Energy Bill Sent to President Bush

In an overwhelming 314 to 100 vote, the House today passed historic energy legislation that raises fuel economy standards for the first time in 30 years, boosts energy efficiency standards, and requires a significant increase in biofuels production. The Senate approved the legislation late last week, and President Bush has indicated that he will sign the bill into law before the end of the year.

According to analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), the bill's fuel economy and renewable fuel standards combined will save the country 2.3 million barrels of oil a day in 2020—more than what the United States currently imports from the Persian Gulf. The fuel economy provisions alone will create 149,300 jobs, and save consumers $22 billion at the pump every year starting in 2020, even after paying for the fuel-saving technology needed to meet the standards. In addition, the fuel economy standards will prevent more than 190 million metric tons of global warming emissions in 2020.

Bush says Fight against Global Warming must not hinder Economies

"President Bush has called for action in the fight against global warming, but said it must be done in a way that does not hinder economic growth.

Mr. Bush made the comment Friday, on the final day of a two-day international conference on climate change at the U.S. State Department.

The meeting has brought together the world's largest polluters, including the United States, China and India.

President Bush described the Washington meeting as an "important step" in seeking solutions to reducing greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

The United States, China and India oppose mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases sought by most European countries and the United Nations." |Read more|

At its session on Warming, US seems to stand apart

"The White House convened a two-day conference of the world’s major greenhouse-gas-emitting nations here on Thursday that served to highlight how isolated the Bush administration is on the issue of global warming.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged that climate change was a real global problem, and that the United States was a major contributor. She said the United States was willing to lead the international effort to reduce emissions of gases that had led to the warming of the planet, with the attendant ill effects.

But she repeated President Bush’s insistence that the solution could not starve emerging economies of fuel or slow the growth of the advanced nations. “Every country will make its own decisions,” she said, “reflecting its own needs and interests.”

Mr. Bush is scheduled to address the meeting on Friday.

Many delegates from the 16 nations at the conference expressed skepticism about the administration’s motives, fearing that Mr. Bush was trying to derail a global emissions-reduction program managed by the United Nations." |Read more|

President Bush Tries To Block California's Climate Law

It appears that the White House is working against our fight to stop global warming.
>
_______________________________________________________________________________________
"President Bush's transportation secretary, Mary Peters, with White House approval, personally directed a lobbying campaign to urge governors and two dozen House members to block California's first-in-the-nation limits on greenhouse gases from cars and trucks, according to e-mails obtained by Congress.

The e-mails show Peters worked closely with the top opponents in Congress of California's emissions law and sought out governors from auto-producing states, who were seen as likely to oppose the state's request that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allow the new rules to go into effect.

"The administration is trying to stack the deck against California's efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions," House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, wrote Monday to the White House. "It suggests that political considerations - not the merits of the issue - will determine how EPA acts."" |Read on|

President Bush To Be Active On Climate Front

"Amid a mounting sense of urgency about the need for action to slow climate change, President Bush this week will be playing what is, for him, an unusually prominent role in high-level diplomatic meetings on how to confront global warming.

What he will not do, officials said, is chart any shift in policies that have put him at odds with much of the world on the issue.

Monday, at a private dinner on climate change held by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Bush will join about two dozen other heads of state, several from countries most vulnerable to higher temperatures and rising seas. On Thursday, he will address a White House-hosted climate change conference that will include senior officials from rapidly developing nations such as China, India and Brazil, which have been reluctant to divert economic resources to curb their rising greenhouse gas emissions.

Top Bush administration officials said the president is not planning to alter his opposition to mandatory limits on greenhouse gases or to stray from his emphasis on promoting new technologies, especially for nuclear power and for the storage of carbon dioxide produced by coal plants." |Read more|

President Bush Is Ordered to Release Reports on Global Warming

"The judge set a May 31 deadline to produce a national assessment containing the most recent scientific data on global warming and its projected effects on the country's environment." Read more..

President Bush Has Initiated An International Summit To Tackle Global Warming

"Climate change has been singled out as a key point for discussion at the APEC conference, due to start in Sydney in a little over two weeks.

But without the agreement of the world's biggest polluter, the United States, any consensus would be meaningless.


Recently Mr. Bush invited the European Union and 15 other countries, including Australia, to take part in a summit at the end of next month to develop long-term voluntary goals to cut greenhouse emissions." Read more...