Jul 12, 2002 3 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush’s advisers defended their approach toward global warming Thursday, telling senators that withdrawing from an international climate treaty with mandatory controls for industry will, in the long run, preserve billions of dollars and millions of jobs. “The Kyoto Protocol would have cost our economy up to $400 billion and caused the loss of up to 4.9 million jobs, risking the welfare of the American people and American workers,” said James L. Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Connaughton acknowledged that “greenhouse gases will increase under our approach, no question about it,” but said the president’s approach is based on the current level of scientific certainty and “guards against costly and misdirected policy errors.”

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who presided over the hearing, insisted, however, that the predictions of economic doom and gloom were overstated.

He said the Bush administration’s own “dire warnings” of climate warming’s likely effects – contained in its report to the United Nations last month – justify more than a voluntary approach.

“There is an inconsistency,” Kerry admonished the advisers. Even as the administration acknowledges potentially “grave consequences” of global warming, he said, “Emissions will increase each year under the president’s program.

“Now why should Americans be satisfied that this is a legitimate response to this crisis, this problem we face?” Kerry asked.

Kerry and other Democrats on the panel said they favor setting goals for long-term mandatory cuts in emissions of heat-trapping gases that largely come from the burning of oil and coal and that many scientists blame for having a “greenhouse” or warming effect on global climates.

Bush’s plan calls for voluntary action by industry, contrary to the treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997 that mandates reduction of those gases by industrial nations.

The Bush administration says it may need as long as five years to develop scientific forecasts before deciding how best to address global warming.

Assistant Commerce Secretary James R. Mahoney said the administration is ready to move into a new period of evaluation extending over the next two to five years – depending on whether President Bush is re-elected in November 2004 – that would help the nation develop strategies to minimize climate change risks.

At a similar hearing Wednesday, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Science Committee, praised the competence of administration officials but expressed dissatisfaction with what they described as limited information being provided about White House climate change policies.

“We really don’t have a policy” on global warming, said Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo.

John H. Marburger III, the White House science and technology adviser, appeared before the Senate and House committees with Mahoney, saying humans have been a major producer of greenhouse gases, and that these gases – often produced by the burning of oil and coal – have contributed to climate warming.

Last month, Bush downplayed a report his administration submitted to the United Nations, saying it had been “put out by the bureaucracy.”

Connaughton repeated that assertion Thursday, though he said it was “widely circulated in the administration” and had the input of White House staff and many Cabinet officers.

The report mostly blamed human activity for global warming but acknowledged some lingering scientific uncertainties.

The White House favors a response to global warming that relies on increased spending on science and technology and on voluntary, not mandatory, measures to slow the rate of growth in gas emissions.

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On the Net:

U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change: http://unfccc.int