We suspect President Bush sees his call for Americans to curb their thirst for gasoline as a major act of environmentalism. Although he framed his State of the Union energy proposals – led by a goal to cut U.S. gas consumption by 20 percent over 10 years – primarily in terms of national security, he broke new ground by saying “they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change.”
His acknowledgement that global warming is real, and serious, is welcome. So is his implied admission that human activity – the burning of fossil fuels – is contributing to the problem.
Having waited this long to face the reality of global warming, however, his goals are disappointingly modest. The president remains far behind most of the nation on this issue.
The latest evidence of that came Monday, when the chief executives of 10 major corporations – powerhouses like General Electric, DuPont, BP America, Caterpillar and Alcoa – urged Bush to call for mandatory ceilings on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The president has loudly opposed such caps, and that hasn’t changed.
Bush prefers letting technological innovation drive the reduction of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. In Tuesday’s address, he repeated previous calls for more research into production of alternative fuels like ethanol and biodiesel, and for the development of better batteries for plug-in hybrid vehicles.
That’s good, but it’s not nearly enough. Scientific evidence of damage already done by global warming, and the likelihood of more to come, continues to pile up. Human activity is making things worse, and the president missed a golden opportunity to lead a new national commitment to this challenge.
That leaves a void that must be filled by Congress, and there appears to be bipartisan willingness to so on Capitol Hill – with the growing support of corporate America.
Business leaders have begun coming around on climate change because they see that caps on carbon emissions are all but inevitable. Several states already are moving in that direction, and corporate leaders would prefer a national standard to a patchwork of different regulations and emission taxes.
If Bush follows through with strong new incentives for developing alternate fuels and increasing fuel-economy standards, he’ll be moving in the right direction. But even good steps must be weighed against his defense of billions in oil-industry incentives, money that’s being directed to a hugely profitable and polluting energy source and away from a cleaner future.
The president is late to this challenge, and brings too little to the fight. It’s up to Congress to pick up the slack.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
