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| US, EU Agree to Alternative to Kyoto Protocol |
| 2006-06-22 |
| Another nail in Kyoto's coffin. The United States and European Union reached an agreement Wednesday to find an alternative to the Kyoto Protocol for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A somewhat misleading intro. I'd say they agreed that they need to do something about energy dependence on overseas sources. During a summit in Vienna, Austria, President Bush and EU President Manual Barroso agreed to establish the planned High Level Dialogue on Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development, which will focus on technology instead of rationing to reduce emissions. "We talked about energy," Bush said. "I kind of startled my country when, in my State of the Union, I said we're hooked on oil and we need to get off oil. That seemed counterintuitive for some people to hear a Texan say. But the truth of the matter is, we got to diversify away from oil. And the best way to do it is through new technologies. The United States and European Union countries have agreed to share technologies, Bush said. "The EU needs to get diversified, as well. And so this is going to be a very interesting period for us as new technologies develop and we're willing to share those technologies." The agreement will look into diversification of energy sources, market transparency and global supply stability. A free enterprise group praised the agreement, saying that although it is "short on specific commitments, it could be a useful vehicle for steering the Europeans away from their disastrous and failing attempt to go on an energy starvation diet." A good way to describe Kyoto. "The Vienna announcement diplomatically avoids any definition of what legal structures can be considered 'market'-based, how inexpensive emissions reductions must be to be considered 'cost-effective,' and, most importantly, who decides," said Myron Ebell, director of energy & global warming at the Washington, D.C., think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute. I think what they have agreed is that the 'energy crisis' is at root a supply side problem and not, as Kyoto would have it, a demand side problem. A real win for President Bush BTW. "Any commitment to truly cost-effective emissions reductions will limit them to voluntary actions undertaken in the market itself, not via a government-simulated 'mechanism,'" Ebell added. |
| Posted by:phil_b |