Saturday, June 2, 2007
Nancy Pelosi: Bush 'In Denial' on Global Warming
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called President George W. Bush's new global warming plan a "profound disappointment" on Friday and said she wants Congress to pass legislation this year to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Just returned from a European tour focused on climate change, Pelosi said Bush's strategy, announced on Thursday, "rehashed stale ideas" and made her question whether the president understands the urgency of global warming.
"The science is clear, and yet the president continues to be in denial," Pelosi said at a briefing. "Yes, he says now he believes that global warming is happening and he accepts the science that it is . . . But if that were so, if he truly understood that, he could not have come up with a proposal that is 'aspirational.'"
Pelosi, a California Democrat who rose to the top leadership job in the House of Representatives when Democrats won control in November, wants Congress to pass legislation this year to require mandatory caps on heat-trapping emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas spewed by motor vehicles, factories and coal-fired power plants.
"Congress will act upon cap-and-trade legislation in this Congress," Pelosi said.
A cap-and-trade plan would limit the allowed level of greenhouse gas emissions; those companies that exceed the limit would be able to trade for emissions credits with companies that stay below the limit. Pelosi has said she wants to halve U.S. emissions by 2050 through a cap-and-trade system.
The Bush plan aims to gather representatives from 15 influential nations this year to discuss climate change and come up with long-term "aspirational goals" to reverse global warming by the end of 2008, in the last days of Bush's final term in office.
The White House would not define what "aspirational" meant, nor say how long long-term would be or when any global warming goals might go into effect. Mid-term goals were seen as being in the next two decades.
The United States, the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has rejected the so-called Kyoto Protocol that mandates emissions reductions, saying it unfairly omits fast-developing China and India and would hurt the U.S. economy.
The plan was announced before Bush heads for next week's summit in Germany of the Group of Eight industrialized nations. German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants the G8 to agree now on a need for world cuts of greenhouse gas emissions of about 50 percent by 2050, language that U.S. negotiators have rejected.
Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who heads a new House panel on global warming, said Bush should work with Europe rather than starting a new process.
"The president's goals are not aspirational, they're procrastinational," Markey said at the briefing with Pelosi. "What the president wants to do is set up a whole new process that will end just as he is leaving office and pass this red-hot issue on to his successor."
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called President George W. Bush's new global warming plan a "profound disappointment" on Friday and said she wants Congress to pass legislation this year to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Just returned from a European tour focused on climate change, Pelosi said Bush's strategy, announced on Thursday, "rehashed stale ideas" and made her question whether the president understands the urgency of global warming.
"The science is clear, and yet the president continues to be in denial," Pelosi said at a briefing. "Yes, he says now he believes that global warming is happening and he accepts the science that it is . . . But if that were so, if he truly understood that, he could not have come up with a proposal that is 'aspirational.'"
Pelosi, a California Democrat who rose to the top leadership job in the House of Representatives when Democrats won control in November, wants Congress to pass legislation this year to require mandatory caps on heat-trapping emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas spewed by motor vehicles, factories and coal-fired power plants.
"Congress will act upon cap-and-trade legislation in this Congress," Pelosi said.
A cap-and-trade plan would limit the allowed level of greenhouse gas emissions; those companies that exceed the limit would be able to trade for emissions credits with companies that stay below the limit. Pelosi has said she wants to halve U.S. emissions by 2050 through a cap-and-trade system.
The Bush plan aims to gather representatives from 15 influential nations this year to discuss climate change and come up with long-term "aspirational goals" to reverse global warming by the end of 2008, in the last days of Bush's final term in office.
The White House would not define what "aspirational" meant, nor say how long long-term would be or when any global warming goals might go into effect. Mid-term goals were seen as being in the next two decades.
The United States, the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has rejected the so-called Kyoto Protocol that mandates emissions reductions, saying it unfairly omits fast-developing China and India and would hurt the U.S. economy.
The plan was announced before Bush heads for next week's summit in Germany of the Group of Eight industrialized nations. German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants the G8 to agree now on a need for world cuts of greenhouse gas emissions of about 50 percent by 2050, language that U.S. negotiators have rejected.
Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who heads a new House panel on global warming, said Bush should work with Europe rather than starting a new process.
"The president's goals are not aspirational, they're procrastinational," Markey said at the briefing with Pelosi. "What the president wants to do is set up a whole new process that will end just as he is leaving office and pass this red-hot issue on to his successor."
