New U.S. Climate Change Goals? (broadcast Friday, April 18th, 2008)

This week, President Bush announced a new set of national goals related to climate change and called for a stop to growth in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. Speaking Wednesday in the Rose Garden, he said that "there is a wrong way and a right way to approach reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

"The wrong way is to raise taxes, duplicate mandates, or demand sudden and drastic emissions cuts that have no chance of being realized and every chance of hurting our economy. The right way is to set realistic goals for reducing emissions consistent with advances in technology, while increasing our energy security and ensuring our economy can continue to prosper and grow," said Bush. The President's goals call for a focus on electric power generating plants. "We'll need to more rapidly slow the growth of power sector greenhouse gas emissions so they peak within 10 to 15 years, and decline thereafter," he said.

Eileen Claussen, President of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change called the proposal "a step backwards for U.S. climate policy."

"In 2002 the administration laid out a plan that allowed U.S. emissions to grow until 2012 - the current proposal will allow our emissions to grow until 2025," she said. "This proposal is a non-starter both domestically and internationally." We'll talk about the goals proposed by the White House, and why some say they don't go far enough. Teachers, find more information about using Science Friday as a classroom resource in the Kids' Connection.