Bush announces global warming goals: Too little, too late?

The Associated Press

President Bush, strolling near the Rose Garden, announced a climate change plan today.

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Bush announces global warming goals: Too little, too late?

Revising his stance on global warming, President Bush today proposed a new target for stopping the growth of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. President Bush also called for putting the brakes on greenhouse gas emissions from electric power plants within 10 to 15 years.

Bush laid out a broad strategy for "realistic" emission reduction targets and "principles" he thinks Congress should follow in crafting global warming legislation. The new goal for curtailing greenhouse gas emissions is an attempt to short-circuit what White House aides call a potential regulatory "train wreck" if Congress doesn't act on climate change. The president's speech is aimed at shaping the debate on global warming in favor of solving the problem while avoiding heavy costs to industry and the economy.

Is the Bush administration too late? Are the president's proposals realistic? Should the United States be more aggressive in combatting global climate change? Or are public policy solutions destructive of freedom and prosperity?

Ben likes: Bush raises the temp on global warming

Tony Blankley/Washington Times

Mr. Bush doesn't intend all the catastrophic consequences of his simple decision to offer legislation to regulate carbon emission. But then, by this point he should be quite familiar with the concept of unintended consequences. And he needs to recognize that he cannot pass "sensible "legislation. (I have serious doubts that any legislation on this topic could be sensible.)

All he can do is set the stage for next year's legislation, by giving away the rhetorical store and weakening the already modest backbone of Republican legislators. The liberal world order will not let go of their global-warming assault on free economies until hell freezes over -- by which point, obviously, the global-warming theory will be visibly disproven.

Joel likes: Bush's climate change fakeout

Dan Froomkin/Washington Post

It took so long for Bush to even acknowledge the human role in global warming that whenever he even mentions the topic, some people act like it's big news.

But in an era where a consensus has emerged that forceful action is required to save the planet, Bush's essentially empty words are not very different from silence. And to the extent that their intent is to subvert sincere attempts to find solutions, they're actually worse.

Bush's trick on climate change is to wait until others are about to embrace mandatory limits on greenhouse gases, then make a major speech about goals and process, without any specifics on measures or penalties.