What's this all about?
The Bush administration plans to announce as early as next week a goal of stabilizing carbon dioxide levels in the global atmosphere at 450 parts per million by the year 2106, congressional and non-government sources told Platts Wednesday.
Such an announcement, if true, might lead to the establishment of new regulatory policies -- either voluntary or mandatory -- for the power sector and other sources of CO2 emissions.
But a high-ranking source at the White House Council on Environmental Quality rejected the suggestion, saying the administration has no plans to unveil any new climate-change policies.
Also this, from EE News (sub.):
President Bush's top environmental adviser urged reporters today to "stay tuned" for new U.S. climate change policies and refused to tamp down speculation that major new proposals may be coming before Bush leaves office in January 2009.
Both these come via Roger.
As Coby points out in the thread below, the goal (450ppb by 2106) makes no sense. If atmospheric concentrations of CO2 rise above 450ppb -- as virtually everyone expects them to -- they will take centuries to sink back down again (absent some sort of high-tech widget that sucks CO2 directly from the air).
So if you really want to stabilize at 450ppb, that means never going above 450 ppb, and that in turn means cutting emissions by 60-80%, and soon. I highly doubt that's what the Bush folks have in mind.
Anyway, it's starting to seem like some sort of policy announcement is in the offing. Like the man said, stay tuned.
Comments
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Tom Philpott Posted 8:55 am
14 Sep 2006
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Corey McKrill Posted 9:00 am
14 Sep 2006
Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.
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Tod Posted 9:35 am
14 Sep 2006
"Because the world doesn't matter if you don't have the strength to go ahead and choose something that's really true." - Julio Cortazar, Hopscotch
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GRLCowan Posted 9:44 am
14 Sep 2006
As a public works project, correcting the atmosphere's surfeit of CO2 isn't out of reach.
--- G. R. L. Cowan, former hydrogen fan
How internal combustion gains nuclear cachet
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Laurence Aurbach Posted 10:47 am
14 Sep 2006
In addition, this may well be a delaying tactic designed to convince states to hold off on substantive action until the feds come riding to the rescue. After enough years have passed, a convenient pretext will be worked up to renege yet again.
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GreenEngineer Posted 5:24 am
15 Sep 2006
I can't find the link right now, but I'm pretty sure that this had its origins in an article in The Onion. Of course, The Onion really has become one of the more reliable news sources in recent times.
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tbelford Posted 8:43 am
15 Sep 2006
Previewing the final quarter of Bush's presidency, officials disclosed to Time that the Administration is formulating a huge energy initiative designed to "change the whole nature of the discussion" and challenge the Republican Party, Democrats, the oil and electricity industries, and environmentalists. An adviser said Bush's views about global warming had evolved. "Only Nixon could go to China, and only Bush and Cheney -- two oilmen -- can bring all these parties kicking and screaming to the table," the adviser said.
Tom Belford
TheAgitator.net
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Laurence Aurbach Posted 11:59 pm
16 Sep 2006
The White House... did not deny that a change of policy was on its way. Sources say that the most likely moment is the President's State of the Union address in January.
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