CEI Praises President Bush’s Commitment To Science on Global Warming

Washington, DC, June 11, 2001—The Competitive Enterprise Institute welcomes President Bush’s recognition that a great deal of scientific uncertainty remains over questions surrounding the theory of global warming, about which greater understanding is necessary before the U.S. takes drastic actions.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />

“President Bush has made a good start on changing the direction of U.S. policy toward global warming.  Rather than pursuing the unfair, ineffective, and economically damaging Kyoto Protocol, President Bush has charted a more responsible course requiring scientific understanding first before leaping into the sorts of foolhardy policies demanded of us by the European Union,” said Myron Ebell, director of global warming and international environmental policy at CEI.

President Bush outlined his global warming initiatives today, which include calling for more scientific research to understand the basic dynamics and effects of climate change, as a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) made clear is necessary.  That report, released last week, was requested by President Bush and the administration’s task force on climate change due to controversy over United Nations claims on the state of the science of climate change.  He also once again rejected the Kyoto Protocol, citing its calls for only certain industrial nations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases, while exempting three of the top 10 greenhouse gas emitters. 

“It is clear that President Bush read the entire NAS report and not just selected phrases or the spin put on it by global warming alarmists,” said Chris Horner, CEI Adjunct Analyst.  “The president emphasized that a threshold question asked in the 1992 Rio Treaty remains unanswered:  What constitutes a dangerous level of human emissions?  That point is prominently found in the actual content of the NAS report, which supports President Bush’s responsible and cautious approach to resolve scientific uncertainties, as a condition precedent to committing the U.S. to costly global warming policies addressing that about which more is unknown than known.”

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