Bush-won-t-regulate-carbon-dioxide-(guru)-

As I was driving home an hour or so ago ... I heard two news reports, one
immediately following the other.....

The first story was about some high school students who were complaining
because the school authorities had decided to take out the coke machines and
replace them with fruit juice machines......

MY GOSH!! I thought. The two are the same story.....!!! The story below is about a "15 year old" President of the United States ... who sees only the short term self gratification consequences of his decision...... Just like the high
school kids!!!!

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
........Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
--------------4FF8A85587996CE90E053B29-- --------------4AC0C3A2D4EFC32B2E89750D Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1; name="fullStory" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline; filename="fullStory" Content-Base: "http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObj ects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?ar ticle=406391562" Content-Location: "http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObj ects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?ar ticle=406391562" InfoBeat - Bush won't regulate carbon dioxide


				Wednesday, March 14, = 2001

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InfoBeat - Bush won't regulate carbon dioxide



By H. JOSEF HEBERT
Associated Press Writer

	   WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Wednesday he backed off
his campaign promise to regulate carbon dioxide emissions because
of the country's energy problems and not because of pressure from
industry lobbyists.
	   ``I was responding to realities and the reality is our nation
has a real problem when it comes to energy,'' Bush said,
reiterating that he fears limits on carbon dioxide emissions from
power plants would increase electricity prices.
	   Bush told reporters he is concerned that regulating carbon
dioxide emissions would hinder the efficiency of coal-burning power
plants and force greater use of natural gas, whose price this
winter spiked to more than double last year's level.
	   Coal, which accounts for half of the nation's electricity
generation, has been a relatively cheap fuel for power production.
	   The president denied criticism from environmentalists and some
congressional Democrats that he acted in response to pressure from
industry officials. The utility industry has lobbied the White
House in recent weeks against regulation of carbon dioxide, a
leading heat-trapping ``greenhouse'' gas that scientists say is
causing a warming of the Earth.
	   ``This administration will enforce the clean-air laws of the
country,'' Bush said. ``We've got an energy crisis in America that
we have to deal with in a commonsense way.''
	   Bush, in a letter Tuesday to Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. said that
while he took the issue of climate change ``very seriously'' he
would not support legislation to regulate carbon dioxide, which is
a product of burning fossil fuels.
	   His reversal, from a position taken during his campaign, brought
sharp criticism from environmentalists and some congressional
Democrats and moderate Republicans.
	   Rep. Harry Waxman, D-Calif., called it ``a breathtaking
betrayal'' of the president's campaign promise made on Sept. 29 in
which he pledged to support emission controls on several chemicals
from power plants including carbon dioxide.
	   The reversal came as three Republican moderates prepared this
week to join Democrats in introducing legislation that would
require power plants to curtail carbon dioxide by 2007.
	   Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., a sponsor of the proposed bill,
said Wednesday he was ``profoundly disappointed'' with the
president's reversal and that he would proceed with the legislation
anyway.
	   Boehlert dismissed Bush's explanation that controlling carbon
dioxide would lead to higher electricity prices, noting that
utilities would have years to deal with the issue and that by then
the current electricity price problems likely would have been
addressed.
	   ``He took the right stand on Sept. 29 during the campaign when
he endorsed controlling carbon dioxide emissions,'' Boehlert said
in a statement. ``None of the information cited in his letter to
explain the change was unknown on Sept. 29.''
	   Carbon dioxide never has been classified as a pollutant under
the Clean Air Act because it has no detrimental human health or
environmental impact except as it applies to concerns about global
warming.
	   Bush's letter came a week after Hagel and three other GOP
senators - Larry Craig of Idaho, Jesse Helms of North Carolina and
Pat Roberts of Kansas - raised concerns directly to the president
about the administration's views on climate change and the carbon
dioxide issue.
	   Recently, EPA Administrator Christie Whitman had embraced the
idea of requiring power plants to limit carbon dioxide emissions as
part of a broader package of regulations that also would address
mercury, smog-causing nitrogen oxide and sulfur releases that cause
acid rain.
	   This ``four-pollutant strategy'' had been part of Bush's energy
package announced in September and marked one of the few specific
proposals he ventured on the subject of climate change.
	   Whitman reasserted the pledge in a series of interviews and
again at a recent meeting in Italy with environmental ministers
from major industrial countries. She characterized the proposal as
evidence that the United States was intent on addressing the issue
of climate change.
	   Vice President Dick Cheney told some senators Tuesday that the
campaign position on carbon dioxide was a mistake and that Whitman
was simply ``a good soldier'' in reasserting the campaign pledge,
according to congressional sources who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
	   Explaining the shift, Bush aides said they did not realize
during the campaign that carbon dioxide was not a pollutant under
the Clean Air Act. Ironically, the president in his recent address
to Congress, originally had planned a reference to the
``four-pollutant'' strategy, but the remark was removed at the last
minute, according to sources familiar with the issue.
	   Whitman, the former New Jersey governor, could not be reached
late Tuesday on the matter.
	   Her recent remarks unleashed an intense lobbying campaign by the
coal and utility industries which would be most affected. The
Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned
utilities, made clear it strongly opposed mandatory controls on
carbon dioxide.
	   And critics of the Kyoto climate accord renewed charges that
Bush - as they often had accused the Clinton administration of
doing - was embarking on a ``backdoor implementation'' of the
treaty, which has yet to be ratified by the Senate. The Kyoto
accord requires industrial countries to cut greenhouse gas
emissions back to 1990 levels.

	   On the Net:
	   National Environmental Trust: http://www.environet.org
	   Natural Resources Defense Council: http://www.nrdc.org
	   Global Climate Coalition: http://www.globalclimate.org
	   Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov

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