WH Attacked for Letting States Lead on Climate (Milan talks)

[DeepModem Mom]

New York Times:

Several times at the talks now going on in Milan over a global warming treaty, Bush administration officials have portrayed states' actions to curb heat-trapping gases as evidence of American resolve.

But in this country, officials in many of those same states are strongly criticizing the administration's statements, saying their efforts are no substitute for federal action.

The focus of the criticism is a speech in Milan last Thursday by Dr. Harlan L. Watson, the administration's chief climate negotiator. Listing a variety of initiatives begun by states and communities, he said they were like ``laboratories where new and creative ideas and methods can be applied and shared with others and inform federal policy - a truly bottom-up approach to addressing global climate change....

``The states are taking action for one simple reason - because the federal government is not,'' (Governor Gary Locke,Democrat, Washington) said. ``For the White House to say it is looking for leadership from the states is just an excuse to delay and procrastinate. We are limited in what the states can do. We need a national policy to address global warming.''....

``It's not surprising that the administration, when it goes in front of an international body like this, is going to brag about all the initiatives undertaken on global warming at the state level,'' said Jerry Taylor, director of natural resources studies for the libertarian Cato Institute. ``What's the alternative? To go and say we're taking no significant steps and don't intend to in the near future?''....

Some Republican governors are distancing themselves from the administration's Milan position without directly criticizing it.

``They have not yet taken climate change on as a real issue and developed policies,'' a senior aide to one such governor, George E. Pataki of New York, said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. ``We are going to keep pushing them.''

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/11/science/11CLIM.html?pagewanted=all&position=

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