White House to unveil new global warming policy: sources

Washington (Platts)--13Sep2006

The Bush administration plans to announce as early as next week a goal of stabilizing carbon dioxide levels in the global atmosphere at 450 parts per million by the year 2106, congressional and non-government sources told Platts Wednesday.

Such an announcement, if true, might lead to the establishment of new regulatory policies -- either voluntary or mandatory -- for the power sector and other sources of CO2 emissions.

But a high-ranking source at the White House Council on Environmental Quality rejected the suggestion, saying the administration has no plans to unveil any new climate-change policies.

Rumors that the White House plans to unveil a new global warming policy have been circulating since August 27, when Time magazine reporter Mike Allen, citing unnamed administration sources, wrote that President Bush's views on the phenomenon "have evolved."

Allen, in his article, quoted a Bush adviser as saying: "Only Nixon could go to China, and only Bush and [Vice President] Cheney, two oilmen, can bring all these parties kicking and screaming to the table."

With some exceptions, the energy sector has strongly opposed all
legislative efforts to impose a mandatory cap on CO2 emissions, saying such an approach would have disastrous economic impacts.

Many scientists, conversely, say global warming will generate massive coastal flooding and other detrimental impacts if CO2 emissions are not curbed dramatically in the next few decades.

Currently, the atmospheric CO2 level stands at about 380 parts per
million. A plan to stabilize it at 450 parts per million by 2106 technically would not be "new," given that the number was cited more than 40 times in a report that the administration issued for public comment on June 26.

One possibility is that the administration is going to seek to codify or otherwise finalize the CO2-stabilization approach articulated in the June 26 report, sources said.

Environmental groups, however, said they would not support such an
approach. Dave Hamilton, director of the Sierra Club's global warming and energy programs, said that while the 450 ppm number was fine, the timeline is not.

"We've got to make 450 [ppm] by mid-century, not next century," he said, adding that the administration's plan "would not stave off the worst impacts of global warming."

Administration officials are set to testify at three Congressional
hearings next week.

--Brian Hansen, brian_hansen@platts.com