NEWS: George Bush’s rivals are forcing him to take environmental issues seriously.
The Democratic Party, which won power in mid-term elections from the president’s Republican Party, will use their new influence to change the way America approaches climate change – the BBC reports.
The new head of the influencial Senate energy committee, Jeff Bingaman, said: “We have an opportunity to put an emphasis on issues of clean energy, renewable energy, global warming, climate change, in a way that wasn’t possible during the last several years.”
He supports national limits on greenhouse gases set by the government.
Mr Bush has previously been unwilling to tackle environmental issues in a way which satisfies popular international opinion and he refused to support the Kyoto agreement which puts limits on gases released in countries around the world.
As leader of the globe’s biggest polluter he argues that limits would harm the US economy and he instead hopes advances in technology will lead to goods and industry which release lower emissions.
But the two parties will need to co-operate to get laws passed.
Raymond Kopp, an analyst at environmenal think tank Resources for the Future, said: “If you stake out an extreme position you’ll pass nothing. The Democrats have got to put in place sound policy, start it slow and give it a chance to ramp up over time.”
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