Bush holds line on global warming despite ruling
Source: Reuters
By Chris Baltimore WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Tuesday he planned no new action to impose caps on greenhouse gases blamed for global warming despite the Supreme Court ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency must regulate U.S. emissions. Instead, Bush pointed to his proposal to require cars to burn more gasoline made from home-grown sources like ethanol, and repeated his long-held stance that U.S. action is meaningless without changes by China and India. "My attitude is that we have laid out a plan that will affect greenhouse gases that come from automobiles by having a mandatory fuel standard," Bush said. "In other words, there is a remedy available for Congress. And I strongly hope that they pass this remedy quickly." Bush spoke after the highest U.S. court ruled on Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency must reconsider its 2003 refusal to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions from new cars and trucks that contribute to climate change. Bush said the 5-4 decision, with both of the president's conservative nominees voting in opposition, was "the new law of the land." The ruling could have its greatest effect in the U.S. Congress, which is considering legislation that would impose first-ever caps on U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to halve U.S. emissions by 2050. The United States is the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter and cars and trucks comprise about a quarter of the total. Bush said Congress already has a solution to global warming -- his proposal to require a five-fold increase in clean-burning fuel use by 2017, which also would reduce automobiles' carbon dioxide emissions. Bush has adamantly opposed mandatory caps -- warning they would cripple U.S. industry's ability to compete with companies like India and China, which have relied heavily on cheap, dirty coal supplies to power their factories. "Unless there is an accord with China, China will produce greenhouse gases that will offset anything we do in a brief period of time," Bush said. Bush reiterated that global warming is a "serious problem," an admission he made in his annual address to Congress in January. But Bush said for the United States to get a "good deal," it needs to work with developing nations to drive emission-reduction technology.
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