President Bush has finally unveiled his much-anticipated plan to reduce so-called greenhouse emissions that are thought to play a role in global climate change.
The new plan will not require greenhouse emissions cutbacks as the Kyoto Protocol would have. The Kyoto treaty was rejected by the Bush Administration last year even though nearly every other industrial country had signed on.
Under the Bush plan, companies would be given tax breaks and other incentives to cut back on emissions. Rather than focusing on cutting overall greenhouse emissions, the Bush plan seeks to cut “greenhouse gas intensity,” or the amount of gases emitted per million dollars of economic output.
“My approach recognizes that economic growth is the solution, not the problem,” the President said in revealing the plan. Critics argue that Bush is only thinking in economic terms and discounting environmental concerns.
This hour, an intimate look at the President’s new environmental plan
Guests:
Karl Rabago, Managing director of the Rocky Mountain Institute
former deputy assistant secretary for utility technologies with the Department of Energy
Vijay Vaitheeswaran, environment and energy correspondent with The Economist in London
Peter Altman, Director of the Texas SEED Coalition, an Austin-based environmental group
