Kliima kohta USAs (0)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/06/20010611-2.html
*I also call on Congress to work with my administration to achieve the significant emission reductions made possible by implementing the clean energy technologies proposed in our energy plan. Our working group study has made it clear that we need to know a lot more.
*The United States has spent $18 billion on climate research since 1990 -- three times as much as any other country , and more than Japan and all 15 nations of the EU combined.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2004/feb/22/usnews.theobserver
*Jeremy Symons, a former whistleblower at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said that suppression of the report for four months was a further example of the White House trying to bury the threat of climate change .
*Senior climatologists, however , believe that their verdicts could prove the catalyst in forcing Bush to accept climate change as a real and happening phenomenon. They also hope it will convince the United States to sign up to global treaties to reduce the rate of climatic change.
*Among those scientists present at the White House talks were Professor John Schellnhuber, former chief environmental adviser to the German government and head of the UK's leading group of climate scientists at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. He said that the Pentagon 's internal fears should prove the 'tipping point' in persuading Bush to accept climatic change.
*Bob Watson , chief scientist for the World Bank and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, added that the Pentagon's dire warnings could no longer be ignored.
*'Can Bush ignore the Pentagon? It's going be hard to blow off this sort of document . Its hugely embarrassing. After all, Bush's single highest priority is national defence. The Pentagon is no wacko, liberal group, generally speaking it is conservative . If climate change is a threat to national security and the economy , then he has to act. There are two groups the Bush Administration tend to listen to, the oil lobby and the Pentagon,' added Watson.
*'You've got a President who says global warming is a hoax, and across the Potomac river you've got a Pentagon preparing for climate wars. It's pretty scary when Bush starts to ignore his own government on this issue ,' said Rob Gueterbock of Greenpeace.
*Symons said the Bush administration's close links to high-powered energy and oil companies was vital in understanding why climate change was received sceptically in the Oval Office. 'This administration is ignoring the evidence in order to placate a handful of large energy and oil companies,' he added.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/29/usnews.climatechange
*George Bush was castigated by European diplomats and found himself isolated yesterday after a special conference on climate change ended without any progress.
*Britain and almost all other European countries, including Germany and France , want mandatory targets for reducing greenhouse emissions . Mr Bush, while talking yesterday about a "new approach " and "a historic undertaking", remains totally opposed.
*"It was a total charade and has been exposed as a charade," the diplomat said. "I have never heard a more humiliating speech by a major leader . He [Mr Bush] was trying to present himself as a leader while showing no sign of leadership. It was a total failure."
*In contrast with the early years of his presidency when he expressed scepticism about climate change and whether humans were responsible, Mr Bush acknowledged yesterday "energy security and climate change are two of the great challenges of our time. The United States takes these challenges seriously."
He added: "Our guiding principle is clear: we must lead the world to produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and we must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity."
*Instead of mandatory caps , he emphasised a need to shift to clean coal , nuclear energy and new clean technology . He also proposed a new international technology fund but did not say how much the US would put into it. He reiterated a need for Americans to shift from oil to ethanol for their cars. "We're working to develop next-generation plug-in hybrids that will be able to travel nearly 40 miles without using a drop of gasoline. And your automobile doesn't have to look like a golf cart," he said.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_roberts/2008/04/bushs_climate_change_sideshow.html
Bush, with allies on both right and left - notably John Dingell (D-Big Three) - is determined to protect the US auto industry from further regulation . After a vicious fight, the administration acceded to a boost in Cafe standards last year . It is now using that boost as an argument that further regulation of the industry - under, say, an economy- wide cap-and-trade system like the one now being discussed by Congress and all three presidential candidates - would be redundant , confusing ... why, a "glorious mess" (Dingell's words, cited by Bush). In reality , automakers would simply have to meet the highest standard applied to them . That's not confusing; they just don't want to do it.
What would also be unacceptable, according to Bush, is for "unelected regulators and judges" to force a "one size fits all" set of carbon regulations on the country. The unelected judges in question are the ones on what Bush refers to dismissively as "some courts" - that is, the US supreme court . The unelected regulators are the ones in Bush's own EPA, which was told by the court in no uncertain terms that it is obligated by the Clean Air Act to regulate CO2. "One size fits all" means that CO2 would thus be subject to national regulations, and the Bush administration couldn't cut deals with every industry individually. Oh, the affront to democracy.
*Hilariously, Bush said that such incentives "should be technology- neutral because the government should not be picking winners and losers" - not noticing, apparently, that elsewhere in the speech he promised billions in subsidies to "clean" coal, nuclear power and biofuels.
*Ultimately, the speech itself was a sideshow. No one cares what Bush thinks about climate, and nothing he does will particularly constrain the next administration. But the subtle shaping of the debate, the themes , the buzzwords, are not unique to him. They are the means by which the American conservative movement will continue to protect its corporate backers at the expense of the public.
http://www.state.gov/g/oes/rls/fs/46741.ht m
I've asked my advisors to consider approaches to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including those that tap the power of markets, help realize the promise of technology and ensure the widest possible global participation….Our actions should be measured as we learn more from science and build on it. Our approach must be flexible to adjust to new information and take advantage of new technology. We must always act to ensure continued economic growth and prosperity for our citizens and for citizens throughout the world.” – President George W. Bush