WASHINGTON -- Republican House leaders are warning their members that "Democrats will hit us hard on the environment" this election year.
Their advice? Tell voters that global warming has not been proved, that there are no clear links between air pollution and childhood asthma and that America's rivers and lakes aren't nearly as polluted as the Environmental Protection Agency says they are.
Moderate Republicans fear the "talking points" in a memo from the House Republican Conference could make their party appear indifferent to the health threats of smoggy skies or mercury-contaminated fish. And that could hurt them in tight races where they must appeal to middle-of-the-road voters.
Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords, who left the Republican Party in 2001 to become an independent partly because he didn't think the GOP was pro-environment, called the memo "outlandish" and an attempt to deceive voters. He said he hopes moderate Republicans will help thwart the conservatives' strategy.
Republican House leaders recently sent the memo to GOP press secretaries to use to beat back accusations from Democrats and conservation groups that Republicans are anti-environment. The memo charges Democrats with trying to hype pollution problems to frighten voters into supporting them.
Among the memo's assertions: "Global warming is not a fact," "links between air quality and asthma in children remain cloudy" and the EPA is exaggerating when it says at least 40 percent of U.S. streams, rivers and lakes are too polluted for drinking, fishing or swimming.
"Republicans can't stress enough that extremists are screaming `Doomsday!' when the environment is actually seeing a new and better day," says the Feb. 4 memo put out by the communications office of the House Republican Conference.
Every GOP House member belongs to the conference, which is led by Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois, Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri and conference chairwoman Deborah Pryce of Ohio.
But the leaders' message is meeting resistance from Republican centrists, who dispute key details and don't like its tone.
Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., who won high marks from the League of Conservation Voters for his pro-environment votes, says the strategy is too negative and defensive and doesn't address the fact that pollution continues to be a health threat.
"If I tried to follow these talking points at a town hall meeting with my constituents, I'd be booed," said Castle, who heads a group of 69 moderate House members, senators and governors.
The communications director for the Republican House Conference said lawmakers don't have to use the talking points.
"It's up to our members if they want to use them or not," said Greg Crist. "We're not stuffing it down their throats."
He said the memo was spurred by concerns that environmental groups were using myths about the poor state of the environment to try to make Republicans look bad.
"We wanted to show how the environment has been improving," Crist said. "We wanted to provide the other side of the story."
But Jeffords -- the ranking member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee -- said the memo distorts reality.
"It's so incredible that they have this denial of any responsibility for the serious situation we have in this country as far as the environment goes," Jeffords said. "They have a head-in-the-sand approach to it. They're just sloughing off the human health impacts -- the premature deaths and asthma attacks caused by power plant pollution."
The Vermont senator said he believes moderate Republicans -- such as Castle in the House and Sens. Olympia Snowe of Maine and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island -- won't go along with the plan.
Jeffords and Snowe recently introduced legislation to increase funding to fight water pollution.
"We have hopes that there are enough people in Congress who care more about the people hurt by pollution than about the money polluters give to political campaigns," Jeffords said.
The memo's statement that the link between air pollution and childhood asthma is cloudy is what really upset one leader of a group of pro-environment Republicans, including elected officials.
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