JUST ENGAGE

I opened my inbox today to a flood of emails. Yesterday, President Bush issued a much- anticipated "global warming initiative" – but the big climate "splash," left many angry in his wake. The spokeswomen for the White House claimed the President's plan would "lay the groundwork" for the next Administration by providing a "realistic intermediate goal" for US reductions.  Yet, far from "laying the groundwork" for future reductions, the President's proposal has torn away at the foundation of the tremendous efforts of those on Capitol Hill and around the nation to respond to climate change.

The President's "realistic" intermediate goal is only "realistic" because it requires virtually no action whatsoever.  He hopes to halt US emissions – from the electric utility sector alone – by 2025.  Yet, according to the Energy Blog, the Administration announced last week that US emissions had already fallen by 1% last year.  Admittedly, this was likely a one-year blip, which can be attributed to high gas prices and mild temperatures, which reduced the need for heating and cooling – but it certainly underscores the inadequacy of the President's proposal.  

In fact, the Administration proposal flies in the face of scientific reality.  Last year, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declared that emissions from industrialized nations must peak by 2015 – and decline by 20% by 2025.  They won a Nobel Prize for this pronouncement. Yet, the Bush proposal does not require any reductions in that time frame.  In fact, the "proposal" doesn't require reductions at all. It merely asks for voluntary commitments.  The President insists this approach is necessary to avoid an unnecessary strain on the US economy.  Yet, as Environmental Defense explains, simply delaying US reductions until 2014 (from 2012) would double necessary reductions (and associated costs) for the decade to come.  And, as I wrote in my March 25^th post, the US Environmental Protection Agency has found that the key climate change legislation being considered by the Senate could be implemented without significant harm to the US economy.

Ironically, the Administration claims that its plan will "inform" the Senate-scheduled debate on climate change legislation.  But the Senate does not need the President's assistance. To the contrary, the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act provides for US emissions to fall by roughly 2% per year beginning in 2012, leading to 25% emission reductions by 2025 and 60-70% reductions by 2050.  Reductions that will come from every sector of the economy.  Bush's plan – to continue the status quo for nearly two decades – can hardly be seen as "informing" the debate. 

More than two thousand years ago, Rabbi Hillel challenged, "If not now, when?"  Today, Bush declared that we would begin to answer that question in 2025.  But that answer is inadequate.  Climate change is real. And the time for action is now.

[Visit The Jewish Week to read my op ed on the Bush climate initiative]