Welcome to Nevada Governor Bush, now I just have one question, were do you really stand on nuclear waste being buried at Yucca Mountain? Would you have vetoed the same bill that President Clinton vetoed? How do you feel about interim storage of nuclear waste in Nevada or the circumvention of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in setting crucial safety standards? Why haven't you called Trent Lott and Dennis Hastert and told them to back off this legislation which would put the lives of Nevadans and millions of Americans at risk? Where were you, Governor Bush, when the Republicans in Congress were trying to override the President's veto of this environmental nightmare?

Last month you trotted out a three sentence statement which your campaign consultants hoped would shut Nevadans long enough for you to come to town and collect a few bucks. Well I am here today to tell you that Nevadans are still waiting for a 'real' answer, instead of a Texas side-step. Without President Clinton and Vice-President Gore there would be nuclear waste in Nevada today.

Time and again these two have proven they are on the side of Nevada's families, not the side of big polluters. Vice President Gore has been to Nevada countless times and he has never, never wavered on this issue. And this year, when Nevada's fate rested in the hands of the President and Vice-President, they protected the lives of people instead of the profits of the nuclear industry, while George W. Bush failed to utter a single word. So here we have George W. Bush, swooping into Nevada to scoop up an armload of campaign cash and pose for a photo opportunity in front of Lake Tahoe.

Well I am here to say to Governor Bush, you're three years too late. In 1997, President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore came to Lake Tahoe for a summit that brought worldwide attention to the Lake's plight and the need for a comprehensive plan to protect Tahoe's fragile beauty.

They made a commitment to the people of Nevada and to the nation that they would provide resources to save this unique treasure. Their leadership on this issue helped to forge a coalition of leaders at the local, state and federal level all working together. Again I ask you, where is Bush's leadership on the environment?

All the pretty pictures of him standing in front of Lake Tahoe cannot cover up the fact that he has been the polluter's best friend in Texas and he will be their best friend in Washington.

Under Bush Texas leads the nation in air pollution releases: • Houston has overtaken LA as the city with the nation's worst air quality. • Texas has more factories violating the clean water act than any other state in the union. • Seven cities in Texas have failed clean air standards under Bush's watch. • Time and again Bush has failed to regulate big polluters, while maintaining cozy ties to corporate polluters.

This is not environmental leadership, it's environmental abandonment and it's not the commitment on clean air and clean water that I believe Nevadans want out of the next President of the United States.