January 19, 2010
Branstad, Culver and the environment
Former Gov. Terry Branstad made it official today, declaring he will campaign for another term as governor.
Branstad’s environmental record was mixed. He leaned on the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to make life easier for businesses and business prospects such as IPSCO Inc. the steelmaker that located a plant in Muscatine County. Faced with a recession, Branstad starved a state parks system that has always been fed bread crumbs.
It was Branstad who sent Premium Standard Farms packing for Missouri after the hog-farm giant proposed a confinement operation near Ledges State Park. The firm has had a checkered environmental record.
When it came to the bottle bill, though, Branstad was a steadfast supporter of the familiar anti-litter campaign. Years ago, he told me how the grocery lobby kept coming to his office to try to scrap the bottle deposit system in favor of an alternative such as curbside recycling. Studies have shown states with no deposits on the containers have far worse litter problems, an issue that persuaded Gov. Robert Ray to support the legislation in the first place. Branstad said he eventually told the lobbyists, one last time, that he wasn’t budging on the issue and that they should stop bringing it up.
The Republican leader has remained a solid supporter of the bill and anti-litter campaigns in Iowa.
Democratic Gov. Chet Culver, who is running for re-election, also has painted an environment-friendly portrait of himself, supporting green jobs and alternative energy. However, critics say he has failed to deliver a key campaign promise – local control of livestock confinements. And some have claimed the green-job market isn’t as lucrative as Culver thinks.
http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2010/01/19/branstad-culver-and-the-environment/
