Monday, April 24, 2006
(BN ) Bush Faces Dissent From Republicans on Climate Change
Bush Faces Dissent From Republicans on Climate Change (Update1)
2006-04-24 08:11 (New York)
(Adds comment from Al Gore in the fourth paragraph.)
By Kim Chipman
April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Representative Bob Inglis, a South
Carolina Republican, says he ``pooh-poohed'' global warming
until he trekked to the South Pole in January.
``Now, I think we should be concerned,'' says Inglis, who
heads the U.S. House Science Research subcommittee. ``There are
more and more Republicans willing to stop laughing at climate
change who are ready to get serious about reclaiming their
heritage as conservationists.''
U.S. companies including General Electric Co. and Duke
Energy Corp. have come out in support of national limits on
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions that
scientists say contribute to global warming. They are now being
joined by Republican lawmakers who have parted company with
President George W. Bush on the issue.
``As the evidence of global warming becomes undeniable,
momentum is building to take action to cut greenhouse gas
emissions,'' former Vice President Al Gore said in an e-mail.
``A lot of elected officials who used to reflexively oppose
action on global warming have begun to change their positions.''
In addition to Inglis, who says he saw evidence of heat-
trapping gases in the atmosphere during his trip to Antarctica
that confirmed his growing concern, the list of Republicans
paying more attention to global warming includes Senators Pete
Domenici of New Mexico, the chairman of the chamber's Energy
Committee; Mike DeWine of Ohio; and Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina, as well as Representative Jim Leach of Iowa.
`Resistance Crumbling'
``Resistance to action on climate change is crumbling,''
says Reid Detchon, an Energy Department official under former
President George H.W. Bush who is now head of energy and climate
at the United Nations Foundation. ``The business community has a
number of prominent leaders arguing for action, and the science
on climate change becomes clearer and more inescapable by the
day.''
Republicans also are under pressure from one of their core
constituencies: fundamentalist Christians. In February, 86
evangelical leaders called on the government to curb greenhouse
gases emitted by cars, power plants and other sources, saying
they felt a moral duty to speak out because global warming is
endangering the earth.
``A lot has changed in the last year, largely because of a
grassroots movement of people who for varied and sundry reasons
care about this cause,'' says the Reverend Richard Cizik, vice
president for governmental affairs at the National Association
of Evangelicals, a Colorado Springs, Colorado-based group that
represents 30 million Christians. ``There's no safe ground
anymore for Republicans to ignore this issue or call it a
hoax.''
Fresh Hope
The shift has given fresh hope to lawmakers such as
Senators John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Joseph
Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, who are co-sponsors of
legislation to limit carbon emissions. McCain is expected to
push for another Senate vote on the measure this year and says
he's prepared to make climate change a campaign issue if he runs
for president in 2008.
McCain says he and his allies ``will make the Senate keep
on voting and voting and voting'' and, in time, ``we will win.''
The measure has twice failed to pass the Senate and, along
with other climate-change legislation, lacks support in the
House of Representatives. Still, many companies say they think
it's just a matter of time before Congress approves a carbon
cap.
``Two years ago, we weren't talking about it; it's a
dramatic change,'' John Krenicki, head of Atlanta-based GE
Energy, a unit of Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric,
said in an interview. He predicts that a greenhouse gas limit
will be in place in less than five years.
Welcome Regulation
GE Energy, the world's biggest maker of power-plant
equipment, and Charlotte, North Carolina-based Duke Energy, the
largest U.S. utility owner, are among companies that told the
Senate Energy Committee earlier this month they welcome carbon
regulation.
The companies say they want certainty before making
billions of dollars in investments in ``clean'' technologies.
They also are wary of having to deal with a hodgepodge of state
standards.
``It's a nightmare for any business,'' says Christine Todd
Whitman, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during
President George W. Bush's first term. ``We need one standard
nationally.''
GE and other companies also face carbon restrictions in
Europe, Japan, Canada and other countries participating in the
Kyoto Protocol that restricts carbon emissions from cars, power
plants and other sources. Bush rejected the accord in 2001
because of concern that it would make U.S. businesses less
competitive.
Voluntary Approach
Instead, Bush has called on companies to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions voluntarily. His top adviser on climate change,
White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairman James
Connaughton, says the president also supports some mandatory
policies that would reduce carbon emissions, including new fuel-
economy standards and a requirement for more ethanol in
gasoline.
Connaughton says activists merely are annoyed that Bush
isn't talking nonstop about climate change. ``We don't need to
say it three times in the same 15-minute speech,'' he said in an
interview.
Inglis insists more is needed and is drafting legislation
that would make Bush's greenhouse-gas limits mandatory.
Gore, who has campaigned about the need to act against
climate change for decades, says Republican support is critical.
``It may fall to us as Democrats to push the political
consensus across the tipping point and I hope we will, but we
need to bring Republicans along with us,'' Gore said at an April
10 Democratic fundraiser in New York.
`We Beg to Differ'
Gore wants to persuade more Republicans and the general
public about the dangers of climate change next month when
Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures releases ``An Inconvenient
Truth,'' a documentary about his campaign to get Americans to
take global warming seriously.
Not all Republicans are convinced. Senator James Inhofe, an
Oklahoma Republican who in 2003 called man-made global warming a
``hoax,'' still opposes mandatory emission limits and says they
could result in lost jobs and higher energy prices. ``To those
out there saying a federal carbon cap is inevitable, we beg to
differ,'' says Bill Holbrook, a spokesman for Inhofe, who chairs
the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Nevertheless, Whitman says the time for legislative action
may be right because ``being seen as against doing something on
climate change isn't a place Republicans want to be.''
Last month, an ABC News-Time magazine-Stanford University
poll showed 85 percent of Americans believe global warming
probably is occurring, up from 80 percent in 1998.
`Seeing Is Believing'
The change is palpable in the Senate. Graham, who has said
in the past that he was ``on the fence'' about climate-change
legislation, became a stronger advocate for taking action after
a trip to Alaska in August with McCain and Senators Susan
Collins, a Maine Republican, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, a New
York Democrat. They heard from Native Alaskans who are
experiencing melting permafrost, coastal erosion and other
effects of climate change.
``Seeing is believing,'' says Graham spokesman Kevin
Bishop. Bishop says Graham believes global warming is a problem
that must be addressed, while declining to say if Graham would
support specific legislation such as the McCain-Lieberman
measure.
``When you have the overwhelming evidence from eminent
scientists on one side, and a few skeptics on the other, we are
guided by the thoughts of the overwhelming, not the few,'' says
Representative Sherwood Boehlert of New York, who heads the
House Science Committee.
--With reporting by Rachel Layne in Boston and Tina Seeley in
Washington. Editor: Berley (khf/rxj/scc/jmw)
Story illustration: For emissions credit prices, see {EMIT
<GO>}.
For a menu of environmental news, information, see {ENVW <GO>}.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Kim Chipman in Washington at (1) (202) 624-1927 or
kchipman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Ken Fireman at (1) (202) 624-1978 or
kfireman1@bloomberg.net
[TAGINFO]
GE US <Equity> CN
DUK US <Equity> CN
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#<545561.500134.2005-11-10T14:40:00.25>#
#<160929.171773>#
#<610731.50932.2005-11-10T14:40:00.25>#
-0- Apr/24/2006 12:11 GMT
2006-04-24 08:11 (New York)
(Adds comment from Al Gore in the fourth paragraph.)
By Kim Chipman
April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Representative Bob Inglis, a South
Carolina Republican, says he ``pooh-poohed'' global warming
until he trekked to the South Pole in January.
``Now, I think we should be concerned,'' says Inglis, who
heads the U.S. House Science Research subcommittee. ``There are
more and more Republicans willing to stop laughing at climate
change who are ready to get serious about reclaiming their
heritage as conservationists.''
U.S. companies including General Electric Co. and Duke
Energy Corp. have come out in support of national limits on
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions that
scientists say contribute to global warming. They are now being
joined by Republican lawmakers who have parted company with
President George W. Bush on the issue.
``As the evidence of global warming becomes undeniable,
momentum is building to take action to cut greenhouse gas
emissions,'' former Vice President Al Gore said in an e-mail.
``A lot of elected officials who used to reflexively oppose
action on global warming have begun to change their positions.''
In addition to Inglis, who says he saw evidence of heat-
trapping gases in the atmosphere during his trip to Antarctica
that confirmed his growing concern, the list of Republicans
paying more attention to global warming includes Senators Pete
Domenici of New Mexico, the chairman of the chamber's Energy
Committee; Mike DeWine of Ohio; and Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina, as well as Representative Jim Leach of Iowa.
`Resistance Crumbling'
``Resistance to action on climate change is crumbling,''
says Reid Detchon, an Energy Department official under former
President George H.W. Bush who is now head of energy and climate
at the United Nations Foundation. ``The business community has a
number of prominent leaders arguing for action, and the science
on climate change becomes clearer and more inescapable by the
day.''
Republicans also are under pressure from one of their core
constituencies: fundamentalist Christians. In February, 86
evangelical leaders called on the government to curb greenhouse
gases emitted by cars, power plants and other sources, saying
they felt a moral duty to speak out because global warming is
endangering the earth.
``A lot has changed in the last year, largely because of a
grassroots movement of people who for varied and sundry reasons
care about this cause,'' says the Reverend Richard Cizik, vice
president for governmental affairs at the National Association
of Evangelicals, a Colorado Springs, Colorado-based group that
represents 30 million Christians. ``There's no safe ground
anymore for Republicans to ignore this issue or call it a
hoax.''
Fresh Hope
The shift has given fresh hope to lawmakers such as
Senators John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Joseph
Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, who are co-sponsors of
legislation to limit carbon emissions. McCain is expected to
push for another Senate vote on the measure this year and says
he's prepared to make climate change a campaign issue if he runs
for president in 2008.
McCain says he and his allies ``will make the Senate keep
on voting and voting and voting'' and, in time, ``we will win.''
The measure has twice failed to pass the Senate and, along
with other climate-change legislation, lacks support in the
House of Representatives. Still, many companies say they think
it's just a matter of time before Congress approves a carbon
cap.
``Two years ago, we weren't talking about it; it's a
dramatic change,'' John Krenicki, head of Atlanta-based GE
Energy, a unit of Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric,
said in an interview. He predicts that a greenhouse gas limit
will be in place in less than five years.
Welcome Regulation
GE Energy, the world's biggest maker of power-plant
equipment, and Charlotte, North Carolina-based Duke Energy, the
largest U.S. utility owner, are among companies that told the
Senate Energy Committee earlier this month they welcome carbon
regulation.
The companies say they want certainty before making
billions of dollars in investments in ``clean'' technologies.
They also are wary of having to deal with a hodgepodge of state
standards.
``It's a nightmare for any business,'' says Christine Todd
Whitman, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during
President George W. Bush's first term. ``We need one standard
nationally.''
GE and other companies also face carbon restrictions in
Europe, Japan, Canada and other countries participating in the
Kyoto Protocol that restricts carbon emissions from cars, power
plants and other sources. Bush rejected the accord in 2001
because of concern that it would make U.S. businesses less
competitive.
Voluntary Approach
Instead, Bush has called on companies to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions voluntarily. His top adviser on climate change,
White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairman James
Connaughton, says the president also supports some mandatory
policies that would reduce carbon emissions, including new fuel-
economy standards and a requirement for more ethanol in
gasoline.
Connaughton says activists merely are annoyed that Bush
isn't talking nonstop about climate change. ``We don't need to
say it three times in the same 15-minute speech,'' he said in an
interview.
Inglis insists more is needed and is drafting legislation
that would make Bush's greenhouse-gas limits mandatory.
Gore, who has campaigned about the need to act against
climate change for decades, says Republican support is critical.
``It may fall to us as Democrats to push the political
consensus across the tipping point and I hope we will, but we
need to bring Republicans along with us,'' Gore said at an April
10 Democratic fundraiser in New York.
`We Beg to Differ'
Gore wants to persuade more Republicans and the general
public about the dangers of climate change next month when
Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures releases ``An Inconvenient
Truth,'' a documentary about his campaign to get Americans to
take global warming seriously.
Not all Republicans are convinced. Senator James Inhofe, an
Oklahoma Republican who in 2003 called man-made global warming a
``hoax,'' still opposes mandatory emission limits and says they
could result in lost jobs and higher energy prices. ``To those
out there saying a federal carbon cap is inevitable, we beg to
differ,'' says Bill Holbrook, a spokesman for Inhofe, who chairs
the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Nevertheless, Whitman says the time for legislative action
may be right because ``being seen as against doing something on
climate change isn't a place Republicans want to be.''
Last month, an ABC News-Time magazine-Stanford University
poll showed 85 percent of Americans believe global warming
probably is occurring, up from 80 percent in 1998.
`Seeing Is Believing'
The change is palpable in the Senate. Graham, who has said
in the past that he was ``on the fence'' about climate-change
legislation, became a stronger advocate for taking action after
a trip to Alaska in August with McCain and Senators Susan
Collins, a Maine Republican, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, a New
York Democrat. They heard from Native Alaskans who are
experiencing melting permafrost, coastal erosion and other
effects of climate change.
``Seeing is believing,'' says Graham spokesman Kevin
Bishop. Bishop says Graham believes global warming is a problem
that must be addressed, while declining to say if Graham would
support specific legislation such as the McCain-Lieberman
measure.
``When you have the overwhelming evidence from eminent
scientists on one side, and a few skeptics on the other, we are
guided by the thoughts of the overwhelming, not the few,'' says
Representative Sherwood Boehlert of New York, who heads the
House Science Committee.
--With reporting by Rachel Layne in Boston and Tina Seeley in
Washington. Editor: Berley (khf/rxj/scc/jmw)
Story illustration: For emissions credit prices, see {EMIT
<GO>}.
For a menu of environmental news, information, see {ENVW <GO>}.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Kim Chipman in Washington at (1) (202) 624-1927 or
kchipman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Ken Fireman at (1) (202) 624-1978 or
kfireman1@bloomberg.net
[TAGINFO]
GE US <Equity> CN
DUK US <Equity> CN
NI US
NI NY
NI SC
NI DC
NI EUROPE
NI COS
NI GOV
NI POL
NI CNG
NI EXE
NI ENV
NI NRG
NI GEN
NI FILM
NI MED
NI ECREDITS
NI NAT
NI WEATHER
NI SCIENCE
NI OIL
NI GAS
NI COAL
NI GREET
#<545561.500134.2005-11-10T14:40:00.25>#
#<160929.171773>#
#<610731.50932.2005-11-10T14:40:00.25>#
-0- Apr/24/2006 12:11 GMT
# posted by I Dislike GWB @ 8:36 AM 
