CA relieved at announcement on C[O.sub.2]

Consumer Comments, Spring, 2001

Consumer Alert breathed a deep sigh of relief at the announcement from the Bush Administration March 14 that it would not seek to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. "On behalf of the 280 million American consumers who exhale carbon dioxide on a daily basis, Consumer Alert thanks George W. Bush and his administration for its position on this issue," said policy analyst James Plummer.

CA Executive Director Frances B. Smith also gave plaudits to the move. "A carbon regulation scheme would spell doom for consumers," said Smith, explaining that even had the administration arbitrarily decided to regulate C[O.sub.2] emissions solely from machines instead of mammals, consumers could have found themselves paying through the nose, even if they weren't blue in the face. "The only effective ways to cut C[O.sub.2] emissions, given existing technology, are massive price hikes or rationing accomplished through California-style rolling blackouts."

The seeds of the will-he-won't-he controversy on President Bush's C[O.sub.2] position were planted during the campaign when written campaign documents indicated the Bush team regarded C[O.sub.2] as a "pollutant." Meanwhile, Bush himself, campaigning on the stump, cast doubt on the "science" behind catastrophic global warming theory and the international C[O.sub.2] regulation regime called the Kyoto Protocol.

"This confusion has left those of us fighting for consumers' rights to reasonably-priced, accessible energy quite literally waiting to exhale," said Plummer. "Kyotophile politicians in Great Britain, with the highest gasoline prices in the known world, are on the edge of raising them even more, under the guise of a `climate tax.' American citizens don't want the skyrocketing gas prices paid by British subjects and other Europeans."

With ominous reports that the Bush Administration will try to craft a new carbon-suppression treaty at Bonn in July, consumers should be aware the fight for affordable energy and sane science is far from over. CA and the National Consumer Coalition's Cooler Heads group will continue to monitor developments on this issue.