Washington, DC — April 16, 2008 — President Bush's speech on global warming today lays out a blueprint for slow motion economic decline. It legitimizes global warming alarmism and undermines opposition in Congress to disastrous energy-rationing policies, such as the climate legislation championed by Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA).

“President Bush's global warming proposals could have been worse,” said Competitive Enterprise Institute Director of Energy & Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell. “But it was still a pointless speech that was unnecessary. While the President said that the global warming debate was intensifying, global warming alarmism is collapsing all around the world. With today's proposals, however, the President has managed to re-energize that alarmism.” 

Thanks to conservative opposition, the President has stepped back from the most damaging proposals being considered, such as supporting a cap-and-trade program for utilities. It's not clear, however, what exactly is left. His emphasis on new technologies is encouraging, although it opens the door to massive  and wasteful government subsidies. The vague principles that the President enunciated could end up supporting sensible policies or damaging policies.

“President Bush has moved the debate toward energy rationing policies that will raise electricity and gasoline prices paid by consumers,” said Ebell. “But perhaps we should be grateful that he hasn't moved the debate far enough to please the global warming alarmists.”

According to CEI’s analysis, the best aspects of the President’s proposal are his opposition to tariffs and his call to reform the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act to prevent their application to carbon dioxide regulation. He has correctly assessed the potential regulatory nightmare that would emerge out of trying to force global warming policies through legislation intended to address unrelated environmental issues.

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website at www.cei.org. Learn more about global warming policy at www.globalwarming.org.