Bush feels the heat on climate change

In the summer of 2002 both Japan and the European Union endorsed the Kyoto protocol, which Bush rejects. Kyoto will coordinate international efforts to reduce global warming when ratified by Russia and other eastern European nations. When this happens the US will be isolated in terms of international opinion on the issue.

Within the US several states have taken independent action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, while the Senate has repeatedly pressed for more aggressive action. In December 2002, as one of his last acts as chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, former Republican Senator James Jeffords slammed the administration's record on the environment and said President Bush was

"undoing his father's legacy. Last week, the Bush administration announced devastating new regulations that will gut clean air laws -- allowing power plants to avoid installing simple anti-pollution equipment when they modernize… the power industry is getting a nice Christmas gift: the biggest weakening of the Clean Air Act in history."


Jeffords endorses the view of the Republican Main Street Partnership, voice of centrist Republicans, in calling for Bush to:

• Legislatively provide the EPA with a clear mission statement
• Simplify environmental reporting requirements to focus on results, not regulations
• Establish environmental improvement pilot programs at the state level
• Devote increased resources to researching the causes and effects of global warming
• Better understand -- and begin addressing -- the causes of and remedies to global warming

So far Bush has shown no inclination to adopt any of these plans, relying instead on voluntary curbs on industry which will see emissions continue to grow, but at a reduced rate. Independent experts within the US remain highly critical of the administration´s stance:

"You may not like what the science is telling you, especially on the issue of climate change, but sooner or later it's going to rear its head and you can't repress it," said Kevin Trenberth, climate analysis chief at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. "Nature will do what it has to, regardless of what politicians want."

"The pressure is building," said Paul Joskow, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology. "I think the federal government will eventually adopt a comprehensive greenhouse gas emissions control policy, but I don´t think it´s going to happen tomorrow."