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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: miraje who wrote (66435)	5/19/2006 1:36:05 PM
From: bentway	Respond to of 173976

At least Clinton sent representatives to negotiate! Bush just said GFY when it was HIS turn. No wonder he has no global allies. --------------------------------------------------------------- Bush's Kyoto Alternative Criticized by Allies, Democrats and Activists President George W. Bush unveiled an alternative to the Kyoto climate change treaty he spurned last year, to the dismay of environmentalists who saw the plan as a gift to corporate America. "The Bush administration is sticking to the polluting policies that the energy industry asked for rather than taking the sensible steps that can protect our health," Executive Director of the Sierra Club Carl Pope said Thursday. "It's been written, paid for and delivered by Exxon," said Greenpeace spokesman on climate change Steve Sawyer. "As near as we can tell, the emissions intensity being talked about... would leave the United States with an increase in emissions of 25-30 percent in 1990 levels by 2010. This compares with their commitment under Kyoto of minus seven percent." Bush, in one of his first actions upon taking office in January 2001, yanked US support for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which requires wealthy nations to cut to 1990 levels the emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. Bush sparked a worldwide uproar with his decision to abandon Kyoto because he said it was likely to cost millions of US jobs. He insisted the new plan, which would slow emissions growth by reducing "greenhouse gas intensity" -- the ratio of emissions to economic output -- by a target of 18 percent over 10 years, does not shortchange economic growth. "I will not commit our nation to an unsound international treaty that will throw millions of our citizens out of work. Yet, we recognize our international responsibilities," he said in an address at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in nearby Silver Spring, Maryland. "This is the common sense way to measure progress. Our nation must have economic growth. Growth is also what pays for investments in clean technologies, increased conservation and energy efficiency." Those are noble goals, said top House Democrat Dick Gephardt, but not goals that may be achieved through Bush's alternative plan, which reveals the administration's greater interest "in giving assistance to the corporate special interests, than in achieving genuine reductions in carbon dioxide emissions." Henry Waxman, a member of the US House of Representative's caucus on climate change, went a step further, deriding the Bush plan as "doublespeak." "What he calls a reduction in 'greenhouse gas intensity' is in reality a large increase in actual greenhouse gas emissions. And his proposed voluntary system for tracking emissions will make Enron's books look honest in comparison," the California Democrat said. The White House argued Bush's voluntary plan would lower US emissions from an estimated 183 metric tons per million dollars of gross domestic product in 2002 to 151 metric tons per million dollars of GDP in 2012. But Climate Action Network Australia (CANA) spokeswoman Anna Reynolds said this would lead to an actual increase in emissions given projected GDP growth. "Emissions under Bush's plan will actually increase by 14 percent during the time period because of expected growth of GDP," Reynolds said in a statement." To induce businesses and consumers to go along with the plan, Bush's initiative offers 4.6 billion dollars over five years in tax credits for renewable energy sources. Mindful of his international audience, Bush -- who says Kyoto unfairly exempted large developing nations like India and China -- insisted this method would give such countries a "yardstick" for progress against pollution. Neighboring Canada said the Bush plan was not an adequate solution to the global warming problem. "We do not agree that this is a better approach," said Canadian Environment minister David Anderson in a telephone press conference from Cartagena, Colombia, where he was attending a UN environment conference. "We believe that the United States made a mistake in rejecting the Kyoto system." Japan acknowledged Bush's announcement but insisted on the establishment of a "common rule in the future in which all countries including the United States and developing countries participate" to address global warming. Indian environmentalists also Friday criticized Bush's alternative as a "hollow attempt" to shift the responsibility for cutting greenhouse gas emissions onto developing nations. Neelam Singh, of the Center for Science and Environment lobby group, said Bush's plan would continue to protect US corporate polluters. "Bush can attack India and China all he likes. But there is no getting away from the fact that the United States which is highly industrialized is also one of the highest emitters of carbon dioxide," said Singh. But the plan did receive some support. Australian Prime Minister John Howard welcomed it as a positive alternative to the Kyoto Protocol. "I do think what the president indicates today in his speech is that the Americans have taken seriously the need to develop an alternative to simply saying 'no' to the Kyoto Protocol and I welcome that," he said. "I think it is a very positive thing." Bush said he would seek to sell the plan during his trip to Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing next week, even as Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said the president was leading top US officials in a charm offensive to court world leaders. Copyright © 2002 AFP