February 5, 2000
National Journal
by Margaret Kriz
A failed promise from the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign nearly triggered a
public relations disaster for the Vice President in New Hampshire.
Eight
years ago, Al Gore vowed to block the operation of a hazardous-waste
incinerator that had been built next to an elementary school in East
Liverpool, Ohio. Before Gore was sworn in as Vice President, however,
regulators from the outgoing Bush Administration allowed Waste
Technologies
Industries to begin operating the incinerator.
An Ohio citizens group,
several national environmental activists, and Greenpeace want Gore to
oppose
a renewal of the company's expired operating license, and they pushed for
a
meeting to press their concerns. When Gore declined to meet with them, the
greens threatened to stage a sit-in on Jan. 31 at Gore 's New Hampshire
campaign headquarters in Manchester.
The night before the sit-in, however,
the Ohio activists received frantic calls from the White House offering to
investigate the potential environmental problems at the incinerator .
After
hours of negotiations, White House officials agreed to have the
Environmental Protection Agency's ombudsman review the case. In return,
the
activists canceled their planned civil disobedience. But they still want
to
meet with Gore before the next Democratic primaries on March 7.
