WASHINGTON (January 24, 2008) – Preceding President Bush’s final State of the Union Address, leaders from prominent environment and science organizations gathered at the Capitol today to lay out an environmental agenda for the final year of the Bush presidency. Among the top concerns presented, global warming remains the clear priority, with Congress poised to begin serious debate of climate legislation, states moving ahead with their own plans, and new scientific evidence emerging almost daily on the urgency of the problem.
In addition to calls for President Bush to support binding federal legislation to reduce global warming pollution, environmental policy experts discussed their resolve to work together to pass incentives for renewable energy this year. Congress’ stimulus package, the California tailpipe standard waiver, and international climate negotiations were also topics of discussion.
Following is a statement by Karen Wayland, legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC):
“Now that President Bush has signed the first clean energy bill that actually begins to reduce global warming emissions, we’re calling on him to help us finish the job. If he wants his legacy to be more than lip service about solving global warming, he should use his State of the Union address to lay out a plan for getting strong, economy-wide climate legislation to his desk, allow states to move forward with their efforts to deal with the problem by granting the California waiver, and support clean energy incentives in the stimulus package.
“The urgency of the global warming problem requires that the president and Congress work together to pass cap-and-trade legislation this year if we are to avoid the worst impacts of rising temperatures around the world. One year of visionary leadership on global warming could perhaps leave historians with a different story to tell about the environmental legacy of the Bush presidency.”