Bush* Plans on Global Warming Alter Little

Voluntary Programs Attract Few Firms

Thursday, January 1, 2004; Page A01

Two years after President Bush declared he could combat global warming without mandatory controls, the administration has launched a broad array of initiatives and research, yet it has had little success in recruiting companies to voluntarily curb their greenhouse gas emissions, according to official documents, reports and interviews.

At the heart of the president's strategy is "Climate Leaders," a program that recruits the nation's industrial polluters to voluntarily devise ways to curb their emissions by 10 percent or more in the coming decade. Scientists believe these greenhouse gas emissions, which include carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, are contributing to a troubling rise in the earth's temperature that could disrupt weather patterns and cause flooding.

Only a tiny fraction of the thousands of U.S. companies with pollution problems -- 50 in all -- have joined Climate Leaders, and of the companies that have signed up, only 14 have set goals. Many of the companies that are volunteering say they did so either because reducing emissions makes good economic sense or because they were being nudged by state and federal regulators.

Industry groups, meanwhile, have crafted their own programs under a Bush administration initiative called "Climate VISION," but none of the programs requires individual companies to either enlist in the program or set goals for emission reductions.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46212-2003Dec31.html

Let's LOOK like we're doing something, without actually doing ANYTHING. Any plan based on "voluntary" reduction of emissions with no accountability isn't going to work...the only thing that will is setting reduction targets, and then imposing fines and sanctions on corporations, public utilities, etc. that fail to meet those targets. (This includes fining automobile manufacturers for failure to improve fuel efficiency, instead of passing the cost along to the consumers as a tax.) About what I'd expect, though.

Pray the Rapture comes and takes us away from this self-made craphole before we choke on our own filth.

Fake Bush is an environmentalist headline. Then nothing.