Earlier this week, President Bush outlined a new global warming plan calling for a
“national goal” to halt the growth of U.S. carbon emissions by 2025. Essentially, this policy would allow unchecked growth in emissions until that point, at which point, Bush has the “goal” of stopping the rate of growth of those emissions.
The administration’s plan was warmly received by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), the Senate’s biggest global warming skeptic, and even Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT). But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) is having none of it. Thursday, on PBS’s Charlie Rose, Schwarzenegger sharply rebuked Bush: “this administration is just not really with the program”:
We have to go and make decisions today. Time is running out there’s an urgency there. This is the important thing here. For him to say we should start really reducing greenhouse gases by the year 2025, by that time we’ll have no more glacier left. By that time, our sea level will be rising. We will be in a dangerous situation. I think it is somewhat irresponsible. I think the action is now.
Watch out:
Bush’s “new” climate change policy is really more of the same. The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson explained how Bush’s plan pales in comparison to the effectiveness of programs our allies are implementing:
| EUROPE | CANADA | UNITED STATES | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 Target For Greenhouse Emissions | 20% below 1990 levels | 1990 levels | No target; keep increasing until 2025 |
| Mechanism | Mandatory cap-and-trade system, performance standards, international offsets | Voluntary efficiency standards | Tax cuts for industry |
The IPCC has recommended that industrialized countries need to reduce emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.
Relive the White House’s seven years of climate policy failures here.
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