"Bush Environment Record an Issue in Nev."

[GreenPartyVoter]

WASHINGTON (AP) - For environmentalists hoping to turn anger at President Bush into electoral votes for John Kerry, the biggest and perhaps only field of dreams is a nuclear waste dump site in Nevada.

Lesser hopes are pinned on mercury-polluted waterways in Wisconsin and Florida, and woodlands threatened by road-building and other development in Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon. Voters upset at Bush's environmental record might give Kerry a boost in all those states.

But Nevada, where Bush wants to entomb a half-century's waste from atomic power plants, is the only state where an environmental issue can realistically swing the outcome, according to environmental leaders and political analysts.

"Kerry is competitive because of it," said Ted Jelen, chair of political science at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. "He otherwise wouldn't have much of a chance."

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040913/D852E62O0.html