Environmental Defense Praises, Criticizes Bush Energy Proposal

Texas Governor George W. Bush today described the broad parameters of a national energy policy, including a call for mandatory reductions in the emissions of four major pollutants from power plants. Environmental Defense praised this element of Bush’s proposal, and his plan to use market incentives such as emissions trading to cut pollution quickly and affordably. Pollutants from power plants - carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury - contribute to urban smog, acid rain, and climate change, which damage human health and ecosystems.

“We need to reduce pollution now to ensure a safe future for our children,” said Fred Krupp, executive director of Environmental Defense. “A market-based strategy that rewards actual emissions reductions will cut pollution, keep down energy costs and help the US meet its targets under the Kyoto Treaty. Such a program could spur just the sort of environmental and technological revolution we need to break our dependence on fuels that are too expensive and too dirty.”

At the same time, Environmental Defense criticized other elements of Bush’s proposal, including a call for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the calls for unspecified regulatory relief for the coal and oil refinery industries. “We do not have to trade a clean, healthy environment for energy security. Sound policy will allow us to have both,” said Krupp.