EnviroSpin Watch

All those Gorey Democrats and Kyoto - the reality.....

In an outstanding piece of precision dissection, 'Kyoto's last gleaming' (San Francisco Chronicle, January 22), Debra J. Saunders lays bare the prevarications and deceptions of the Democrats on the Kyoto Protocol. Here are some of the chief ligaments:

"Some top Democratic contenders for the White House now are distancing themselves from the Kyoto international global-warming treaty that Gore negotiated in 1997."

"Democratic Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman were among the 95 senators who voted for a pre-Kyoto resolution that directed the administration to reject any treaty that hurt the U.S. economy by exempting developing nations."

Democratic Sens. John Kerry has allegedly ... "told the Sustainable Energy Coalition that he would not sign the treaty because it can't be met now. 'Because of the Bush administration's inaction, the binding targets in the Kyoto Protocol are no longer achievable,' Kerry said, according to Greenwire, a Web site that tracks environmental politics." [I just love the way he is reported as blaming Bush!]

"... but allow me to note that the Clinton administration never once asked the Senate to ratify Kyoto." [The Gorey Truth?]

"The (unratified) global-warming pact required the United States to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Yet, according to the Energy Information Administration, greenhouse emissions grew by 3.1 percent in 2000 alone; when Clinton left office, emissions were 14 percent higher than 1990 levels."

"The latest figures from the Energy Information Administration are for 2002; they show that under the Bush administration, greenhouse gas emissions are lower -- they're 11.5 percent higher than 1990 levels. I won't credit Bush for the reduction, because the post-Sept. 11 economy was the big factor here, as the Sierra Club's Dan Becker pointed out. But if Bush truly were Satan on the environment, pollution numbers should have gone up, not down."

"Dean says he would renegotiate Kyoto because it exempted developing nations. 'President Bush used the same rationale in defending his decision to pull out of the Kyoto agreement in 2001,' wrote Greenwire. Retired Gen. Wesley Clark says he wants to renegotiate as well."

"While in office, however, Clinton/Gore were so ineffective on the issue that fuel efficiency fell to a level worse than when Ronald Reagan was president and state of the art was '80s technology."

"Kyoto is dead; its death is all but official."

Well! There you have it. Let's hope Tony Blair gets the message very soon before 'Carbon Trading' proves to be the next 'Top-up-Fees'.

Philip, who, being naturally a democrat, naturally never believed the 'talk' in any case. Sauvignon blanc or a claret?