Environment -- Bush Passes The Buck Again

April 17, 2008

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Ali Frick, and Benjamin Armbruster

ENVIRONMENT

Bush Passes The Buck Again

In a Rose Garden speech yesterday that was "greeted with relief by global warming skeptics in Congress and energy lobbyists on K Street," President Bush "called for a national goal of halting the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, mostly by curbing power plant pollution." Bush's voluntary goal, however, is one "that the scientific community says is too little, too late, to prevent dangerous global warming." "The growth in emissions will slow over the next decade, stop by 2025, and begin to reverse thereafter, so long as technology continues to advance," said Bush. In other words, "Bush is calling for rising CO2 emissions for another 17 years," despite the fact that the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, says that "if there's no action before 2012, that's too late." "Scientists of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded last year that global greenhouse gas emissions must begin to drop by 2015 in order to avert drastic climate change, a timetable that would compel developed nations to turn that corner even earlier." "Europe has agreed to reduce its emissions 20 percent and pledged to 30 percent by 2020 if the U.S makes a comparable commitment," notes John Passacantando, the executive director of Greenpeace USA. "After squandering seven years, President Bush still refuses to respond to alarm bells," says Daniel J. Weiss, the Director of Climate Strategy at the Center for American Progress. At a time when most agree that "forceful action is required to save the planet, Bush's essentially empty words are not very different from silence."

BUSH SETS ANOTHER ROADBLOCK: "Bush's trick on climate change," wrote the Washington Post's Dan Froomkin yesterday, "is to wait until others are about to embrace mandatory limits on greenhouse gases, then make a major speech about goals and process, without any specifics on measures or penalties." The White House says the "speech was intended to influence an international conference on climate change, which is convening in Paris on Thursday." But critics say that Bush is actually "trying to derail legislation that would curb emissions even further." The speech has already drawn "a fiery response" at the Paris conference, where South Africa branded it "as a retreat from previous US positions that would leave the United States 'alone against the overwhelming majority of the world.'" According to Froomkin, Bush's speech "recalls his two earlier attempts to muddy the debate and buy time." In the spring of 2007, Bush made "a clear move to derail European and U.N. plans for strict caps on emissions" by proposing "a new round of international meetings that would take up most of the rest of his presidency. The purpose of the meetings, he said, would not be to write rules but to establish what the White House called 'aspirational goals.'" Again in the fall of 2007, Bush gave a speech that "superficially gave the appearance of favoring a global reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions," which "again embraced unspecific goals and voluntary compliance that left other nations and serious advocates unmoved."

RIGHT WING FREAKS OUT: On Monday, the Washington Times broke the news that Bush was "poised to change course and announce as early as this week that he wants Congress to pass a bill to combat global warming." The immediate reaction from the right wing was anger and bewilderment. Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute said that Bush was offering "unconditional surrender on global warming" and that conservatives had to "get very, very angry about this." In an op-ed, Washington Times columnist Tony Blankley called it a "global-warming assault on free economies," while the National Review's Christopher Horner declared that "the president will have caused harm by embracing the global-warming agenda, regardless of the specifics of what he calls for today. The moment he legitimizes the agenda, he will have lost control of the issue." Faced with a backlash from its conservative and business base, the White House watered down its already watered-down proposal. According to the Washington Times, "the president has backed away" from calling for "a cap-and-trade program for electric utilities" after "the White House was flooded with complaints from industry officials and lobbyists." Even the Senate's top climate change denier, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), was placated by Bush's speech, calling it "a fairly moderate position to take."

WHITE HOUSE CLAIMS TO BE LEADERS: At the same time that the White House was laying out "just another way of Bush saying no," the administration was patting itself on the back and claiming to be an international leader in the struggle to address climate change. "The United States has launched -- and the G8 has embraced -- a new process that brings together the countries responsible for most of the world's emissions," Bush claimed in his speech yesterday. But as Grist's David Roberts points out, "It is laughable to say the G8 has 'embraced' Bush's farcical Major Economies meetings" as "they have accepted it because they have no choice." In the White House press briefing yesterday, James Connaughton, the chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, compared the Bush administration's efforts to those of Europe and Canada, saying, "We are the only three that have" stated mid-term goals for reducing emissions. But as Brad Johnson of the Center for American Progress Action Fund points out, European countries are seeking to actually reduce emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 while Canada is aiming to simply reduce to 1990 levels through a plan that former Vice President Al Gore calls "a complete and total fraud." In contrast, Bush has set "no target" for actually reducing emissions while allowing emissions to keep increasing until 2025.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS -- McCAIN'S PLAN TO CUT EARMARKS WOULD ELIMINATE AID TO ISRAEL: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has long portrayed himself as a staunch supporter of Israel. "Obvioiusly," McCain has said, "I have been a very strong proponent to the State of Israel." McCain has also said that, if elected president, he would "veto every bill with earmarks." Yet McCain's plan to do away with earmarks would essentially eliminate U.S. funding assistance to Israel. According to McCain's economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the plan is based on the Congressional Research Service's (CRS) definition of the term and analysis of spending. But according to CRS, "[a]nnual earmarks for economic and military aid to Israel" are also "regarded as earmarks." In response, McCain's presidential campaign said that McCain "will ensure America remains committed to the security of Israel, including maintaining America's assistance levels." The Politico's Ben Smith notes: "That's one thing about spending cuts: Much harder when you get to the details." Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Scott Lilly has an analysis of McCain's earmark plan.

IRAQ -- WAR ARCHITECT FEITH CLAIMS ADMINISTRATION NEVER SAID WAR WOULD BE EASY: Douglas Feith, former Undersecretary of Defense and an architect of the Iraq war, appeared on the Brian Lehrer radio show on Tuesday and claimed that the American people "weren't told" the war would be easy "by the administration. Absolutely not." When Lehrer played a 2003 clip of Vice President Dick Cheney claiming U.S. troops would "be greeted as liberators," Feith dismissed it as "one of the more optimistic comments" but claimed that others, "especially" former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, "were a lot more reserved than that." In fact, the entire administration and its allies declared repeatedly the war would be quick and painless, including Rumsfeld, who said the Iraqi people "will be enormously relieved and liberated" and claimed the war could last "six days, six weeks, I doubt six months." Cheney said the war would take "weeks rather than months," and then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said that the U.S. will not "need to maintain a military presence in Iraq as was the case in Europe" after World War II.

IMMIGRATION -- POPE CALLS FOR HUMANE TREATMENT OF IMMIGRANTS AS BUSH CARRIES OUT RAIDS: Pope Benedict XVI, who is currently visiting the U.S., has stated that he will urge President Bush to find a way to "grant legal status" to undocumented immigrants, adding that the U.S. should do "everything possible to fight...all forms of violence so that immigrants may lead dignified lives." But yesterday, the Bush administration carried out immigration raids, arresting more than 280 undocumented workers employed at Pilgrim's Pride plants in five states. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), several, but not all, of the immigrants were suspected of identity theft or document fraud. Under the Bush administration, deportations have increased sharply. In the last fiscal year ending Sept. 30, ICE deported 280,000 people, a 44 percent jump from the previous year. "For the President to put at risk the sanctity and safety of immigrant families by conducting yet another round of harsh immigration raids flies in the face of the Pope's call for humane treatment of all people," said Ali Noorani of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

Delegates at a major economies climate conference in Paris criticized President Bush's catastrophic environmental goals announced yesterday, with South Africa calling Bush's proposals "'disappointing' and unambitious when many other industrialized economies are already cutting emissions." "But Bush will be leaving office soon. What he says doesn't matter so much any more," one senior European official said.

"The credit market crisis is spreading to student loans," making loans "harder to come by and more expensive." Over 50 firms have "abandoned or cut back their federal or private student loan programs this year, unable to raise money in the financial markets."

A federal judge denied a request to subpoena Vice President Cheney in a lawsuit filed by a Colorado man "who claims he was wrongfully arrested for comments he made" to Cheney about the Iraq war. Lawyers claimed Secret Service agents "told different versions of the episode" that only Cheney could clarify.

John McCain's opposition to the GI Bill appears to be rooted in a concern "that a generous education benefit would persuade soldiers and Marines ending their tours to pursue an education rather than reenlist in the overstretched military." "He's the odd man out," VoteVets chairman Jon Soltz said of McCain. "You have 55 co-sponsors on this bill, and he's not one of them. He has to lead or follow."

A bipartisan group of Senate lawmakers is pressing the Justice Department to investigate Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) 2005 earmark for a highway project that benefited his campaign contributors. The provisions of the $10 million earmark "were mysteriously altered" by Young "after Congress gave final approval to a huge 2005 highway funding bill."

Federal budget cuts have reduced the ability of nuclear weapons laboratories "to carry out scientific research needed to ensure the reliability of the nationâ€™s nuclear arsenal in future years." George Miller, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, told the Washington Post yesterday that science is being squeezed out."

Government documents reveal that the Bush administration may "remove Sudan from an American list of state supporters of terrorism and normalize relations if the Sudanese government agreed, among other steps, to allow Thai and Nepalese peacekeepers in its Darfur region."

In a clash with the Senate yesterday, the White House "threatened to block a war-funding measure if it contains billions in domestic spending." The Bush administration is demanding that Congress provide a $108 billion emergency war funding bill by Memorial Day without domestic funds. Lawmakers say the domestic priorities are needed for "road projects and water-system improvements."

"U.S. forces in Baghdad hope to turn over responsibility for security in most of the Iraqi capital to Iraqi forces in about a year," according to Colonel Allen Batschelet, chief of staff for the American military in Baghdad. He said the military expected to set up an "overwatch" arrangement -- "under which they withdraw from day-to-day patrolling, but keep rapid response forces nearby in case they are needed" -- by spring 2009.

And finally: Yesterday, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) chaired a two-hour Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the Iraq war, in an attempt to silence people who are saying he is too old for the job. Byrd showed up "on time in a crisp suit and displaying a broad smile while an aide wheeled him into the room."

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The House passed the Jubilee Act yesterday by a vote of 285-132. The legislation directs the Bush Administration to begin negotiations "to allow up to 24 additional low-income countries to qualify for international debt relief."

NEW JERSEY: Former Newark mayor Sharpe James was convicted Wednesday of corruption charges, as he "illegally steered city land to his mistress."

MISSOURI: Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), who is tied to defense contractor Brent Wilkes, accumulates $17,000 in legal fees.

ECONOMY: States give tax credits to working poor.

THINK PROGRESS: Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff claims that fingerprints aren't "personal data."

WONK ROOM: ABC News's Charlie Gibson's cocktail-napkin economics.

ATTACKERMAN: At a book reading, former Pentagon official Douglas Feith tries to blame the Iraq war on everyone except himself.

BLOG FOR CHOICE: NARAL Pro-Choice America's new blog.

"[The United States must do] everything possible to fight...all forms of violence so that immigrants may lead dignified lives."
-- Pope Benedict XVI , 4/16/08

VERSUS

"[S]tudents got off their buses to find an even more stressful situation at home: Their parents were nowhere to be found. Tennessee and local officials still are assessing the needs of the children, who they say are among those most profoundly affected by Wednesday's sweeping federal immigration raid."
-- Chattanooga Times Free Press, 4/17/08

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Bush Passes The Buck Again

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