How Bush changed his mind on his campaign commitment to restrict carbon-dioxide emissions, and why, is more than a simple case of promises made, promises broken. By revoking his commitment, the President pleased his conservative allies in business and in Congress, along with utility and mining interests that contributed heavily to his campaign. He also seriously undercut his Environmental Protection Agency chief, Christie Whitman, who had steadfastly promoted Bush's campaign position on carbon dioxide. The association opposed cracking down on carbon-dioxide emissions, saying such a move could cripple the coal industry. Grasser's group and many others initiated a lobbying effort Feb. 26 that paid off on Tuesday, when Bush scrapped the plan.
Carbon dioxide links the energy crisis with the problem of global warming.
A U.N. group of hundreds of top scientists asserted, for the third time, this year that the carbon dioxide was changing the world's climate by trapping the sun's heat, making the climate hotter and more prone to extreme weather. Bush, who generally favors a go-slow approach in dealing with global warming, stunned some of his conservative supporters during his campaign by promising new limits on carbon dioxide emissions. His policy went far beyond anything proposed by former Vice President Al Gore, who had been attacked as an environmental extremist by the Bush campaign. Fred Krupp, executive director of the moderate activist group Environmental Defense and an environment adviser to former President George Bush, is in that group. During the summer of 2000, Krupp called environmental advisers to both Bush and Gore and suggested regulating carbon dioxide in the same way three other power-plant emissions are regulated.