The Bush reversal followed threats by the Competitive Enterprise Institute to fight Bush if he carried out his promise. CEI opposes government regulation of business. The campaign policy shift was contained in a letter to Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and three other Republican senators who had challenged his planned curbs. The Bush letter attempted to use the California electrical crisis to justify the policy change. The connection was unclear, however, as the regulations would have affected coal burning power plants, primarily, and California relies chiefly on other sources such as natural gas, nuclear, and hydrolectric power.
Power plants burning natural gas produce less carbon dioxide than coal burning plants.
The issue revealed a divided administration, with Vice President Cheney reportedly opposing the regulations, while Treasury Secretary O'Neill and EPA administrator Whitman advocating them. Former Governor Whitman had spoken of the CO2 regulations during the last several weeks as if they were policy. The policy reversal is seen by some observers as a major rebuke for Ms. Whitman, one of the few representatives of the liberal wing of the Republican party on the Bush cabinet. Senator Reid is the ranking Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee. Echoing the Bush letter, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday that carbon dioxide should not have been included with pollutants in the campaign document.