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Democrat president hopefuls push environment in LA

By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES, June 26 (Reuters) - Al Sharpton was witty, Howard Dean was on message, John Kerry was statesmanlike, Carol Moseley Braun sought higher ground and Joe Lieberman savaged the Bush administration as the Democratic presidential candidates showcased their environmental credentials.

Making their first appearance as a road show in Los Angeles, a key battleground for both votes and money in the Democratic presidential primaries, the candidates won approving reviews from environmentalists on Thursday in a state where that looms as a major issue.

Five of the Democrats' nine candidates held a debate and all said they believed car fuel economy standards should be nearly doubled to at least 40 miles per gallon. They identified the nation's oil consumption habits as a issue threatening national security.

"I believe the sacrifices that are needed are sacrifices of bad habits but we do not need to sacrifice quality of life," Kerry, the junior Democratic senator from Massachusetts, said. He added he would remove the Bush administration's "obscene" tax incentives for buying such intimidating vehicles as $60,000 Hummer H-2s and give the tax break to electric vehicle owners instead.

Sharpton, a black civil rights leader, drew laughs by suggesting ties between high Bush administration officials and oil companies had tainted President George W. Bush's environmental policies. "It's so oily in Washington it's greasy," he said.

Lieberman, the Democrats' vice presidential candidate in 2000, used his time in the 90-minute debate to criticize the Bush administration's policies across the board. "I can't think of anything," he replied when asked which of Bush's environmental actions he supported.

The senator from Connecticut added the nation's top environmental policy should be "to defeat George Bush."

Dean, the former Vermont governor and a physician, was peppered with questions that drew on his medical background.

He succinctly spelled out plans for removing lead-based paint from homes and schools and spoke of his support for genetically modified crops.

Moseley Braun, a former Illinois senator and one of the few black women to serve in the U.S. Senate, said she was seeking "to rebuild the country both physically and spiritually" and bring it back to its Democratic roots.

University of Southern California political scientist Sherry Bebitch Jeffe said that Kerry projected the most presidential stance of the night.