Consumer Group Relieved at Announcement on CO2

Bush Administration decides to allow consumers to keep breathing, after all

WASHINGTON, DC (March 14, 2001) Consumer Alert breathed a deep sigh of relief today at the announcement from the Bush Administration that it would not seek to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. “On behalf of the 280 million American consumers who exhale carbon dioxide on a daily basis, Consumer Alert thanks George W. Bush and his administration for its position on this issue,” said policy analyst James Plummer.

CA Executive Director Frances Smith also gave plaudits to the move. “A carbon regulation scheme would spell doom for consumers,” said Smith, explaining that even had the administration arbitrarily decided to regulate CO₂ emissions solely from machines instead of mammals, consumers could have found themselves paying through the nose, even if they werent blue in the face. “The only effective ways to cut CO₂ emissions, given existing technology, are massive price hikes or rationing accomplished through California-style rolling blackouts.”

The seeds of the will-he-wont-he controversy on President Bushs CO₂ position were planted during the campaign when written campaign documents indicated the Bush team regarded CO₂ as a “pollutant.” Meanwhile, Bush himself, campaigning on the stump, cast doubt on the “science” behind catastrophic global warming theory and the international CO₂ regulation regime called the Kyoto Protocol.

“This confusion has left those of us fighting for consumers rights to reasonably-priced, accessible energy quite literally waiting to exhale,” said Plummer. “Kyotophile politicians in Great Britain, with the highest gasoline prices in the known world, are on the edge of raising them even more, under the guise of a climate tax. American citizens dont want the skyrocketing gas prices paid by British subjects and other Europeans.”

Consumer Alert is a non-profit, nonpartisan consumer group based in Washington, DC dedicated to informing the public about the consumer benefits of competitive enterprise and to promoting sound economic, scientific, and risk data in public policy decisions. Consumer Alert also founded the National Consumer Coalition, a coalition of more than two dozen groups who understand and advocate for the benefits a market economy brings to consumers. The NCC subgroup Cooler Heads Coalition (www.globalwarming.org), follows issues surrounding the science, economics and politics of global warming.