Democrats ask Bush to clarify global warming views
Date: 07-Jun-02
Country: USA
Author: Tom Doggett
Bush earlier this week appeared to dismiss the Environmental Protection Agency report that was sent to the United Nations, telling reporters that the study was a product of the federal government's "bureaucracy."
The report's conclusions put the administration for the first time in agreement with a growing number of scientists who say global warming is primarily caused by heat-trapping emissions produced by human activities. Those activities include driving automobiles, running electricity generating plants and refineries that turn crude oil into gasoline.
A group of Democratic Senate and House lawmakers wrote Bush yesterday and asked him to explain whether he was skeptical of the study's findings.
"We were taken aback by your recent statement in the press calling the nation's communication to the United Nations a 'report put out by the bureaucracy'," the lawmakers said in their letter.
"Your dismissive statement, however, suggests that you may not stand behind the findings and conclusions of the report," they added.
Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, seen as a possible presidential hopeful in 2004, was among the lawmakers who signed the letter. Other Democrats in the group included Reps. Jay Inslee of Washington, George Miller of California, Maurice Hinchey of New York and John Olver of Massachusetts.
Environmental issues are expected to figure in many of the congressional elections in November that will decide control of the U.S. House and Senate.
REPORT WRITTEN BY SEVERAL AGENCIES
Until the new report became public, the Bush administration had repeatedly emphasized that there was not enough scientific evidence to link global warming to industrial emissions.
The EPA report was written with input from the Departments of Energy, Commerce, Agriculture, State and Treasury.
The White House also reviewed the report for several months.
Earlier this week, Japan became the latest country to ratify the international Kyoto Treaty, a pact that seeks to limit emissions by industrialized nations.
The European Union has also adopted the treaty, and has criticized the United States - the world's biggest energy consumer and emission polluter - for not doing more to fight global warming.
Bush has repeatedly rejected U.S. participation in the Kyoto Treaty, saying it would be too costly for the American economy. Instead, the administration has put forward a plan encouraging U.S. industry to voluntarily curb its carbon emissions.
Environmental groups also criticized the Bush administration for trying to distance itself from the EPA conclusions on global warming.
The Natural Resources Defense Council said yesterday that the global warming report "was not the work of rogue bureaucrats" as President Bush has suggested, because it was reviewed by cabinet agencies and cleared by the White House.
"The White House is trying to disown its own scientific findings because they discovered that once you acknowledge global warming, you have to do something about it," said David Doniger, policy director for the NRDC Climate Center.
"America has the technology to start cleaning up the problem. This report is a warning that it's time to get moving," he said.
Gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are blamed for rising temperatures and changing weather patterns around the world.
The Democrats asked Bush if he agreed with several conclusions in the EPA report, including:
* "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing global mean surface air temperature and subsurface ocean temperature to rise. While the changes observed over the last several decades are likely due mostly to human activities, we cannot rule out that some significant part is also a reflection of natural variability."
* "Total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are projected to increase by 43 percent between 2000 and 2020."
* "The continuing growth in greenhouse gas emiss