With last week’s passing of Senator John H. Chafee, environmentalists nationwide mourned the loss of a powerful ally, someone who backed such landmark legislation as the Superfund bill and the Oil Pollution Act. But behind those successes was a simple appreciation for the outdoors, friends at home said.
“He once said that Narragansett Bay is good for the soul,” said John Torgan, a spokesman for Save The Bay. “Senator Chafee was our hero.”
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A hero, supporters say, for helping protect endangered species, coastal resources, wetlands, clean air, and open space. A bill he proposed last spring to protect the nation’s estuaries recently picked up 21 new cosponsors in the House and has a chance of passage, Torgan said.
Chafee, who planned to retire rather than run for a fifth term, had said that one of his last goals was to secure full funding for the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, said Karina Lutz, director of the Rhode Island chapter of the Sierra Club.
Now, many environmentalists are pessimistic that an environmental champion of Chafee’s order will emerge in Congress anytime soon.
“I can’t think of anybody in his party who has the will to take up his mantle,” said Allen Mattison, national press secretary for the Sierra Club. “It’s sad to comprehend what’s going to happen in the Senate without his leadership.”
His leadership style combined compromise with quiet insistence, those who worked with him said. A moderate Republican, Chafee could negotiate deals with the more conservative members of his party without losing the essence of the law he was supporting, they say.
Molly Clark, environmental health program manager for the American Lung Association of Rhode Island, said examples of this came on the stands Chafee took on second hand smoke as a form of indoor pollution and the landmark 1990 Clean Air Act, which tightened pollution emission standards.
“There could have been stronger acts, but they probably wouldn’t have passed,” Clark said. “He did like to work to compromise if he could, but there was always the understanding that the underlying goal should be there.”
While his legislative victories capture most of the attention, what went unnoticed was Chafee’s ability to keep the Senate from weakening federal environmental standards. And he did so in the face of heavy pressure to relax the laws, experts say.
“We can tell you all his victories,” Mattison said. “But there are also all the times the polluters would have had their ways in the Senate, but for Chafee.”
As a crucial swing voter, Chafee had the power to insist on particular amendments, said Brown University professor and political analyst Darrell West.
“His colleagues in Washington understood that he was a Republican representing a Democratic state, and so they had to give him more leeway if they wanted to keep that seat for the party,” West said.
Asked if it is more difficult to be an environmentalist on Capitol Hill today than in the past, West said: “Yes, it’s a lot more difficult, because the Republican Party has moved substantially to the right on development issues.”
What particularly concerns environmentalists is the question of who will succeed Chafee as chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss. will make the decision.
Experts speculate that he will select Oklahoma Republican James M. Inhofe.
Environmentalists are already attacking Inhofe. For example, the League of Conservation Voters, which rates members of Congress on their voting records on environmental issues, gives Inhofe a lifetime score of seven out of a possible 100. Chafee, meanwhile, earned a score of 70 and was honored at a league dinner Oct. 6.
“I see a real train wreck coming between environmental protection and anti-environmental advancement with Senator Inhofe,” said Betsy Loyless, political director of the league. “There is a potential for enormous changes – changes that don’t bode well for environmental protection.”
Attempts to reach Inhofe were unsuccessful.
But while the nation is losing a bipartisan deal maker in Chafee, Rhode Island is also losing a skilled politician who knew how to bring money back to his home state, experts say. For example, the Sierra Club recently cited Rhode Island for doing a better job of using transportation planning to fight suburban sprawl than any other state. One reason for this, the club said, is that the state spent more federal money on transit, while the rest of the country was seeing the government cut off operating assistance to transit systems.
“For quite awhile we were getting money that other folks weren’t getting because of the senator,” said Aimee Tavares, of Clean Water Action.
Those who make their living from the environment benefit from this, noted Mike McGiveney, a Rhode Island shell fisherman.
“We’re all going to miss him,” McGiveney said.
