By relaxing the carbon dioxide standard, Bush undercuts the market incentives to be more efficient with the energy we consume. Melting ice caps and the rising of oceans are economic costs of backing off the standards. Detroit Edison Co. spokeswoman Lorie Kessler said the utility has made efforts, including planting 22 million trees and installing equipment in 28 landfills that produce energy from methane gas, to help the environment. What we do more than offsets any increase in carbon dioxide by Detroit Edison in the last decade. Vice President Dick Cheney told a weekly policy gathering with senators that the administration was preparing a letter that would say carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, said one official on Capitol Hill.
Carbon dioxide is emitted whenever fossil fuels are burned.