President Doubts He’ll See Gore Film

President Bush had a two-word response when he was asked Monday whether he would see Al Gore’s documentary on global warming.

“Doubt it,” the president said during an appearance before the National Restaurant Assn. in Chicago.

The movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” focuses on the former vice president as he travels around the country presenting a slide show on the dangers that climate change poses. It opens Wednesday in Los Angeles and New York.

Although the president has on occasion struck up a warm relationship with former President Clinton, who denied his father a second term, and whom he succeeded, Bush has had a cool relationship with Gore in the 5 1/2 years since they competed for the presidency.

After dismissing the likelihood that he would see the movie, Bush advocated reliance on “new technologies” to improve the environment. He has spoken frequently in recent months about the need to develop motor vehicles powered by electricity, ethanol and hydrogen, rather than gasoline and diesel fuel.

“We need to set aside whether or not greenhouse gases have been caused by mankind or because of natural effects and focus on the technologies that will enable us to live better lives and, at the same time, protect the environment,” the president said.