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Dennis Kucinich, perhaps the most truly green of the presidential candidates -- and a vegan! -- has abandoned his bid for the White House. Take a last look at Grist's interview with Kucinich and fact sheet on his policies, and shed a tear for what might have been -- were the U.S. political landscape entirely different.

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The three leading Democratic presidential candidates came together in Nevada last night for yet another debate. Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama all wooed Nevada voters by voicing opposition to the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository, with Edwards taking his opposition a step further and coming out against all new nuclear construction. The highest drama came before the debate: candidate Dennis Kucinich had been invited to participate, but the invitation was withdrawn after his poor showing in New Hampshire and Iowa. Kucinich sued, a judge found in his favor, and the case was appealed to the state Supreme Court -- which re-excluded Kucinich from the debate just before it was to begin.

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On Nov. 17, 2007, Grist cosponsored the first-ever presidential candidate forum focusing on climate change and energy policy. Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Dennis Kucinich attended and spoke in-depth about their green platforms. (All Democratic and Republican presidential candidates were invited to attend.)

Watch the forum below, or read the transcript [PDF].

For more information on the presidential candidates and their stances on climate and energy issues, check out Grist's special election coverage:

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This is part of a series of interviews with presidential candidates produced jointly by Grist and Outside.

Update: Dennis Kucinich dropped out of the presidential race on Jan. 25, 2008.

He may be eating the front-runners' dust in the polls, but among deep-green voters, Dennis Kucinich is considered a trailblazer. A Democratic U.S. rep from Cleveland, Ohio, Kucinich is calling for a radical overhaul of the U.S. government and economy -- one that infuses every agency in the executive branch with a sustainability agenda, phases out coal and nuclear power entirely, and calls on every American to ratchet down their resource consumption and participate in a national conservation program.

A vegan who counts Ralph Nader among his heroes, Kucinich doesn't exactly embody the sensibility of the average American. He says his commitment to sustainability "extends to everything I am and do" -- from the food he eats and clothes he wears to the policies he espouses. It's the same progressive platform that made him a darling of the far left when he ran for president in 2004. Will it take him any further this time around?

I reached Kucinich by phone at his home in Ohio.

For more info on his platform and record, check out Grist's Kucinich fact sheet.

Listen to a clip of this interview:

Why should voters consider you the strongest green candidate?

Because mostly our candidates aren't going to be able to do anything about the underlying issues that threaten our environment. Many of the candidates -- Edwards, Obama, and Clinton -- are heavily funded by hedge funds on Wall Street, which are driven by a psychology of short-term profits and investments. And with candidates taking that kind of money from those interests, it defies belief that they're going to be in a position to take this country in the direction it needs to be taken.

What sets your green platform apart from the rest?

As president of the United States, I'm going to shift the entire direction of America. We need to see the connection between global warring and global warming, and it's oil. Sustainability is the path to peace. And I'm the only true peace candidate in this election. So peace means being in harmony with nature. If you're in harmony with nature, you don't exploit nature. You don't ruin the land, you don't extract the oil, you don't take the coal out of the earth.

My underlying philosophy is a green philosophy. It means that I'm looking at a total reorganization of the federal government to create a cooperative and synergistic relationship between all departments and administrations for the purpose of greening America.

You propose, for instance, the Works Green Administration.

The Works Green Administration harkens back to the days of Franklin Roosevelt and the Works Progress Administration, where he put millions of people back to work rebuilding America's infrastructure. I too have an infrastructure-rebuilding program which will put millions of people back to work. Picture this: You take every area of involvement in the federal government -- whether it's the Small Business Administration, or the Housing and Urban Development Department, or the Department of Agriculture, or the Department of Labor. Each would incorporate green goals. We'd have billions of dollars loaned to the states at zero interest for green development programs, we'd have programs furthering green housing, agricultural policies would relate to green.

Do you think Americans are ready to answer the call to conserve?

Of course they are, they're just waiting for leadership, and it has to come from somebody who's not tied to any of these interest groups, or is worried about whether he's going to offend a contributor. And so, yes, I think people know that their future's at stake.

What I intend to do as president is to call forth that instinct which is within every person for not just survival but to be able to thrive. We need to make the connection between prosperity and sustainability. It also means we have to turn toward peace, we have to stop warring, because war is ecocide, war destroys the environment. And so I'm going to call forth the people of this country for a whole new direction. I think America's not just ready for it, it's overdue and people know that.

I will also ask the American people to participate in a grand and great conservation effort. Imagine if tens of millions of homes suddenly had an awareness that when you don't need the electricity, don't flip the switch. That you use only the water that you need and you don't use any more, you don't let the faucet run.

Do you believe that we need a carbon tax in addition to a cap-and-trade program, or neither, or both?

We need to do whatever we can do to create disincentives for the use of carbon-based energy. But that's not enough. Carbon-based taxes alone won't cut it, because some people may be willing to pay an extra tax to use something that's bad for the environment. Inevitably we need a requirement to move away from all carbon-based technologies, and to fund fully all alternative-energy research that is in harmony with the environment.

So you would propose a strict cap on carbon emissions, a carbon tax, and a massive government-supported plan to promote renewable technologies?

Yes, but I'd want to put the emphasis first on the government supporting renewable technologies. A tax could reflect the full cost to society of certain types of energy. But the answer is not simply punishing those people who are using carbons. You have to do everything you can to move people toward renewable energy.

You've been calling for years for a renewable portfolio standard that would have the U.S. get 20 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2010. Now that 2010 is around the corner, what sort of RPS plan would you implement as president?

Well, obviously we've lost the advantage of that particular time frame. For the next time frame, I think we could set something by 2020 and look to 30 or 40 percent. But that means we're talking about a very sharp turnaround here.

How would you shift the utility industry toward renewables, toward this whole new paradigm?

One of my proposals is to have millions of homes with wind and solar technologies, and people can sell energy back to the grid. The role of utilities will change dramatically because it's not going to be a centralized approach toward energy production. They'll have to figure out different ways that they might be able to provide support for green alternatives. I want to see, eventually, all the homes in this country have the option of that technology. In turn, you can create millions of jobs building alternative technologies.

Would nuclear power play any role in your energy policy as president?

Nuclear has to be phased out. The hidden costs of nuclear are enormous -- of building these plants and storing the waste forever. It's not financially or environmentally sustainable.

Nuclear makes up 20 percent of America's electricity supply. What would you replace this with?

You don't want to leave a gap in our energy needs, but at the same time, with a program of conservation and movement toward alternative energy, we can begin phasing out nuclear.

What about coal, the source of more than half of our electricity supply? Would you phase that out, or do you believe in the promise of advanced coal technologies?

No, coal has to be phased out. In the same way that the Department of Agriculture for years was paying some farmers not to grow, I think we can get to the point of paying coal miners not to mine. Why should the miners have to suffer from the lack of foresight of our energy policies? That's something that I intend to address in my Works Green Administration.

The electric utility industry would argue that such a massive shift would pass along huge rate hikes to consumers. How would you protect Americans from these expenses?

We do not need to be held hostage by the utility industry. I'm not someone who's going to roll over when these utility industries issue their threats. We're going to break up the monopolies in utilities, that's No. 1. No. 2, these utilities are going to be closely regulated for their activities. No. 3, they're going to be required to go green as license conditions. No. 4, they're going to be closely monitored and shut down if they violate the Clean Air Act. We're going to have a very aggressive EPA, and utilities are not going to be dictating energy costs. I don't mind working with them, I don't mind moving toward areas where they can be cooperative in protecting the environment, but they're not going to run energy policy.

But such a transition would create huge costs. How would you pay for them?

It pays for itself. See, the whole idea about sustainability is that you conserve, you save, and then you use the savings for other things. However, where we need financial incentives, this is where the government can play a major role in putting money into circulation for the production of these [green] products, and to put people to work. Roosevelt understood in the '30s that there were things he had to do to move the economy. And I understand what we need to do to move the economy in a green direction.

Do you support subsidies for ethanol or other gasoline alternatives, like biodiesel?

I don't know about subsidies. I think those technologies are transitional to fuel-cell technology. I wouldn't want to create incentives to lock us into usages that are not where we ultimately want to go. And there is a serious issue with ethanol and its impact on food supplies.

Many argue that the U.S. shouldn't commit to a global greenhouse-gas reduction target that doesn't involve China and India. Do you agree, and how would you bring them to the table?

First of all, as president, I'm going to let the rest of the world know that the days of America trying to be a nation above nations is over. We have to quit trying to dominate other countries, and we have to step out of our isolation and into the brotherhood and sisterhood of all people. I think the world is ready for an American president who puts the sword down, so that nations won't have to spend a tremendous amount of their resources trying to prepare for war.

We have to be ready to take the lead, but we need to have harmony with other nations. As president, I intend to work with the leaders of China and India and other nations to promote an environmental consciousness and sustainable economies. I will use trade as a vehicle to try to raise the level of living for all people, and environmental sustainability must be the watchword. All of our trade agreements must have within them requirements for protecting the air and the water and the land of all the countries we do business with.

After climate and energy, what do you think is the most important environmental issue facing the nation?

Agriculture -- the way we grow our food -- and we really need to make sure that we protect our water supply. These issues are closely tied to each other.

Who is your environmental hero?

Oh, I have many. Thomas Berry, whose book The Great Work talked about how our great work in life is to achieve a real harmony with the environment. I think Lester Brown has done some incredible work on raising the consciousness of people. Amory Lovins has done some excellent work, and I think Ralph Nader has pointed to a lot of the environmental implications of corporate conduct and trade laws. And John Robbins has been so incredible in his awareness of the impact of the food we eat on our environment.

What was your most memorable wilderness or outdoor adventure?

As a child, we lived in the city, we moved around a lot. But there was one place we lived, above railroad tracks, and on the other side of the tracks was this vast acreage called "the gulley" that was created with the blasting of the railroad. It had these huge rock piles and vegetation everywhere and it almost looked prehistoric. It was a place that I would go to often and find solitude and be able to just think. So much of my own life has been connected with a desire to be close to nature, to be close to the water, to be close to green.

If you could spend a week in one natural area of the U.S., where would it be?

I would say somewhere in northern Maine. The whole state is beautiful, but northern Maine is just extraordinary, and I've seen all 50 states. I also love Maui.

What do you do to lighten your environmental footprint?

My philosophy of life extends to everything I am and do. If I say I'm for peace, I'm for peace in the kind of products that I use, in the kind of shoes that I wear, and in terms of the clothes that I wear, in terms of my eating habits. I'm always thinking in terms of sustainability. That's the way I live. I live in a small house and we're very conscious of our energy usage. I drive an American car, a Ford Focus, but it's one of the highest fuel-economy cars.

I've been living an essentially vegan lifestyle since 1995, and that has led me to a condition of extraordinary health and clarity. Now, I'm not, as president, going to tell everyone what they have to eat, but I will share my own story about how the choices that I've made have meant, for myself, a better life, and a happier life. I'm 60 years old, but I'll bet that I'm in better physical shape than a lot of people a lot younger.

If George Bush were a plant or an animal, what kind of plant or an animal would he be?

I don't want to go there.

Fair enough. Would you spin it around on yourself? If you were a plant or animal, what kind would you be?

An eagle.

How so? Truly American?

No. Keenness of vision.

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Update: Dennis Kucinich dropped out of the presidential race on Jan. 25, 2008.

Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich has been active and outspoken on a wide range of environmental and sustainability issues during the decade he's represented Ohio's 10th district in the U.S. House. His efforts have earned him a 92 percent lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters.

Read an interview with Dennis Kucinich by Grist and Outside.

Watch Kucinich explain his positions on climate change and energy issues at a Nov. 17, 2007, Grist-sponsored forum:

Watch Kucinich explain his climate and environment strategy:

Watch Kucinich answer the snowman's climate question at the CNN/YouTube debate on July 23, 2007:

Watch Kucinich explain his proposed Works Green Administration:

Listen to a clip of Kucinich's interview with Grist and Outside:

What did we miss? Tell us below in comments. We'll update this page as the presidential campaign continues.

Todd Hymas Samkara and Kate Sheppard contributed to this fact sheet.

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A nearly $5 billion proposed loan package from the U.S. government to British-owned Westinghouse Electric Corp. to build four massive nuclear reactors in China is encountering a flurry of objections. The objections are not about the nuclear waste that would result, or reactors' vulnerability to terrorist attacks and catastrophic accidents. The problem? "British-owned." As Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) put it, the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which would provide the loans and loan guarantees, "is funded by U.S. tax dollars; they should be supporting U.S. companies. I'm not against U.S. jobs, but shouldn't we be for U.S. companies?" Though the deal is expected to employ up to 5,000 U.S. workers to manufacture parts for the Chinese plants, critics point out that those jobs would cost the government about $1 million a pop. If Westinghouse does land the deal, though, said former Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham last week, it could make their new nuke plant model easier to build in the U.S. (which could mean more jobs). Whoopee!

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Kucinich: rhymes with spinach.

Photo: Kucinich for President.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has gone to great lengths to bill himself as the only true progressive among the Democratic presidential candidates -- vehemently opposed to war, NAFTA, and the World Trade Organization, and vehemently in support of universal health care, social security, and welfare. "I am running for president of the United States to enable the goddess of peace to encircle within her arms all the children of this country and all the children of the world," Kucinich said when he officially announced his candidacy on Oct. 13. So does he also have a direct line to the goddess of sustainability? And will he urge her to encircle within her arms the planet? How does environmentalism fit into his progressive agenda? Of the 10 key issues in the political platform described on his website, "Environmental Renewal and Clean Energy" comes in at number 10. Should we take that to mean it's last on his list of priorities?

When Grist got ahold of Kucinich on the campaign trail, he answered with a resounding "no." In fact, he said, the theories of sustainability that we associate with environmentalism are the defining principles of his entire political strategy -- not to mention his personal life. In the following interview, Kucinich pledges to increase America's reliance on renewable energy sources to a whopping 20 percent by 2010 and reveals insights into his veganism, his car, and his favorite environmental visionaries.

Hi, it's Dennis Kucinich. I'm in a very rural area so the reception may come in and out.

Great. Let's start with a general response to President Bush's environmental policies so far.

I'll start by saying that [as president] I will have an Environmental Protection Agency.

So the implication is that Bush doesn't have one at all?

The implication is that the EPA under Bush stands for Every Polluter's Ally. The air and the water and the land are viewed by this administration as just another commodity to be used for private profit. We have to be about what one writer called "the great work" of restoring our air and our water and our land. [We have] to look at it as the common property of all humanity -- as the commonwealth, rather, of all humanity. And so my candidacy arises from a philosophy of interdependence and interconnection which respects the environment as a precondition for our survival.

Is this philosophy of interconnection at the root of your progressive platform? You are known as the progressive Democratic candidate. Can you elaborate on what makes you more environmentally progressive than other candidates?

I'm not tied to any corporate interests that would strip our forests, that would pollute our air or water. Throughout my career, I have worked for structures of law that protect the environment, and the principles that animate my campaign are principles of sustainability. The principles that animate my life are principles of sustainability.

It sounds like you are referring to a broad, far-reaching notion of sustainability -- not just in terms of the environment, but in terms of econ--

Everything. In terms of everything. You know, monopolies are not sustainable economically. A full-employment economy is sustainable. Health care for all -- that's sustainable. Taking the profit out of health care creates sustainable health systems. Preventive health care, complementary and alternative medicines [are part of] a sustainable approach to health care. And universal education from pre-k[indergarten] all the way through college is a sustainable approach toward education. A qualitative approach to education is sustainable, as opposed to quantitative, which is based on test-taking.

So you want to apply the principles of sustainability we associate with environmentalism to an all-encompassing political model?

Yes. Sustainability is a principle that must infuse our whole approach to life. And the environmental movement is the path toward that. It's the key to understanding that the Earth and the air and the water provide the precondition for life. Life cannot exist without that. So we need to organize our structures of governance in a way that helps support basic principles for the furtherance of life on this planet. And when there is a collision between those values that support life and economic practices, the economic practices must always yield to protect the environment.

That's a very strong statement. Many environmentalists, and certainly most politicians, believe that there have to be tradeoffs between environmental and economic concerns. The Bush administration has led us to believe that these two goals of growing the economy and protecting the environment are radically incompatible. That's untrue, but still, you can't deny that big business at large fundamentally does not like environmental regulations. How would you balance these issues as president, knowing that you can't fully antagonize big business?

Well, wait a minute, you have to have enforcement of [protections for] air and the water. Many big businesses are not using sustainability, [so] we have to show big business where [it] can make money by being sustainable. That's where the profits are in the future. You know, the thinking of the future shows that you can make money from clean air and clean water -- [that will] improve productivity. And we have to recognize that air pollution and water pollution find some sort of transfer of wealth away from the people of the country toward corporations. That's not fair and that's not just. So I intend to challenge that thinking and lead America to new thinking on sustainability.

You have a 90 percent lifetime voting record from the League of Conservation Voters, which is strong. But many of the candidates have strong records and are wrapping themselves in the environmental mantle. Can you elaborate on how your record and vision on the environment differentiates you from the other candidates?

I have a long and consistent record of working for protecting the environment. I was active in helping draft the first environmental law protecting the air as a member of the Cleveland City Council 30 years ago. I led the effort in Ohio challenging nuclear power as being unsafe, unreliable, and unsustainable, and I'm still leading the effort in challenging it. And, most recently, I was at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, advocating a plan with Mikhail Gorbachev for a Global Green Deal that would enable the introduction of $50 billion of new solar projects around the world. It will be a major initiative to use our country's leadership in sustainable energy production to provide jobs to Americans, to reduce energy use here at home, and to partner with developing nations to provide their people with inexpensive, local renewable-energy technologies.

How would you extend that international clean-energy vision to the United States?

As a peace advocate, I will launch a major renewables effort [so that] Middle East oil fields [do] not loom so large as strategic or military targets. There has to be a renewable energy portfolio [standard] of 20 percent by 2010. And that means introducing wind, solar, hydrogen, geothermal, biomass, and all of the options that must be available and need incentivizing. That also means withdrawing incentives for the production of nonrenewable energy. I'm not talking about building new hydro dams; I'm not talking about damming up more rivers and streams.

Wow, that's a much more aggressive proposal than other candidates. But it would be incredibly expensive, given that we currently get less than 1 percent of our energy supply from renewables and 2010 is only seven years away. Do you really think you could fund the entire renewable project by diverting subsidies for traditional forms of energy?

That's right. And in addition to that, we need to subsidize the development of new energy technologies. And I'm willing to do that through NASA, which has been of singular importance in our economy in developing technologies for propulsion, for aerospace, for materials, for [medicines], and for communication. We need to fund NASA in, among other areas, a mission to planet Earth.

So is the idea tha--

We need a mission to planet Earth. And that mission to planet Earth is a mission that includes sustainability, the development of new energy technologies, and the conservation of our resources -- and we can then move successfully toward the creation of a 20 percent portfolio by 2010.

But there's another critical area here, which is peace. War is not sustainable. So my policies would end once and for all the war against Iraq by ending the occupation, by getting the United Nations in and the U.S. out, and by getting the United States to rejoin the world community in the cause of international cooperation.

In that way we set the stage for a new world, where the United States participates by saving the global environment. When we think about the environment, we have to take the broadest approach toward saving the planet itself. And that means we have to get rid of all nuclear weapons. The United States must get rid of all nuclear weapons, and as president, I will lead the way toward nuclear disarmament internationally, and I'll lead the way by signing the biological weapons convention and the chemical weapons convention and the small arms treaty and the land mine treaty, join the international criminal court, sign the Kyoto climate change treaty, and take all those steps that affirm the integrity of the planet itself. Because you cannot look at the environment in a compartmentalized way. The environment is everything and it includes all those claims for survival from people all over the world. We have to work to once and for all end war. And that's the dream of the Department of Peace, which is a bill that I introduced in the last two Congresses which now has 50 cosponsors.

So this is an extension of your original point that you want to have a holistic approach to sustainability.

Exactly. What differentiates me from all the other candidates is that I see the whole world as one, as being interconnected and interdependent. It's not to be divided along the lines of race, color, creed, or economic theory.

So issues are not to be divided and compartmentalized, but considered as a whole, just as you consider the people in our nation as a whole?

It's one human family. And the United States has the obligation to sustain that human family.

I'd like to plumb this further, but I know our time is limited, so let's move to your personal relationship to the environment.

Well, for the last eight and a half years I've been a vegan, and everything that implies.

What does that imply?

[Veganism] translates to being a conserver of resources. The choice of food that helps to promote sustainability [translates] to a choice of an American-made car that has one of the best mileages you can get, to --

What kind of car?

It's a Ford Focus. So I try to live it, not just [preach it]. I live in the same house in Cleveland that I've owned for 32 years.

Do you have energy-efficiency measures or solar on your roof?

I haven't retrofitted my house, but I made sure that I'm part of a public power company.

Do you spend much time outdoors?

Yes, I'm constantly taking hikes. You know, I'm constantly in nature. All the time. I'm walking wherever I can walk instead of drive.

Even with your busy schedule and on the campaign trail you get to do all this?

Well, on the campaign trail, I can't walk between stops.

But if you could you would, no doubt!

Right.

What about reading? Your policies seem to have a lot of larger theoretical underpinnings. What books have influenced you?

The people whose writings I follow include Wendell Berry and Thomas Berry and John Robbins and Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins and [other] pioneers in sustainability. My holistic view is informed by, you know, hundreds of books I've read. People like Michio Kushi, who wrote One Peaceful World. That's where I come from.

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Shocking -- but might this be a bit of good news? A U.S. Food and Drug Administration report has found that consumers want mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods and feel "outrage" when they learn just how many supermarket products already contain genetically engineered elements. Consumers are concerned that such foods may have negative environmental and health effects in the long term, the report concluded. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) have introduced bills to make labeling mandatory. But the FDA's Joseph Levitt said the agency did not consider labeling to be scientifically necessary or legally possible.

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Kraft Foods announced a nationwide recall on Friday of Taco Bell-brand taco shells found to contain small amounts of a genetically modified corn variety not approved for human consumption because it may cause allergies. The corn, known as StarLink, has been approved as animal feed, but in an effort to reassure the public, the manufacturer of the corn, Aventis Corp., announced today that it will suspend sales of the variety unless the U.S. EPA approves its use in human food. The recall is likely to put pressure on the biotech industry and the government to more tightly regulate genetically modified crops. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) is sponsoring a bill that would require stricter safety testing and mandatory labeling. But some experts are saying that accurate labeling would be difficult, since it is hard to keep genetically modified crops from contaminating and being mixed with other crops. Meanwhile, enviros are criticizing a new preliminary report released by the U.S. EPA that claims genetically modified corn is unlikely to pose a serious threat to monarch butterflies, despite recent high-profile studies that have found pollen from the corn plants can kill monarch caterpillars.

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Genetically modified (GM) crops have the potential to pose food safety risks and harm the environment so the U.S. government should do a better job of regulating the industry, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) said yesterday in a high-profile report. Still, the report, prepared by a panel of 12 scientists, was seen by many as giving a boost to the biotechnology industry because it also argued that crops genetically engineered to produce their own pesticides appear to be safe to eat. Reps. Jack Metcalf (R-Wash.) and Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) joined some environmental and consumer groups in saying the report is tainted because half of the authors have biotech industry ties and conflicts of interest. Metcalf and Kucinich have introduced a bill that would require labels on GM foods.

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