Bush Airs Alternative to Kyoto Plans

Date: February 14, 2002

Source: News Room

President Bush is proposing an array of tax incentives to encourage businesses, farmers and individuals to reduce pollution, as an alternative to an international global warming accord he said would hurt the U.S. economy. Bush last year rejected the Kyoto Protocol, which required 40 industrialized nations to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions < the so-called greenhouse gases believed to cause global warming. He said the treaty < worked out by the Clinton administration but not ratified by the Senate < could cost millions of American jobs. The pact commits industrial nations to roll back greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. But through tax incentives, Bush would pursue initiatives such as urging farmers to plant carbon dioxide-absorbing trees, consumers to buy hybrid and fuel-cell cars and solar water heaters and industry to capture methane from landfills. The president's proposed budget allocates $4.5 billion for global climate change-related activities; a figure the administration said would be a $700 million increase.

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