The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

MARGARET WARNER: Good evening. I'm Margaret Warner. Jim Lehrer is on vacation. On the NewsHour tonight, the government's final verdict on what caused the crash of TWA Flight 800, an extended look at Governor George W. Bush's record on the environment, a conversation with artist Wayne Thiebaud, and a favorite poem read by the late William Maxwell. It all follows our summary of the news this Tuesday.

NEWS SUMMARY

MARGARET WARNER: Federal investigators said today they've reached the inescapable conclusion that TWA Flight 800 was brought down by an explosion in the center fuel tank. Opening a two-day hearing in Washington, National Transportation Safety Board officials said they found no evidence that a bomb or a missile was involved. All 230 people onboard died when the Boeing 747 crashed off Long Island four years ago. We'll have more on the story right after the News Summary. Russian President Putin today flew to the arctic naval base where the submarine "Kursk" began its final voyage. He went amid growing criticism

of his handling of the crisis. We have a report from Philippa Meagher of Associated Press Television News.

PHILIPPA MEAGHER: The Russian port of Murmansk, where many relatives of the 118 dead sailors have come to mourn their loved ones. Prayers were offered at churches here and across the country as plans were announced for a national day of mourning on Wednesday. Candles were lit in Russian orthodox churches, and condolences poured in from around the world. Distraught relatives continue to arrive in Murmansk, many demanding to be taken to the spot in the Barents Sea where the bodies of the crewmen are still trapped. The president, dressed all in black, was greeted in Murmansk by somber, exhausted navy officials. Putin later visited 400 relatives of "Kursk" crewmen staying nearby. He's expected to go to the ship that led the rescue effort and throw a wreath into the sea where the sailors are still trapped.

MARGARET WARNER: The wives and relatives of the sailors who met with Putin demanded to know when the bodies would be returned. Putin promised to tell them a soon as he knew. Vice President Gore today disputed George W. Bush's assertion that the next President will inherit a military in decline. Bush made the charge yesterday in an address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars annual convention in Milwaukee. Speaking to the same group today, Gore said he's fought for a strong defense from his earliest days in Congress.

AL GORE: It's that year after year commitment to a strong American defense that makes me so concerned when others try to run down America's military for political advantage in an election year. That's not only wrong in fact, it's the wrong message to send our allies and adversaries across the world. (Applause) As the United States army reported just this month, all ten of its divisions are combat ready and able to answer the nation's call. Our navy has more than twice as many surface ships as China, more than three times as many as Russia, and our Air Force is by far the largest and most modern in the entire world. If anyone doubts our strength, let them talk to our pilots patrolling the skies over Iraq right now, let them meet the sailors who have kept the peace in the Taiwan Strait, and let them remember our overwhelming victory in Kosovo without a single American life lost in battle. Our military is the strongest and the best in the entire world. (Applause) If you entrust me with the presidency, I pledge to keep it that way with whatever it takes.

MARGARET WARNER: Governor Bush said today he has to do a better job of explaining and selling his ten- year, $1.3 trillion tax cut plan. If he does so, he told reporters, he was sure voters would support the cuts. Later, at a rally in Peoria, Illinois, he responded to Vice President Gore's charge that Bush's tax cuts would squander the projected budget surplus.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: There's a disagreement about the surplus. My opponents believe the government owns the surplus. I believe the surplus is the people's money, and we ought to send some of it back to the people who pay the bills. (Applause) The differences of opinion are emerging, and they're quite clear, which is good for the American people for which they can choose who to be the President. You see, there is a chance for the President to do something about the marriage penalty. Our tax code penalizes marriage. This campaign stands on the side of families and marriage. Had I been the President, I would have signed the bill that would have eliminated the marriage penalty in the tax code. Should I become the President, not only will we have tax relief, we will have tax reform. We need to eliminate the death tax in the American tax code. (Cheers and applause) And that's going to be the cornerstone of good, sound economic policy.

MARGARET WARNER: We'll have a look at bush's environmental record later in the program tonight. Senator John McCain was recuperating at home in Phoenix today after receiving word late yesterday that his skin cancer had not spread. McCain underwent surgery Saturday to remove two melanomas, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, from his temple and upper arm. He was released from Mayo Clinic Hospital yesterday. The Federal Reserve today declined to raise interest rates, leaving a key short-term rate at 6.5%. The Fed's Open Market Committee warned, however, that tight labor markets still pose a risk of inflation. The Fed has boosted interest rates six times in the past 14 months to cool down the economy. That's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to TWA Flight 800, Governor Bush's environmental record, artist Wayne Thiebaud, and a favorite poem.

FOCUS - CLOSING THE BOOK

MARGARET WARNER: Terrence Smith has the latest on what happened to Flight 800.

TERENCE SMITH: It's been one of the most baffling and controversial accidents in aviation history. TWA Flight 800, a Paris-bound Boeing 747, exploded in midair and plunged into the ocean on July 17, 1996. It went down off the coast of Long Island 14 minutes after takeoff from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. All 230 people onboard were killed. Speculation about what caused the crash has ranged from a spark in electrical wiring to turbulence caused by another aircraft to bombs, even a missile. The wreckage of the shattered plane was dredged from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Some 90% of it was reassembled. Shortly after the crash, investigators determined that the aircraft's center wing fuel tank exploded. But after four years, and an exhaustive and expensive investigation that cost the government over $30 million, they have yet to find any physical evidence that definitively establishes the cause of the blast. In Washington today, the National Transportation Safety Board began a two-day final review of its report on the crash. Family members of the passengers and crew were in attendance at the public hearing. In his opening remarks, NTSB Chairman Jim Hall said the meeting would provide the public with a window into the decision- making process. Investigators said they had reached the inescapable conclusion the plane was brought down by the center fuel tank explosion. NTSB Director of Aviation Safety Bernard Loeb summarized their findings.

BERNARD LOEB: The bottom line is that our investigation confirmed that the fuel-air vapor in the center wing tank was flammable at the time of the accident, and that a fuel-air explosion with jet a fuel was more than capable of generating the pressures needed to break apart the center wing tank and destroy the airplane.

TERENCE SMITH: Loeb said the most likely cause of the crash involved electrical wiring leading to the center-wing fuel tank. He said there was no evidence of explosives from either a bomb or a missile.

BERNARD LOEB: The injuries to the occupants and the damage to the airplane were fully consistent with an in-flight breakup and subsequent water impact. In light of all this evidence, a bomb or missile strike has been ruled out as an initiating event of the in-flight breakup. The FBI did find trace amount of explosive residue on three pieces of the wreckage. However, these three pieces contain no evidence of pitting, cratering, hot gas washing or pedaling, which would have been there had these trace amounts resulted from a bomb. One ignition source that we could not deem unlikely was that a short circuit involving electrical wiring outside the center wing tank somehow transferred excess voltage to fuel quantity indication system wiring leading to the center wing tank. Although the voltage and the fuel quantity indication system wiring is limited by design, to a very low level, a short circuit from higher voltage wires could allow excessive voltage to be transferred to the fuel quantity indication system wires and enter the fuel tank. We cannot we cannot be certain that this in fact occurred, but of all the ignition scenarios we considered, this scenario is the most likely.

TERENCE SMITH: Chairman Jim Hall said that conclusion raced a question.

JIM HALL: I been on this Board six years and I have seen you know, a number of accidents in which we have had some sort of electrical problem or fire problem. And are we doing the type of job we should be?

TERENCE SMITH: Chairman Hall is scheduled to meet with the victims families tomorrow.

TERENCE SMITH: Joining us now to discuss today's analysis of the TWA 800 crash, Michael Goldfarb, former chief of staff at the Federal Aviation Administration. He now runs a consulting firm on aviation. And Christine Negroni, former aviation reporter for CNN and author of "Deadly Departure: Why the Experts Failed to Prevent the TWA Flight 800 Disaster and How it Could Happen Again." Welcome to you both.

Christine Negroni, you were at the hearing today and of course it's now been four years since July of 1996 when this crash occurred. What did you learn today that you didn't know before?

CHRISTINE NEGRONI: Well, what I learned today that I didn't know before, well, I didn't learn anything that I didn't know before and it wasn't in "Deadly Departure" but I would say what the again public hear is that the NTSB can say that wiring outside of the airplane -- short circuiting in the wiring outside of the airplane allowed a higher than permissible current, a higher than safe amount of current into the center wing tank and that that caused the explosion of the aircraft and you heard in your package that Bernie Lobe said it's the most likely cause of the crash. So while we keep hearing in the media the cause of the crash is a mystery, it's a mystery, it's a mystery, I've been arguing in "Deadly Departure: that it is not a mystery at all. We pretty much know what caused it, and four years' worth of scientific detective work by the National Transportation Safety Board has led to the conclusion that we have two problems. We got aging wires on airplanes - and that allows cross circuits -- and dangerous situations including fuel tank explosions and fire and smoke and all sorts of other things, and we have a fuel tank design problem all Boeing aircraft that allows these tanks to be in an explosive state 30% of time.

TERENCE SMITH: All right.

CHRISTINE NEGRONI: A bad amount of time.

TERENCE SMITH: Michael Goldfarb, this was one of the longest and costliest investigations ever -- I guess the most.

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: Yeah.

TERENCE SMITH: Have they got to the bottom of it?

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: I think they pretty much, as Christine has suggested -- they know the likely series of events that led to this tragedy. They may not know exactly whether the fuel quantity indicator -- the electrical system how it caused the vapors to explode -- but they certainly now enough to end this phase of the most costly investigation in aviation history -

TERENCE SMITH: This phase?

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: This phase. I mean, this is - I have the unenviable task of trying to defend FAA actions here - but here is a case where FAA issued in aviation parlance over 40 airworthiness directives to the industry saying we don't know exactly what brought this plane down, but we know that there are three things that constitute a combustible explosion on an aircraft and we're going to look at each one, and we're gong to go basically ensure that the wires are safe, that a flammable mixture does not occur, and that we have in place the system to keep things safe.

TERENCE SMITH: Christine Negroni, have we, has the industry made the changes necessary and recommended?

CHRISTINE NEGRONI: Well, no, I'll argue this -- what my concern is. The FAA about two or three weeks ago had a news conference in which I was able to participate. And they talked about what we are going to do in the future. And they are going to sit down again and they are going to take a look at some technologies to make fuel tanks less volatile or volatile for a less amount of time, and that is all looking forward. That is, you know, that is good. I'm not going to argue with the fact they are going to make changes but the frustrating part for me and I think even more frustrating for those people who lost someone on Flight 800 is it didn't have to happen this way. They have known since 1963 they have a problem with --

TERENCE SMITH: 1963?

CHRISTINE NEGRONI: 1963 -- with explosions on fuel tanks. Michael. this is -- the NTSB recommendation made on -- a ruling on fueling tanks in 1996 was the third recommendation made by air aviation safety folks. The first was made in '63. The second made in '71. The third was made after the 13th fuel tank exploded.

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: I hear you.

TERENCE SMITH: Have they been done?

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: A bit alarmist in terms of the history that she reconciled. One of the biggest problems in aviation is that the remedy is often as difficult as the presenting problem. Let me give you an example. I think Christine will talk about what is called inerting of nitrogen. If you put nitrogen into a fuel tank, it, in effect, negates oxygen's ability to mix with flammable vapors and create a fire.

TERENCE SMITH: An explosion.

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: One would say, oh well, let's go out and make sure that inerting systems are there to put that into an aircraft. Then the question becomes: Do we do that at the terminal? How do we do that? What is the impact of inerting on other parts of the aircraft? It's difficult to convey in sound bytes the safety issues. I think many times what happens is people say, why, why we had these thingswith a 20-year history. We haven't had a crash. There's a lot of problems in aviation and fuel safety although that crash was horrible ranks pretty low in terms of the top ten problems that passengers face when they board an aircraft. And so given budgets, given priorities, it has not been high on the list ...

CHRISTINE NEGRONI: Because the body count want high enough.

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: No.

CHRISTINE NEGRONI: A sense that the body count wasn't high enough. Michael if they started looking at the technology in 1963, they would have resolved some of these issues. I'm not saying it's simple let's install it today and use it tomorrow but they had from 1963 to at least consider it. They dismissed it out of hand two times after, after fuel tank explosion and fuel tank explosion and fuel tank explosion.

TERENCE SMITH: Let me put the question to you this way, which seems to be fundamental. Has enough been done in the industry to avoid a repetition?

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: Probably not.

TERENCE SMITH: If not, why not?

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: Because I think on the wiring systems themselves, that TWA 800 uncovered a whole world of aviation concerns that heretofore had not been uncovered. And that is why the response, Christine, to 20, 30 years of knowing of a problem, it didn't lead to action. If you think about what an action would require -- the grounding of a fleet or putting in of a cure -- without any known example of a crash or problem, so they probably haven't done enough here.

TERENCE SMITH: You would agree with that, I suppose?

CHRISTINE NEGRONI: Absolutely. I'll agree.

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: We are in agreement on something. They haven't done that. But in this case, FAA is the wrong target. They've been rather aggressive with the industry in terms of asking industry to comprehensively review the wiring of the 37, 27, DC 10, Airbus, 10,000 planes have been inspected. All wiring systems have been checked, and that is aggressive action for the FAA to take. So in case I think they've done the right thing. I'm not sure the industry has stepped up enough. I think Chairman Hall's comments have we done enough -- probably no.

TERENCE SMITH: You would argue that they have not --

CHRISTINE NEGRONI: No, absolutely. I think the greater problem is the state we are in now in the industry the industry doesn't step up until the FAA says do it. TWA Flight 800 went down four years ago. Has a single airline started to be proactive? Let's go take a look at our own wiring. Let's take a more thorough analysis of our own wiring situation, of our fuel tank maintenance programs. Have any of them done that? They are all sitting around and waiting for the FAA to take action. If you wait for the FAA to take action, you are going to be sitting for a long time because that's just the way they work. No one is being proactive in the industry either, and that's the frustrating part. We can't count on the FAA to act swiftly and we can't even count on airlines -

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: I'm not sure, Christine -

CHRISTINE NEGRONI: -- to be aggressive in their own -

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: I'm not sure we know how to fix the problem. So I'd like to understand better what you see the fix as. I'm not sure we understand what do we focus on? Three things. We are trying to use nitrogen inerting -- it's going to take three to five years to figure out how to advance that technology in the commercial practice. We're trying to set new flammability standards for next generation fuel. We've taken every single wire in that entire aircraft. We tried to wrap it better, we tried to protect it. What specifically should the FAA do or the industry do right now?

TERENCE SMITH: Is there a short answer to that, Christine?

CHRISTINE NEGRONI: Well, I think what they should do is start looking seriously at some of these things that have been brought up. You talk about fuel tank inerting. That is not a new technology. They do it do bring bananas up from Chile. It's not a new technology.

TERENCE SMITH: Let me ask you both this; I'm curious. The decision to terminate this investigation now, is it simply that they have run out of things to test and to do?

CHRISTINE NEGRONI: They are as close as they are going to be. They're as close as they're going to be.

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: But you know, I think the country has to realize in a booming economy that the aviation infrastructure is improperly funded. Example: The FAA's entire research budget - NTSB's as well -- $200 million. Dot.com twenty-year-olds out in the beltway have more in their personal portfolio than the federal government has for funding research. Fuel tanks aren't the only things. There are a whole host of other technologies that fled to be examined. They're trying to do the best they can on this one.

TERENCE SMITH: Michael Goldfarb, Christine Negroni, thank you both very much.

MARGARET WARNER: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, Bush's record on the environment, artist Wayne Thiebaud, and a favorite poem.

FOCUS - ON THE RECORD

MARGARET WARNER: Now, the second of our two- part look at where the leading candidates for President stand on the environment. Last night, Tom Bearden examined Vice President Gore's record. Tonight, he looks at Governor Bush's.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: (taking oath of office) I, George Walker Bush, do solemnly swear...

PERSON ADMINISTERING OATH: ...that I will faithfully execute...

TOM BEARDEN: George W. Bush took the oath of office as Texas governor in 1995, inheriting a state with serious environmental problems. (Gun fires) Repeatedly declaring himself an outdoorsman and pro- environmental governor, Bush said he wanted to leave Texas cleaner than he found it. Vance McMahon is Bush's top policy adviser. He says the governor has made good on his promise.

VANCE McMAHON: In Texas, by most environmental... by most key environmental measures, environmental quality is improving. We have a good story to tell in Texas. We're proud of the fact that we've reduced toxic pollutants by more than any other state, that industrial pollution is down by 11%. And so we recognize that challenges remain, but we're proud of the progress that we've made.

TOM BEARDEN: The governor says it's his style to negotiate instead of confront.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: I know this, though, you can't sue your way to clean air and clean water. We can't have the lawyers try to sue our way. We've got to have a leader lead our way by using technologies that work, by saying to industry if you're polluting, we're not going to accept it anymore. But let's work together to achieve a standard.

VANCE McMAHON: He does not believe in the Washington-based philosophy of command and control environmental policy as kind of a heavy-handed, top-down approach. His approach is based on flexibility, on local control, allowing local solutions wherever those are possible on basing environmental decisions on sound science; of course, enforcing the existing laws, and putting enough flexibility in the system to focus on results and not just process.

SPOKERSPERSON IN COMMERCIAL: Texas has a world-class pollution problem.

Under Governor George Bush, Texas leads the nation in air pollution, in toxic chemicals

released, in factories violating clean water standards.

TOM BEARDEN: But some environmental groups have a very different view of the Bush record.

SPOKESPERSON IN COMMERCIAL: Call George W. Bush. Tell him to clean up the air and water for our families, for our future.

TOM BEARDEN: Environmentalists point to the fact that during Bush's tenure, Texas has achieved the dubious distinction, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, of having the dirtiest air in America, of ranking 47th in water quality, and having the seventh-highest rate of release of toxic industrial byproducts onto its land. Ken Kramer is the Sierra Club's Texas state director.

KEN KRAMER: Our assessment of Governor Bush on the environment is that basically he's shown a great deal of indifference to the environment, and his indifference to the environment has allowed people such as those in industry to really call the shots on environmental policy. As a result, we haven't seen any real progress in Texas in the last five years on the environment.

PROTESTORS: We want clean air!

TOM BEARDEN: But even Bush's most ardent opponents concede that many of these problems also plagued his predecessors, Democrat and Republican alike.

PROTESTORS: Governor Bush, get off your tush!

TOM BEARDEN: They fault him on what they consider his lack of progress. (Applause) Bush lost little time in implementing his local control philosophy. Shortly after his inauguration, Texas was poised to initiate a state-operated, centralized automobile inspection program. The governor killed it, mandating instead a decentralized tailpipe test that can be done at local gas stations.

KEN KRAMER: He helped to scuttle an effective, strong inspection and maintenance program for automobile emissions and replaced it with what he called the Texas Motorist Choice program, which was deemed later to be inadequate. And even his own state environmental agency now has said we need a stronger program for inspection maintenance in Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth in order to achieve air quality standards.

TOM BEARDEN: The Governor's aides say they switched plans because a majority of drivers wouldn't want to go to centralized inspection sites, and thus, the program would be ineffective. The inspection issue was only a part of the overall air pollution problem. Factories, refineries, and electrical generating plants are major contributors-- particularly old facilities. As in every other state, refineries and chemical and power plants built before 1971 were grand-fathered, exempted from compliance with federal and state clean air regulations. The idea was that it didn't make sense to force expensive new pollution controls on plants that would fairly quickly be replaced by newer, cleaner facilities. But nearly 30 years later, Texas still has more than 700 such plants. The state environmental agency, the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, or TNRCC, says grand-fathered plants account for more than a third of all air pollution in the state.

PROTESTORS: Close the loophole!

TOM BEARDEN: For years, environmentalists have been pressing a succession of Texas governors to force the plants to come into compliance. In 1997, Bush responded, directing the TNRCC to develop a policy to reduce pollution from grand-fathered facilities. Ralph Marquez is one of three Bush-appointed commissioners.

RALPH MARQUEZ: In 1997, I think Governor Bush surprised perhaps very many of those people when the governor brought up the issue of grandfather facilities, and his desire to addressthat issue.

TOM BEARDEN: The NRCC proposed a program allowing industry to voluntarily reduce emissions at their own pace. The legislature passed a bill making the program state law.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: First and foremost, we are committed to clean air in the state of Texas.

TOM BEARDEN: Surrounded by oil and chemical industry executives, Governor Bush announced what he called an historic first step.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: These companies have volunteered to install pollution reduction equipment and take the necessary action to reduce emissions and become permitted by our state. Their combined efforts will greatly reduce air pollution in the state of Texas.

TOM BEARDEN: But how that agreement was reached is a matter of considerable dispute. Tom Smith is the head of the Texas chapter of Public Citizen, a national advocacy group. He says the governor sold out to industry.

TOM SMITH: He held a series of secret meetings with the polluters and asked them to write the policy, brought a bunch of the other industries together and said, "This is what we'd like to suggest we do to solve this problem. What do you think?" They put together a lobby team and went out and flooded the Texas legislature and got it adopted. And that's what we're seeing time and time again as his solution to environmental problems is, "let's just do it voluntarily."

RALPH MARQUEZ: That is a misconception. What... The governor did ask a couple of executives that came to see him about an unrelated issue. He said, "I will do something about grand-fathered facilities. I want your cooperation in doing it." And they said, "Yes, we will cooperate." They did come up with some proposals. But if anyone took the time to look at what they had proposed and what this agency eventually adopted, it's not the same document.

TOM BEARDEN: However, an environmental coalition points to memos exchanged between oil company executives and the Governor's office. They say the documents prove there were detailed discussions regarding the development of the new policy. But Texas Oil and Gas Association Vice President Ben Sebree says the industry did not have an undue influence in developing the legislation.

BEN SEBREE: We had input it, as well as... So did the Sierra Club, Ken Kramer, Public Citizen. Lots of people had input.

TOM BEARDEN: So it was not a document that the industry presented to the governor as a fait accompli.

BEN SEBREE: Absolutely not. I've reviewed several drafts of the legislation myself as it was filed in the House and in the Senate. There were several drafts that we had severe problems with. We made our comments and testimony before the committees, as did others.

TOM BEARDEN: Since the Governor proposed the program three years ago, 104 facilities have volunteered to participate; 19 have begun to meet clean air standards.

TOM SMITH: Well, the voluntary emissions program has been a predictable failure. And what we see is across the spectrum of all the plants, maybe 3% of the emissions have been reduced as a result of these voluntary programs.

TOM BEARDEN: Sebree says it is too early to judge, and thinks most of the oil and gas companies he represents will eventually comply with the governor's policy.

BEN SEBREE: Right now there's a window of opportunity where facilities, whether you're a tiny one well operator, or whether you're a refinery, you can go to the TNRCC, and you can work out a reasonable, flexible approach. You can clean up the air. But you can do it in a way that works for your facility. We are advising our members to take advantage of it, and we've seen a pretty enthusiastic response.

TOM BEARDEN: But environmentalists say the Governor's cooperative approach has failed, and blame him for the fact that last year Houston passed Los Angeles as the smoggiest city in America, and for serious pollution problems in other Texas cities.

TOM SMITH: Not only does Texas have the smoggiest city in the nation and lead the nation in the emissions of those cancerous... chemicals causing cancer and birth defects, we're also number one in the emissions of the gases causing global warming, and we're one of the worst states in terms of potential impacts.

PROTESTORS: We've had enough! We've had enough!

TOM BEARDEN: Some community activists believe the Governor favors economic development at the expense of the environment when it comes to allowing new industrial construction.

SPOKESPERSON: Bush is running on empty when it comes to his environmental record in Texas.

TOM BEARDEN: Lanell Anderson and Tamara Moshino live in the town of Clear Lake, just south of Houston. The area is surrounded by chemical plants. Both are Republicans, and they say the Governor has ignored their plea to stop the building of still another plant.

TAMARA MOSHINO: Under his administration, the air has gotten consistently worse here. We're unable to breathe. We have had more ozone warning days since the past three years, five years, than we have ever had. And it's come under his watch as Governor of the State of Texas.

LANELL ANDERSON: Houston leads the nation in ozone pollution. Houston leads the nation in carcinogenic air emissions by the... to the tune of 5.2 million pounds a year. We lead the nation in childhood asthma. We lead the nation in childhood cancer. It's -- enough is enough. Our cup runneth over.

TOM BEARDEN: But aides say Governor Bush has been able to balance economic growth with environmental policy. They say Texas has seen a 30% growth in its economy over the last five years while showing much improvement in its environmental quality.

VANCE McMAHON: The Governor shouldn't be getting criticism. You ought to be giving credit for the steps we've made to improve the environment in Texas. We've cut toxic pollution, we have reduced industrial air pollution by 11%, we've got a great-grandfather program in place that deals with pollution from older plants. And by most environmental measures-- most key environmental measures-- environmental quality is improving in Texas.

TOM BEARDEN: Governor Bush has also had to deal with major water quality problems. The EPA has listed the state near last in the quality of its lakes and streams.

KEN RAMER: In water quality, which has not received as much visibility as the air concerns, we are still in a very problematic situation. We have over 140 streams or lakes in the state that are considered impaired. In other words, they don't meet water quality standards that have been set for them, and that means that they may be closed, or harmful for swimming, or sometimes problematic for aquatic life.

TOM BEARDEN: TNRCC's Ralph Marquez says one has to look at the size of Texas' water systems to make a fair comparison.

RALPH MARQUEZ: If you look at one benchmark which some of the critics love to use how many areas, or segments of rivers and lakes may not meet one or more water quality standards, yes, there's a relatively large number. When you look at the number of miles of rivers and lakes that we have in Texas relative to many other states, when you look at an average... at a percentage of those segments to a total, it's a... it's a small number compared to many other states. So I think that is an unfair statement to make.

TOM BEARDEN: On the toxic waste issue, Governor Bush boasts about his Brownfield's initiative, which reformed state standards for hazardous waste cleanups. Brownfield's refers to the cleanup and redevelopment of old industrial sites. The federal Superfund program has long been criticized for consuming billions of dollars in litigation costs without actually cleaning up very many sites. The Texas initiative brought more flexibility to the $660,000 program and allows landowners to clean up property without the risk of future lawsuits.

VANCE McMAHON: Well, in the old law, it wasn't getting cleaned up at all, because the... The way the law worked, people were afraid to go in and clean up a Brownfield site for the fear that they would be liable in the -- if a suit was ever brought for cleanup of that site. Now we've made it so that those people, who are willing to risk and put capital on the line to clean up Brownfield sites, who are owners and investors who had nothing to do with the original contamination, are enabled to go ahead and do that.

TOM BEARDEN: More than 500 Brownfield sites have been cleaned up and redeveloped in the last five years; sites like this one in Houston, which will eventually contain housing for the elderly. Houston's new state-of-the-art baseball stadium is also built on a Brownfield. But environmentalists say the program is seriously flawed.

KEN KRAMER: The cleanups are done according to so-called risk reduction standards that actually allow you to retain some pollution in place. It's not a cleanup to the original conditions in terms of groundwater quality, for example. Secondly, there's really no public involvement in that program, so there's really no scrutiny of the cleanup measures or how effective they are, or whether or not they meet the goals of the neighborhood or community in which those sites may be located.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: Vote for me. I'm for clean air and clean water. I'm for setting high standards based upon science based upon reality, based upon making sure that the decision-making, that the decisions we make is based upon what works and what's real. I believe the federal government has a role to set high standards, but the federal government must work with local stakeholders, must work with folks to achieve those standards. And so, for example...

TOM BEARDEN: The State Oil and Gas Association's Ben Sebree says the Bush philosophy would actually accomplish positive things for the environment much more quickly and effectively than government regulation.

BEN SEBREE: We think that his approach is a much more intelligent approach because he gets away from the traditional command and control strategy of lots of regulators who say, "we know what's best and we know what's the best way to do it," and the truth is that's not true. And the Governor's legislation takes a different philosophy. He sets the same goal, which is a clean environment and clean air, but he sets up a program where industry and the regulators can work together without the heavy hand of the government, but rather a more of a carrot and a stick approach.

TOM BEARDEN: But Tom Smith of Public Citizen believes that, if elected, President Bush would always favor big business over the environment.

TOM SMITH: Well, the Governor... every time he's had a chance to take an action on the environment, he stood up for the polluters rather than the people. And that's the kind of leadership we see here is that when the going gets tough, the Governor tendsto stand up for the biggest industries in Texas, and not the people.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: Thank you all for coming.

TOM BEARDEN: Both Bush supporters and critics say that come November, Americans will have a very clear choice between the candidates on their approach to environmental matters.

CONVERSATION

MARGARET WARNER: Next, a NewsHour encore: Elizabeth Farnsworth looks at 50 years of artist Wayne Thiebaud's work.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Above all else, the retrospective of Wayne Thiebaud's paintings currently at San Francisco's Palace of the Legion of Honor offers a feast for the eyes: A cake with luscious, thick frosting that looks good enough to eat, bowls of soup painted with surprising shadows and swirls of color. The show's curator says installing the works reminded him of Thiebaud's virtuosity as a painter.

STEVEN NASH, Chief Curator, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco: This is a painting, for instance, which you cannot possibly understand in an illustration. There's no way to get the depth of the paint handling, the way the surface is treated, the incredible richness of paint manipulation in it or the quality of light in it.

WILLIAM DUNLAP: The exhibit features works like these pinball machines from the 1960s, and a room full of portraits, including this one of his wife, Betty Jean, who has posed for him repeatedly over the years. In the 1990s, Thiebaud began painting a series of vibrant landscapes of the Sacramento River delta just east of San Francisco. Farmlands are tipped up, sometimes seen from above, and are almost abstract in design and effect, as are his cityscapes, paintings of the streets and hills of San Francisco. It is both a real and imaginary place for him.

WAYNE THIEBAUD: Originally, I painted right on the streets, trying to get some of the kind of drama I felt about the city and its vertiginous character, but that didn't seem to work and... the reality was one thing but the fantasy or the exploration of it was another.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: I love them because they're a combination of both; they really are about San Francisco. I mean it's the real city, it's the real street, but you make up addresses even. I mean, 24th and Mariposa doesn't exist-- it can't-- they run parallel.

WAYNE THIEBAUD: But Mariposa is such a beautiful word to put on a sign.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Thiebaud has a home near Mariposa Street on one of San Francisco's hills, but because he has taught since 1960 at the University of California at Davis, he lives most of the time nearby in Sacramento. He was a commercial artist before he was a painter, working as a layout designer and cartoonist for companies like Rexall Drugs. During World War II he designed posters for the army air corps. At age 79, Thiebaud still competes in tennis tournaments and paints every day.

WAYNE THIEBAUD: I love sweets anywhere.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: He still loves the window displays that inspired his first big artistic success in the early 1960s.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: So what do you see when you look at this?

WAYNE THIEBAUD: Beauty. (Laughs)

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: He'd been working on more traditional subjects, he said, but decided to try something different.

WAYNE THIEBAUD: I'd worked in food preparation. So I'd always seen these lined... The way they line up food, sort of ritualistically and I thought, "oh, I'll try that"... So I started painting these ovals for the plate and then put a triangle on it. And I mixed up a pumpkin color, maybe, I'd put it on and it was so far away from pumpkin color that I thought, "oh, I've got to putother colors in there." So I added blues and other colors to see if it could enliven it, but then I realized I'd painted this row of pies and started laughing and said, "well, that's the end of me as a serious artist. Nobody's going to take this seriously."

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: But people did take the paintings seriously enough to spend big money for them when they were first shown at the Alan Stone Gallery in New York in 1962, and their value kept rising. This work sold in 1991 to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., for $1 million. Some critics have considered Thiebaud part of the pop art movement, but his interest in painting ordinary objects pre- dated the emergence of pop art, and Thiebaud's work has never been as ironic or critical of mass culture as much pop art is. I spoke to Wayne Thiebaud in his studio in Sacramento.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Why was it risky for you to start painting pies and cakes?

WAYNE THIEBAUD: Well, it's silly, you know. It's fun and humorous and that's dangerous in the art world, I think. It's a world that takes itself very seriously, and of course, it is a serious enterprise, but I think also there's room for wit and humor because humor gives us, I think, a sense of perspective. And I think, like W.C. Fields said, "if we haven't been able to see ourselves as a cartoon character, we've not seen ourselves clearly." At least at some time, because it's... That's part of the human enterprise, isn't it?

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Some people see sadness in the toys and in the pies and even in the cityscapes, a kind of longing. Do you feel that?

WAYNE THIEBAUD: Well, I think... Yes, I think, I think there's something about what someone calls "bright pathos," like circuses and clowns, and toys. I think toys... Someone said that toys represent something special. How does it go? A child's toys are the grandfather's dreams. And the sort of elegance of that in terms of our history and the way we see our evolutionary procedures.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: What about the gumball machines? We shot a series of them and you've been painting them for a very long time-- the penny machines. What do you like about those? How do you see them?

WAYNE THIEBAUD: I just see them as sort of magical objects and interesting and... very, very interesting objects to work on because of the color. I mean, a big round globe is so beautiful and it's really a kind of orchestration of circles of all kinds. But it's also very sensuous, I think, and it offers wonderful opportunities for painting something like, almost like a bouquet of flowers.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: You've said before that you don't consider yourself an "artist," what do you mean?

WAYNE THIEBAUD: Well, isn't it something for other people to make a decision about? I think it's just like, as I say, it's like a priest referring to himself as a saint. Maybe it's a little too early or he's not the one to decide that. It's decided apart from you and that's the way it should be. It's... Being an artist I think is a very rare thing. There aren't very many people who achieve that and I think we ought to keep it as a golden special word so that it... It doesn't get all gummed up or dirty or too usual. It has to be special.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: So what do you say when people say what do you do? You say "I'm a painter?"

WAYNE THIEBAUD: A painter and then sometimes they ask me to paint, paint their house. (Laughter)

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: You say that you steal from everybody you can. What do you mean?

WAYNE THIEBAUD: Well, I'm a visual bandit. Just... That's just the way it is. It's like anything. You learn by the help of other people, what they've done, and how to go about it. There are many people who I'm indebted to, people like Richard Diebenkorn who meant a lot to me in terms of this area.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Tell us about the five seated figures. What were you trying to do and why are they all sitting and looking away from each other?

WAYNE THIEBAUD: People always think I have some message and one woman said that she knew it exactly what was happening to those five figures-- they're all mad at each other.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: But that's not what was happening?

WAYNE THIEBAUD: I said, "no, that's not true." So then she chided me. She said, "why won't you tell me what's going on with those figures?" I said, "I don't really... I don't know, I don't know. She says, "Come on, you can tell me. I'm a psychiatrist." (Laughter) So I just don't know and don't really want to know-- it's that kind of a probe.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And the cityscapes, you've been painting them for a long time. Do you see them changing? And if so, how?

WAYNE THIEBAUD: I think just setting different problems because you don't want to repeat yourself. You try if you're working on too many parallel streets and you try to take that away and maybe open up the thing to a greater distance, try to deal with a different kind of space. Sometimes it's sort of telescopic space. Sometimes you try to expand the space so that you have a kind of infinity. So mostly it's just really a series of problems-- sometimes in color; sometimes you decide that you want to not use bright colors but take the register way down to grays or maybe to a very dark palette. So it's like music where you transpose something into a lower key or a different key.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The delta paintings are tremendously colorful, the most colorful I think of, at least everything I've seen that you've done. Is there any explanation for that? Is it just the way the delta is? What you want to do right now with color?

WAYNE THIEBAUD: That happens because of the phenomenon of the time span of the delta where you see it in various seasonal times, in the winter very dark, very gray. So the color aspect of those overall, are in some ways trying to encapsulate or anthologize those various seasonal changes.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Tell us about "Green River Lands," what you wanted to do, what problems you were solving, what you were seeing.

WAYNE THIEBAUD: I think in some ways it's the most extreme one. It's the most curious one in terms of the variety of points- of-view. A lot of them are read quite quickly as aerial views, which they really are not. They're a combination of sort of ground level, and high middle, and very high. But it has a lot to do with, I think, Chinese painting or oriental painting where you really... it's almost scroll- like in terms of its verticality. It may be a big failure. But it was a wonderful thing to try out these various kinds of things. And I like... I like the idea of extremes in some way. I think that's part of how we get to something like art where you try-- are willing to push the extremes -- not so much me, but with someone like Rembrandt, where he'll make the picture all go to almost black and he'll leave just the forehead, nose, and little finger down here almost, you have to build the rest -- or C zanne with these little touches, little pieces of glass that you could almost shake his paintings and they would fall, you know. So those extremes, I think, are really wonderful to pursue.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Do you think-- as you know, some writers and painters and musicians get better the older they get and some don't-- do you think you've gotten better?

WAYNE THIEBAUD: You hope so, but you never know. I see paintings I think are better than I'm doing at some cases now. It's odd. It's something which I think is not so much to think about as to think about the... the wonderful thing that you can still keep going. I heard Robert Frost once say, if I can-- he was like in his eighties I think-- and he said, "if I can get up and have the presence of mind to make my bed, the rest of it's all gravy." I can go to work and make poems and it's sort of that way with me at least.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Well, Wayne Thiebaud, thanks for being with us.

WAYNE THIEBAUD: Thank you so much.

MARGARET WARNER: The Wayne Thiebaud exhibit closes September 3 in San Francisco. From there it travels to Fort Worth, Texas; Washington, D.C.; and New York City.

FINALLY - FAVORITE POEM PROJECT

MARGARET WARNER: Finally tonight, another in our series taken from former poet laureate Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem Project. The project asked ordinary Americans to identify and recite their favorite poems. Tonight's reading is by editor and writer William Maxwell, who died earlier this summer at the age of 91. During his 40 years at "The New Yorker," Maxwell edited some of the magazine's most celebrated writers, including J.D. Salinger and John Updike. He also wrote his own short stories and novels, and won the American Book Award in 1980. Here he is in a reading taped last year.

WILLIAM MAXWELL: My name is William Maxwell. I live in New York City on the upper east side. For 40 years I was the fiction editor at "The New Yorker." I also wrote collections of short stories and several novels, and am now retired, and get my greatest pleasure from reading mostly books I've read before; but they are different because I'm different. Once you reach the age of 90, you're standing in sort of a pivotal position with the past. You remember more, of course, but you also are detached from it so that it's... It is as if you were reading a long, Russian novel. You don't any more grieve over the mistakes. You think that's what those characters did, and how interesting. That's what I think about the past. I can't change it. I wouldn't change it if I could. I just think, "how interesting." This is a poem by A. E. Hausman. He was born deep in the reign of Queen Victoria and lived until 1936. He was a professor of Latin at Cambridge University. The poem is almost literal translation of one of the odes of Horace: Number seven, book four. The title is either - (Latin) - I asked two different people and got two different answers. No one knows how Latin was really is pronounced. "The snows are fled away, leaves on the shaws. And grasses in the mead renew their birth. The river to the river bed withdrawn, And altered is the fashion of the earth. The Nymphs and Gracos three put off their fear And unapparelled in the woodland play. The swift hour and the brief prime of the year Say to the soul 'Thou was not born for aye.' Thaw follows frost; hard on the heel of spring Treads summer sure to die, for hard on hers Comes autumn with his apples scattering; Then back to wintertide when nothing stirs. But oh, whate'er the sky-led seasons mar, Moon upon moon rebuilds it with her beams; Come we where Tullus and where Ancus are And good Aeneas, we are dust and dreams. Torquatus, if the gods in heaven shall add The morrow to the day, what tongue has told? Feast then thy heart, for what thy heart has had The fingers of no heir will over hold. When they descendest once the shades among The stern assize and equal judgment o'er, Not thy long lineage nor thy golden tongue, No, nor thy righteousness shall friend thee more. Night holds Hippolytus the pure of stain. Diane steads him." nothing. He must stay. And Theseus leaves Pirithous in the chain. The love of comrades cannot take away.

I don't think of the meaning as much as pleasure as if I were listening to Schubert, which phrases move my heart and, "but the day lead seasons moon upon moon rebuilds it with her beams," is just like something done by the cello or the viola. It is pure music. Poets are possessed. That's why it appeals to me.

RECAP

MARGARET WARNER: Again, the major stories of this Tuesday: Federal investigators said they've reached the inescapable conclusion that TWA Flight 800 was brought down by an explosion in the center fuel tank. And Russian President Putin flew to an arctic naval base to meet with families of the sailors that died aboard the submarine "Kursk." We'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. I'm Margaret Warner. Thanks for being with us. Good night.