Bush promised in the campaign to treat carbon dioxide emissions as pollutants, and Christie Whitman, his Environmental Protection Agency administrator, said last month that the administration was strongly considering such regulations. Explaining the shift, Bush aides said they did not realize there was a contradiction when the president's energy policy was released during the campaign - that the Clean Air Act does not identify carbon dioxide as a pollutant. Cheney said the campaign position was in error. Bush also cited an Energy Department study in December that said regulating carbon dioxide would lead to higher electricity prices, particularly in the hard-hit West. Bush's energy task force, chaired by Cheney, is trying to develop a national energy policy.
Carbon dioxide is emitted whenever fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas are burned.
It also is found in everyday products such as cola and is emitted when people breathe. Bush has argued that the nation's energy woes can largely be addressed by tapping domestic supplies of fossil fuels. The Bush administration has been lobbied aggressively by energy industry officials who vehemently oppose regulating carbon dioxide. They question its role in global warming. Whitman said last month that Bush recognizes the importance of the challenges posed by climate change, a subject she said has been discussed as part of the administration's emerging energy plan.