Posted on 06/05/2007 8:12:45 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Bush Takes the Lead
By The Editors
From the early days of the Kyoto Protocol, one of the not-so-hidden agendas of the Europeans was to use climate-change agreements to hobble the American economy, so much so that even the Clinton administration felt compelled to push back. Now, with President Bush politically weak and relentless fearmongering over climate “catastrophe,” this week’s G-8 meeting has been shaping up as another attempted mugging of Uncle Sam. Tony Blair is triumphant in his pronouncements that “there’s a change in mood in America,” making possible “a new binding international agreement to come into effect when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012 . . . one which is more radical than Kyoto and more comprehensive.”
President Bush’s announcement last week that he will convene a conference of the Big 15 greenhouse-gas emitters is a fair bid to turn the tables on the Europeans and slam the door on Son of Kyoto. As the New York Times put it: “For six years, Europeans have pleaded with President Bush to seize the initiative in the campaign against global warming. Now that he has, many [in Europe] are even more frustrated.”
Bush has firmly rejected hard emissions caps and international tradable-emissions schemes (cap and trade). In his recent remarks, he emphasized that emerging nations such as China and India should be able to set their own emissions goals relative to their economic circumstances, and press above all for technology transfer. Translation: Any realistic greenhouse-gas-emissions program will have to recognize that developing nations such as China and India must grow. This is true also of the U.S., whose economy continues to expand even as Europe stagnates.
(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...
Don’t know how to take this. Is he lying when he says he thinks warming is a big problem?
Bush needs to drag this thing out indefinitely. A good plan.
i think it’s a rope a dope........
How is the dope? Europe or Americans?
I HOPE it’s rope-a-dope.
With his threat to revive the LOST treaty, who knows? Bush has a record as a big spender, and he might think that a few trillion here or there might be well spent if it keeps the Euros happy.
I hope not. No question that the purpose of the original Kyoto treaty was to milk the American economy. Which was why every other nation in the world was so furious when we refused to sign, because we weren’t there as usual to pick up the tab.
One thing we know about Bush is he says what he means. This is admirable. So people who think he is pulling an elaborate ruse are just fooling themselves.
You could be right. My big question is....what good would it do to go along with the EU if it ruins our country? Don’t take me wrong here. I think the environment is important and we should do what we can to protect it, but if it puts us back into the caveman era, what good is it? If it makes us vulnerable to attack from outside sources and ruins our economy then it is counter productive for Americans and America is what we need to be concerned about.....not the EU.
100% correct. Very few nations of the world do not try to bleed America dry. China is perhaps the most polluting Country in the world. If these foreign Countries would show some progress on their own, maybe we should be more concerned. But still, that does not mean we should be not working on our own, such as more nuclear power plants and better fuel economy vehicles.
GW is a big problem. It is a hoax that could cost us a lot of money we should spend solving real problems. I agree with the poster above that the Summit is a way to let the others down gracefully. We have spent billions on science to decide , and it does not support the untested hypothesis that drove Kyoto.
It’s not admirable because the Kyoto treaty was a load of cr*p. It has done nothing to fight pollution, but was merely a failed political ploy.
The same with global warming, which the Euros are currently obsessed with and are determined to push on us, with help from the Democrats.
I happen to believe strongly in fighting pollution. But you don’t do it with political scams that waste billions, or by tax redistributions from free nations to socialist states and thugocracies. You do it by actually DOING something about it in a cost effective manner. Nothing that comes out of an international meeting like this with a bunch of Eurosocialists is ever going to be cost effective or sensible.
But America is the dope being roped.
You miss my point. It is honorable that he says what he thinks. You know where he stands. And he stands on the wrong side of the global warming issue.
He is probably not lying. He has a big tax waiting for you and me. If he thinks 4% of greenhouse gases are a big problem, then he is a fool or a RINO. He seems to be disconnected completely from his base like our “Arnold” here in CA. Arnold is acting like the second coming of Hillary Clinton. Talk about a girlie man, he has become one.
China and India could accept a GHG-intensity goal, for it is in their economic interest to improve their energy efficiency in cost-effective ways.
Bottom line: We will team with China, India and other developing economys by harnessing the GW madness and using it to keep our economies booming while leaving Europe in our wake.
Humans are causing global warming? What the heck is up with Republicans??? First Gingrich, now Bush. Just damn...
Global warming will make us all uncomfortable, then AIDs will finish us off.
That’s why we need more Mexicans: They are both heat and disease resistant.
Bush’s stance on global warming has been one of the few bright spots of his time in office. I hope he isn’t changing.
He's saying that regardless of the argument, the best way to look at GHGs is through economic output. In this regard, the USA loads the way in efficiency through better use of technology. He is basically saying screw Kyoto and that it is technology that will address the problem.
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