The Bush administration repeatedly has called for more study of global warming. It is disappointing to learn, then that the White House recently deleted inconvenient climate findings from a state-of-the-environment report, promoting instead an industry-funded study so widely discredited that the editors of the journal publishing it have resigned. The administration's actions are eerily reminiscent of the tobacco industry's refusal to acknowledge the harms of smoking.
Rather than hiding the facts, the administration should endorse cost-effective solutions. Instead, EPA has hushed up its own findings that a plan to limit greenhouse gases along with other power-plant emissions would save more lives and produce about $50 billion more in health savings at an extra cost of just $2.2 billion.
If the United States doesn't start to address global warming economically, businesses could find it far costlier to make steeper pollution cuts down the road. Several major companies like our climate partners BP, DuPont and Shell are commendably cutting greenhouse gasses today. Voluntary actions, however will not give us the guaranteed nationwide emissions reductions we need.
Fortunately, leaders in Congress are standing up. The Climate Stewardship Act by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) has emerged as the litmus test of political responsibility on the gravest environmental problem of our age.
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study shows the bill's impact on the economy would be negligible. With bipartisan support growing, the bill is scheduled to be voted on this fall as a free-standing measure. We hope the president will come to support it. Over time, with your help, we will make it imperative that elected officials support action to protect us and our children from this looming threat.
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