Bush Takes the Lead

National Review ^

[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.

[Wiseghy]

The nation now has a strategic interest in moving away from total dependence on oil. Also, technology is driving down our emissions anyway.

Bush knows this is good time to make simple adjustments and help the world get away from Kyoto, which EVERYONE, privately, agrees is total cr*p, because it excludes China and India, and sets up ridiculous wealth transfers to Russia, etc. The US gets to show leadership that the world actually needs.

[Chi-townChief]

I think the president is trying to run out the clock on this one.

[ricks_place]

Don’t know how to take this. Is he lying when he says he thinks warming is a big problem?

There is no dispute. Global Warming is a BIG problem. The problem is not fully recognized nor appreciated by the public. The BIG problem is that Global Warming is a scam.

[greeneyes]

yeah, drag this out indefinitely. Didn’t I just read that in 5 years it will be a big joke because the temperature will be in one of the colder phases.