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No Partisan Politics for Climate Hero Award

by Joelle Klien

libraryAnd the winner is … William J. Clinton AND George W. Bush, at least when it comes to the inaugural Climate Hero Award sponsored by the U.S. Senate Climate Change Clearinghouse.

The George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, TX and the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, AK were awarded this new and noteworthy prize because these structures are the only presidential libraries to have earned platinum LEED ratings from the U.S. Green Building Council.

US Democratic Senator from California Barbara Boxer presented the first award to Laura Bush last week and received a tour from Bush of the 15-acre, prairie-inspired park.

According to the DallasNews.com, the former first lady was  “pivotal in the center’s design and construction — and particularly in ensuring that the complex would have many environmentally friendly components. That includes a multitude of solar panels, heat-resistant landscaping and a system that reuses rainwater.”

Blogger Carolyn Lochhead notes in her SFGate.com Below the Beltway blog that Boxer was an “environmental agitator and frequent foe of the former president” and that “Laura Bush often appeared to be more interested in the environment than her husband.”

Lochhead also pointed out, though, “that W. protected more ocean habitat than any of his predecessors, including a 138,000-square-mile marine national monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the 195,000 square mile Monument, reportedly at his wife’s urging.”

Boxer will visit the Clinton Center to bestow the award later this year.

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