ON THE highly charged issue of environmental policy, George W. Bush has had
little to say. But he has been far from reticent on energy. He wants low prices
at the pumps, and a reduction in American dependence on oil imports.
Greens foresee soaring pollution and drilling rigs springing up across
protected lands. 鈥淚t seems like it鈥檚 going to be open season on the
environment,鈥� says Mark Helm of Friends of the Earth.
Top of the international agenda is the Kyoto Protocol to curb climate change,
after talks broke down in The Hague last November. During campaigning, Bush said
Kyoto was unfair to the US, and questioned the science of global warming.
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Optimists hope diplomatic pressures will drive Bush to negotiate. But Texas
environmentalist Pete Altman warns that from now on foreign negotiators 鈥渟hould
just assume they are negotiating with Exxon鈥�.
To reduce emissions鈥攁nd cut back on oil imports鈥擝ush may support
other energy technologies by offering tax breaks on wind, biomass and solar
power, for instance. These might make a dent in the projected 35 per cent
increase in American carbon emissions by 2010, but nobody is betting on the US
meeting its Kyoto reduction targets. 鈥淎s of now I don鈥檛 think it is possible for
the US to comply,鈥� says veteran US climate negotiator Eileen Claussen.
With policies still vague, lobbyists are watching Bush鈥檚 nominees. Both Gale
Norton, who as Secretary of the Interior will be environmental boss, and energy
secretary Spencer Abraham have hawkish reputations. Norton 鈥渋s on record as
saying she does not believe in global warming鈥�, says the Natural Resources
Defense Council. As a senator for Michigan, Abraham fought Clinton鈥檚 plans to
set energy efficiency standards for motor vehicles.
Norton and Abraham have backed demands to open up large areas of American
public lands to miners, loggers and oil companies. Top of their shopping list is
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska
(New Scientist, 5 August 2000, p 16).
Observers also expect that many of Clinton鈥檚 environmental regulations will
be ditched, including bans on snowmobiling in national parks and road building
in national forests. An early test, says Frank O鈥橠onnell, director of the Clean
Air Trust, will be whether Bush decides to support rules tabled by Clinton this
month to curb sooty particles from diesel engines, which are believed to be kill
tens of thousands of people every year in the US alone.
