Another Inconvenient Truth - Bush Climate "Strategy" A Failure

[hatrack]

Here's an inconvenient truth for President Bush: His voluntary attack on global warming isn't working. The Government Accountability Office reported last week that projects begun in 2002 and 2003 to encourage private businesses to reduce greenhouse gases "appear not to be progressing at the rate expected by the sponsoring agencies." That's an understatement.

As of November, only 38 of 74 companies in the Environmental Protection Agency's "Climate Leaders" program had set emissions reduction targets. Eleven of 15 trade groups in the Energy Department's "Climate VISION" had targets, and five had even reported their emissions. But goals varied widely in terms of measurement, geographic scope and time period. Many companies are making their goals contingent on federal paybacks, such as tax incentives or regulatory relief.

But neither the EPA nor the Energy Department seemed too concerned. The GAO found the agencies negligent by failing to set deadlines or benchmarks for progress. Neither agency spelled out consequences for scofflaws. Even if these programs were working, results would be suspect because overlapping enrollments mean reductions could easily be counted twice, the GAO found.

A do-it-yourself approach with haphazard oversight will make no dent in global warming - which may require a whopping 60-percent emissions reduction by mid-century. "Given the potential gravity of the climate change problem, programs such as Climate Leaders and Climate VISION will need to be especially robust and involve a substantial portion of the economy if they are going to achieve the desired results," the GAO concludes.

The GAO is far too polite.

EDIT

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/opinion/14720175.htm

[tanyev]

1. Oh, it's working alright. Just the way they want it to.