Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Editorial: Bush still out of step on climate change
The president's 2001 pledge on global warming has brought little more than a campaign of resistance.
From the RoundTable blog
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President George W. Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol six years ago, but pledged that his administration would develop an alternative plan to address global climate change.
Nothing has happened, and no one should be surprised.
The administration remains stubbornly out of step with much of the nation, and world, on global warming.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this week called on industrialized nations to show greater leadership in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
He hasn't specified an emissions cap as the solution. But a senior U.N. adviser told The Washington Post that Ki-moon believes a legally binding limit on industrial emissions is a must.
Bush has steadfastly opposed an industrial emissions cap. Experts think he will use meetings in Washington Thursday and Friday to urge the world's largest industrial polluters to take a voluntary approach to global warming.
These nations are light years from Bush's position; their leaders are ready to negotiate deep emissions cuts.
Yet there stands Bush, clinging to skepticism on the world stage, and now apparently undermining efforts in his own country to address climate change.
States acting on their own have formed multistate climate action initiatives and pledged to limit emissions from power plants.
Even today, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine is expected to warn the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works about how climate change could jeopardize progress on Chesapeake Bay restoration.
California wants to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. The state needs a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency to do so.
But according to a Post report Tuesday, the Bush administration has conducted a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to generate opposition to California's request.
Again, an administration out of step, and dangerously so.
The country is crying for action and sound policy. Unfortunately, the policy of the Bush administration fails to reflect the will of the country -- and much of the world.
