U.S. President George W. Bush continued his personal campaign to change previous U.S. policy two weeks ago by renouncing the nation's commitment to limit industrial emissions of carbon dioxide. He did it shortly after Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christine Todd Whitman had given the international treaty on global warming a hearty thumbs up.
"It's the economy, stupid," Bush seemed to say. American cannot meet its commitments in the Kyoto protocol because of the slowing economy and the energy shortages proclaimed the president as he sent the U.S. delegation to an international meeting of environment officials two weeks ago with no policy guidance. The decision has pushed the president into an unprecedented storm of foreign protest.
Bush received German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in late March, just hours after his spokesman, Ari Fleischer, told the world that Bush does not support the Kyoto protocol and would not submit it for Senate ratification. Schroeder governs Germany as the leader of a coalition with the Green Party, whose platform includes strong support for the international treaty to fight global warming. He used the joint press-briefing to disassociate himself from the Bush decision.