EPA Chief: U.S. Won’t Abide by Kyoto Pact
The Bush administration has no plans to implement the 1997 climate treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, because it’s clear that Congress won’t ratify it anyway, the chief of the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday.
“We have no interest in implementing that treaty,” EPA Administrator Christie Whitman told reporters, although she said President Bush continues to believe that global warming is an issue of concern.
She said the administration will remain “engaged” in international negotiations. But it was unclear what position the administration intends to take at the next United Nations meeting on the Kyoto accords, scheduled for this summer.
Whitman repeatedly noted that the Senate in 1997 unanimously passed a resolution against the United States taking any action on climate change unless developing countries also take some measures to reduce “greenhouse” gases.
The Kyoto agreement calls for the United States to cut emissions by about a third by 2012.
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox three times per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
