WASHINGTON (AP):
Despite a strongly worded global warming report from the world's top climate scientists, the Bush administration expressed continued opposition yesterday to mandatory reductions in heat-trapping 'greenhouse' gases.
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman warned against 'unintended consequences' - including job losses - that he said might result if the government requires economy-wide caps on carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.
He and other administration officials at a news conference praised the report yesterday by a United Nations-sponsored panel of top climate scientist who said there is little doubt the earth is warming as a result of man-made emissions.
But Bodman said technology advancements that will cut the amount of carbon emissions, promote energy conservation, and hasten development of non-fossil fuels can address the problem.
"We have aggressive but practical solutions," added Stephen Johnson, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
More than a half-dozen bills have been introduced, mostly by Democrats, calling for some form of mandatory carbon controls in the United States, which emits a quarter of the earth's carbon dioxide releases into the atmosphere.
Environmental policies
Democrats newly in control of Congress and other critics of President George W. Bush's environmental policies pounced on the long-awaited United Nations report as if it were fresh meat.
"Although President Bush just noticed that the earth is heating up, the American public, every reputable scientist and other world leaders have long recognised that global warming is real and it's serious."
The time to act is now," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who with GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine crafted one of a half-dozen competing bills to address global warming.
Rep. Edward Markey, a senior Democratic member of House panels on energy and natural resources, said that "for those who are still trying to determine responsibility for global warming, this new U.N. report on climate change is a scientific smoking gun."
