In a highly charged speech last night, presidential hopeful U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) attacked the Bush administration’s environmental plan, claiming he would make changes if elected.

‘I believe that if their administration doesn’t change its course, next election year will become Earth year,’ Kerry said to a crowd of about 500 people at the JFK Library.

Kerry, a Massachusetts senator since 1984, delivered his 45-minute speech to an audience composed of government officials, community members, press and library patrons. Kerry declared his decision to run for presidency on the Democratic ballot late last year and said he is ‘looking forward to this fight.’

During his speech, Kerry claimed President Bush, in his State of the Union address, made promises that will not actually help the environment the way it should be helped. The Healthy Forest Initiative calls to save trees by actually killing them, and the Clean Air Act lets polluting companies decide their own levels, Kerry said.

‘The possibilities are literally limitless, but it takes a commitment as strong and as bold as sending a man to the moon,’ Kerry said. ‘We can’t fulfill that commitment by sending the environment to the back of the budget and putting the polluters in charge.’

Kerry said he applauds the hydro-fuel cars Bush proposed, but makes argument that ‘300 million cars will be built before the hydro-fuel cars hit the road.’

Currently 65 percent of the United State’s oil comes from the Persian Gulf, while only 3 percent is in our country, Kerry said.

‘The Bush administration thinks we can drill our way out of our energy problems,’ Kerry said, interrupted by applause. ‘There’s no way under any capacity that the U.S. can drill our way to energy independence; we have to invent our way there, and it’s time we did.’

Surrounded by an American flag and a Massachusetts flag, Kerry said the United States should be the world’s environmental policy leader, and pledged to set a national goal of everyone being 30 percent energy independent by 2020.

‘I don’t want and we can’t accept to see our country take a back seat to Germany and Japan,’ Kerry said.

Kerry also stressed that a good environment goes ‘hand in hand’ with a ‘sound economy’ and national defense.

‘Why don’t we have a president that recognizes that friends we rely on to clean up the environment are friends we can call on to clean out the swamps of terrorism?’ Kerry said.

Following the speech, political analyst and moderator David Nyhan posed questions to Kerry about international policy and religion before an open forum with the audience.

Responding to a question about his support of Bush’s dealings with Iraq, Kerry said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is a threat that must be dealt with, but stressed he does not support Bush using the power the Senate gave him to cause a preemptive strike for a regime change or to go to war on a whim.

In regards to the situation in North Korea, Kerry said the way the Bush administration is dealing with the country is ‘one of the most inept, amateurish moments of American foreign policy.’

Kerry closed his speech with feeling and determination to change the nation.

‘If anyone wants to challenge me during this campaign on my sense of country or my commitment, I welcome them,’ he said.