They are ignoring science and using the Clean Air Act as a shield, which is highly inappropriate. During the presidential campaign, Bush expressed support for what is known as a four-pollutant strategy for reducing global warming, which focuses on establishing mandatory reduction targets for sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury, and carbon dioxide. All four substances are emitted from power plants. Environmentalists argue that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are the primary cause of global warming, a position that conservatives and industry hotly dispute. Not only do I not agree with it . . .
Environmentalists say that the point is beyond debate.
The international panel of 1,500 experts said it's real and caused by man. The president's letter, which Cheney announced to Republican senators yesterday, was a response to a written query this month from Hagel and Republican Senators Larry Craig of Idaho, Jesse Helms of North Carolina, and Pat Roberts of Kansas. This past weekend, several media outlets reported that the administration was preparing to regulate carbon dioxide. Following decisions by the administration not to reverse environmental regulations promulgated at the end of the Clinton administration, environmentalists had been expressing cautious surprise with Bush and Environmental Protection Agency chief Christine Todd Whitman. Whitman met with Bush yesterday in what a White House spokeswoman described as a routine meeting.