Whitman - Bush 'hurt' by environmental decisions
Date: 26-May-03
Country: USA
Author: Sue Pleming
Whitman, who said her decision to leave was for personal reasons, voiced frustration over how the United States pulled out of the international Kyoto treaty on global warming and said an about-turn on cutting carbon dioxide emissions had also harmed Bush's image at home and abroad.
"I think the two combined have hurt him unfairly. I think there's a very good case for both," Whitman said in an interview with NBC's "Today" show.
She said the administration had not explained the Kyoto decision clearly enough, especially to European countries who were harshly critical of the move.
"We should have laid out the fact that we weren't walking away from a commitment to addressing climate change because the administration is not. We are doing an awful lot that most people don't know about," Whitman said.
"Instead we just sort of said, 'We are not doing Kyoto,' and didn't say anything else. So to the Europeans it looked like we didn't care about the issue."
Whitman, a former governor of New Jersey, said when she had meetings with G8 countries, she was constantly forced to defend the U.S. decision on Kyoto. "It hurt the president," she said.
Another disappointment, said Whitman, was the reversal of a promise by Bush during his presidential campaign to cut carbon dioxide emissions. "It caught me by surprise, that one," she said.
Whitman said the reversal was based on the fact that Bush realized a "hard carbon cap" would have caused a shift to more oil and gas usage and resulted in either more oil imports or greater exploitation.
She said the U.S. public was open to a change of mind if the reasons were explained. "You need to say, 'This is why I have changed my mind. It's not just because I woke up one day and said carbon is not a good idea'."
Environmental groups were constantly at odds with Whitman, who joined the administration in January 2001. They said she promoted pro-business policies of the Bush administration that often conflicted with her environmental protection actions when she was governor of New Jersey.
"You can't worry about what people are saying. You have got to worry about whether it is good policy," Whitman said of the criticism.
Whitman's resignation is effective June 27.
