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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ish who wrote (167727)	8/4/2001 10:04:25 PM
From: ColtonGang	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

A physical consists of an exam, drawing blood, getting a urine sample, and a rectal exam. Add a stress test, EKG, and take vitals..............These tests all together may take 2 to 3 hours but not six hours unless it took that long for Dubya to catch his breath!

To: Ish who wrote (167727)	8/4/2001 10:33:12 PM
From: ColtonGang	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

McCain, Lieberman Urge Greenhouse Gas Curbs Senators Press Bush on Global Warming _____From The Post_____ By Eric Pianin Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, August 4, 2001; Page A01 Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and Democratic Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) yesterday jointly called for a plan to require all U.S. power plants and industries to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, the latest sign of congressional unrest with President Bush's handling of global warming. The announcement from two of the Senate's leading figures follows a unanimous vote in the Foreign Relations Committee this week urging Bush to return to the bargaining table this fall with specific proposals for a new binding international global warming treaty. While most senators agree with Bush that the 1997 Kyoto protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a bad deal for the United States, many sharply disagree with his refusal to negotiate an alternative pact with U.S. allies. On July 23, negotiators from 178 countries adopted rules for implementing the Kyoto treaty -- but without U.S. participation -- and Lieberman and McCain joined a growing chorus of lawmakers urging Bush to reconsider his stance. "I have been extremely troubled by the failure of our government to engage on this crucial issue," Lieberman said in a floor speech. "I believe this failure abdicates the United States' position as a leader in environmental affairs and places U.S. industry at risk." McCain became the first Senate Republican to propose such an aggressive approach to controlling greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists say trap heat in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. It was a dramatic evolution in his thinking since his unsuccessful challenge to Bush in the 2000 campaign, when McCain initially questioned whether global warming was a real problem. Since then, the maverick conservative has held a series of Commerce and Science Committee hearings highlighting the need for swift action while Bush has largely called for more research. "Given the fact that the United States produces approximately 25 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions, the United States has a responsibility to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases," McCain said in a floor speech. "The current situation demands leadership from the United States." McCain and Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential nominee last year and a potential presidential candidate in 2004, said they intend to introduce legislation later this year that would set an economy-wide cap on U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases. The bill would also establish a trading system that would allow utilities and plants with excessive emissions to purchase credits from more efficient companies that have reduced emissions beyond their targets. A similar system has operated for years, under the Clean Air Act, to limit the threat of acid rain. Lieberman and McCain offered few details and said they intend to confer widely with industry and political leaders before introducing their bill. White House spokesman Scott McClellan did not respond directly to the Lieberman-McCain initiative. But he said a high-level Cabinet working group has been meeting with "a shared goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a truly global approach that would not exempt developing countries and won't harm America's economy." During last year's campaign, Bush was highly critical of the Kyoto treaty's tough mandatory reductions on greenhouse gas emissions and said the plan unfairly exempted developing countries while placing more onerous burdens on the United States. The president backed away from a campaign pledge to work to reduce power plant emissions of carbon dioxide and instead is promoting a plan focusing on three other pollutants -- nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said last month that the United States would have a new global warming proposal ready for an international meeting in November, but national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman subsequently said the administration had no such plan. The administration's tough line on talks has elicited protests from lawmakers who favor a more aggressive policy. Recently, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.) unveiled a plan to regulate all four major power plant pollutants, including carbon dioxide. Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) have jointly sponsored a bill -- approved in committee this week -- to prompt the administration to do more on the problem. Moreover, several moderate and conservative Senate Republicans, including Sam Brownback (Kan.), Susan Collins (Maine) and Olympia J. Snowe (Maine), have introduced or co-sponsored measures aimed at reducing global warming. However, none of those proposals is nearly as far-reaching as the one being offered by McCain and Lieberman. Fred Krupp of Environmental Defense described the announcement as "a major signal we are going to move forward on greenhouse gases." Philip J. Clapp of the National Environmental Trust said: "It's a representation of how impatient even Republican senators have become." McCain and Lieberman argued that without taking the more aggressive approach, U.S. multinational corporations will be forced to operate under two sets of rules and will be denied access to the emissions credit trading system that will be established by the Europeans and the Japanese under the Kyoto agreement.