That was a reversal of a little-noticed Bush campaign pledge, apparently one line he uttered in a speech last September that included naturally ocurring carbon dioxide in a list of noxious pollutants that power plants would have to reduce. Judging by the reaction to his flip-flop, however, you'd think Mr. Bush had just qualified for enshrinement in the Clinton wing of the Liars Hall of Fame. If the president had to break a campaign promise, this one at least was justifiable.
Carbon dioxide is a byproduct of the burning of fossil fuels and industrial activity.
Of course, it also is the byproduct of respiration in humans and animals and is essential to plant life. Indeed, nature produces 30 times the CO2 that humans do. Since there currently is no technology capable of removing CO2 emissions in industry, achieving significant reductions of man-made CO2 in the atmosphere would require reducing energy production. Americans already have spent the winter squawking about sharp increases in their natural gas bills. If CO2 restrictions were imposed, these same people would look back on today's bills nostalgically, much in the way today's motorists get a gleam in their eye when they recall gasoline selling for 80 cents a gallon.