George W. Bush CO2 policy statement

April 16, 2001
Recently there has been a chorus of charges that President Bush is guilty of a massive flip-flop regarding carbon dioxide emissions.

Recently there has been a chorus of charges that President Bush is guilty of a massive flip-flop regarding carbon dioxide emissions. They argue he should keep his campaign promise to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. However, a careful reading of his campaign speech indicates that the then-Governor Bush did not promise to reduce these emissions. His Sept. 29 speech1 stated: "With the help of Congress, environmental groups, and industry we will require all power plants to meet clean air standards in order to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury, and carbon dioxide within a reasonable period of time." The commitment Governor Bush made here was to require all power plants to meet clean air standards.

Due perhaps to sloppy staff work or poor speech writing or lack of editing, this part of his energy policy statement is admittedly a bit confusing. Indeed, in watching television replays of this speech, candidate Bush stumbled a bit, saying "carbon monoxide-dioxide." He appeared to be a bit startled by what was in this line. One report2 claimed he asked an advisor after the speech: "What was that CO2 line?" Other commentators have even suggested this line was inserted at the very last minute.

The confusion comes from the inclusion of the clause "in order to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury, and carbon dioxide." Rather than providing more information, what this clause did was to lead to a seriously weakened communication, which includes the following aspects: plus it is redundant in the sense that to meet clean air standards, emissions will be reduced.

Note that the sentence reads perfectly well if it were omitted; plus it is erroneous in the sense that carbon dioxide, not being a pollutant, is not included in the Clean Air Act and should not have been included in this list; plus it states the reason we want to meet clean air standards is to reduce emissions. Hardly. Rather, the reasons are to improve health and visibility. Reduction of emissions is the pathway. Finally, this clause misdirects the attention of the listener/reader away from what I believe was the key input in this policy statement, and that was the word "all," implying a commitment to include those plants that are now grand-fathered.

In short, this clause was a disaster. The speech would have been far better off without it. And the speech writer should have been given the day off after this effort.

Gerald T. Westbrook
Houston

References

  1. See www.georgewbush.com/News.asp? FormMode=SP . Under Speech Archives, utilize the drop down menu and select the Sept. 29, 2000, speech, entitled: A Comprehensive National Energy Policy.
  2. Hall, Mimi, "CO2 puts heat on Bush," USA Today, Mar. 16, 2001.