrel politics as usual."
In addition, Clinton started to demand what are called "critical use exemptions" for Florida tomato growers. Under the Montreal Protocol, critical use exemptions were originally conceived for things like the CFC propellants that are used in asthma inhalers. But the Clinton Administration pioneered the concept of applying this narrow exemption to whole segments of industrial agriculture, such as fumigating the soil in fields where tomatoes and strawberries are planted.
In other words, Clinton got the exemption to destroy the rule. And the Bush Administration has followed in the Clinton's foot steps.
You won't find Hillary Clinton's fingerprints on this deal making. In fact, some of her friends (including Kantor) say she opposed NAFTA at the time her husband was trying to decide whether to support it. Others have dug up quotes in which HRC praises NAFTA. In any event, senator Clinton lists her experience with and involvement in her husband's Arkansas and Washington administrations as the major line on her resume. And her resume is the principal argument for her candidacy.
In addition, senator Clinton surrounds herself with precisely the same advisers who pushed her husband to pull out all the stops -- sell out the ozone layer -- to get NAFTA passed, but to simply sit on his hands when it was a close call to get Union-sponsored legislation through Congress that would've outlawed the hiring of strikebreakers.