Bush revises strategy on greenhouse gases

WASHINGTON — Revising his stand on global warming, President Bush on Wednesday called for a halt in the growth of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions by 2025 and urged other major polluting nations to develop national goals to address climate change.

In a Rose Garden speech on global warming, Bush expressed concern that Congress might pass climate legislation that would hurt economic growth. Critics of his energy policy have argued that the Bush administration has dragged its feet in addressing the problem. But Bush argued that his staff was working intently to address the contentious issue about greenhouse gases believed responsible for the warming of the Earth.

While setting a broad goal, the president offered only a general outline — and few specifics — about how to achieve the objectives. Bush's proposal was quickly denounced by congressional Democrats and environmentalists as falling far short of what is needed to stabilize the concentration of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.

Bush said unilateral action by the United States, however, will not make a dent in fixing the problem.

"Like many other countries, America's national plan will be a comprehensive blend of market incentives and regulations to reduce emissions by encouraging clean and efficient energy technologies," Bush said. "We're willing to include this plan in a binding international agreement, so long as our fellow major economies are prepared to include their plans in such an agreement."

The president also called for putting the brakes on greenhouse-gas emissions from electric power plants within 10 to 15 years.

"We're doing a lot to protect this environment. We've laid a solid foundation for further progress. While these measures will bring us a long way toward achieving our new goal, we've got to do more in the power-generation sector," the president said.

"To reach our 2025 goal, we will need to more rapidly slow the growth of power-sector greenhouse-gas emissions so that they peak within 10 to 15 years, and decline thereafter," he said. "By doing so, we will reduce emission levels in the power sector well below where they were projected to be when we first announced our climate strategy in 2002.

"There are a number of ways to achieve these reductions, but all responsible approaches depend on accelerating the development and deployment of new technologies," Bush added.

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who chairs a House committee on global warming, said the president's emissions goals were aimed at "freezing out real solutions to the threat of global warming" being considered by Congress.

Senate Democrats said the president's plan would allow continued growth of greenhouse gases for nearly two decades, during which the government estimates U.S. heat-trapping emissions will grow. U.S. emissions from electric power plants alone are expected to grow by 16 percent.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Environment Committee, called Bush's new climate strategy "worse than doing nothing ... the height of irresponsibility."

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, dismissed Bush's statements as more of the same from an administration that has sought to block efforts to addres climate change.

"The best thing for the environment would be if the President recycles the paper his speech was written on," she said in a statement.

The targets Bush set are less ambitious than ones being pursued by a number of states, including Washington. Last year, Gov. Christine Gregoire issued an executive order calling for rolling emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020. By 2050 she wants emissions at half of the 1990 levels. Those goals were endorsed by the state Legislature. By comparison, Bush called for emissions to start dropping in 2025.

U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, dismissed Bush's proposal as "grossly short of what the nation both needs and is capable of."

Insleesaid without firm and enforceable limits on greenhouse-gas emissions, industries won't have enough reason to adopt newer, cleaner technology.

The president's timeline ignores the urgency of the issue, and won't be enough to curb climate change and impacts such as melting polar ice and the warming of Northwest rivers.

"I guess what you can say is hello to the president's global warming plan and goodbye to the polar bears and Washington state salmon," Inslee said.

Washington is also part of a coalition of Western states and two Canadian provinces working to create a shared system for reducing greenhouse gases. They have vowed to cut their collective emissions to 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. The group also includes California, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Montana, British Columbia and Manitoba.

Seattle Times staff reporter Warren Cornwall contributed to this report