Bush: ‘Good-bye from the world’s biggest polluter’
WASHINGTON _ That, according to reports out of Japan, was President George W. Bush’s farewell at the Group of 8 summit to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and other world leaders.
Bush has a well-defined sense of humor and he surely was deploying it after a session in which the threats from climate change loomed large.
But the president’s words in his final summit are raising eyebrows, particularly in view of his Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement today that it will take no new steps to regulate greenhouse gas emissions before Bush leaves office in January.
The administration’s decision defies the Supreme Court, which ruled last year that the EPA must decide whether greenhouse gas pollution from sources such as cars and power plants threatened human health and welfare.
The answer to that question would have been yes, according to EPA scientists who have spoken out on the issue, thereby triggering new pollution control rules under terms of the Clean Air Act.
Instead, the White House is delaying by issuing what is called an advance notice of proposed rulemaking – which will defer any action beyond the Bush presidency. Both John McCain and Barack Obama have promised to be aggressive about dealing with global warming.
By the way, Bush may have been mistaken in his joke. A Dutch study last year said that China had overtaken the United States for the distinction of the world’s biggest polluter as a result of burning so much coal.
The future looks more frightening considering that China has just 25 million or so autos on the road at present but expects thanks to its booming economy to have more than 150 million vehicles operating by 2020.
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He is the best! I will miss him. These two new candidates are such boring panderers.