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Soldier4Christ
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« on: May 30, 2007, 08:58:09 PM » |
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Climate change expert says Pelosi wants to 'embarrass' Bush on European visit
An energy policy analyst says Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's global warming trip overseas is intended to embarrass President Bush and show Europe that she's committed to "slowing economic growth" by limiting carbon dioxide emissions.
Speaker Pelosi and seven other members of the U.S. House of Representatives are holding meetings with scientists and politicians in Greenland, Germany, and Belgium to discuss ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Pelosi has criticized President Bush for refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty that caps the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted from power plants and factories in industrialized countries.
Myron Ebell is director of global warming and international environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He says Pelosi is looking in the all the wrong places if she wants to learn how to cut emissions and stop global warming.
"The European Union, it's true, has ratified the Kyoto global warming treaty, and it's also true that they take global warming over there as almost a religion; but they are actually doing a poorer job of limiting their own emissions than we are in the United States," Ebell says, "and so, I think really the purpose of Speaker Pelosi's trip is to embarrass President Bush.”
The Competitive Enterprise Institute spokesman believes Pelosi's consultations with Europe are a waste of time. "She's not going to get much advice about how to cut our energy use as long as we have a booming economy," he asserts.
"Now, of course, on the other hand Speaker Pelosi is doing everything she can to raise gas prices and raise taxes and slow down the economy," Ebell contends. "And, of course," he says, "if she's successful and the Congress and the president go along with that and the economy does slow down, then emissions will definitely start to decline."
Meanwhile, Ebell notes, President Bush has been under pressure from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the European Union to agree to a new deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
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