ChimpCo "Diplomat" Slams EU On Emission Efforts, Confuses Latvia & Lithuania - Independent

Europe's carbon emissions trading system "simply isn't working", according to America's top diplomat to the EU, who has poured cold water on the idea that California might try to join a transatlantic scheme. In a defence of George Bush's record, C Boyden Gray, said the US was doing its share in tackling global warming and leading the world in developing technology to beat climate change. His comments angered European environmental experts, one of whom described them as "plain wrong".

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He also rejected European perceptions that California's efforts on climate change put it out in front of the Bush administration. Mr Gray said: "I don't think California is ahead of the federal government but I would suggest to you in response that Sweden is ahead of the European Commission. That's just a suggestion."

Mr Gray has a long association with the Bush family, and served as the White House legal counsel for George Bush Snr from 1989 to 1993. No stranger to ideological battles, he does not contest the science of global warming, arguing "the President hasn't changed his mind, he has consistently said the climate is warming and man has contributed to it."

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Mr Gray may not have endeared himself to Latvia's European Energy Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, by mistakenly suggesting he comes from Lithuania. Underlining the growing importance of a EU energy policy, Mr Gray said: "Two years ago when they set the current Commission up, nobody wanted energy. So it went to Lithuania. We are slighting Lithuania here but none of the bigger states wanted energy so it went to Lithuania. I think we are lucky because Piebalgs is really, really good so maybe they did everybody a favour."

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http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2255666.ece