April 16, 2008
UCS MEDIA ALERT
CONTACT: Lisa Nurnberger, 202-331-6959, Aaron Huertas, 202-331-5458
 
SCIENCE GROUP SAYS NEW BUSH PROPOSAL 'A DESPERATE ATTEMPT' TO DERAIL PROGRESS ON GLOBAL WARMING
 
STATEMENT BY ALDEN MEYER, UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS
 
This afternoon, President George W. Bush is expected to announce a new proposal to address global warming.
 
Below is a statement by Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS):
 
"President Bush has stayed on the sidelines for the last seven years, and now he's making one last desperate attempt to change the rules of the game. The Senate is poised to vote on legislation requiring a significant economy-wide reduction of U.S. global warming emissions by 2020. Meanwhile, other industrialized countries are moving forward with negotiations over deeper mandatory emissions cuts under the Kyoto Protocol. Instead of working with Congress and the international community, the president is trying to derail their efforts.

"The best science indicates that to avoid the worst consequences of global warming, we need to cut our emissions by at least 80 percent by mid-century. Unless the president is prepared to support binding emissions reductions of 15 to 20 percent by 2020 to get us on that path, he should do us all a favor and step aside.

"Both here at home and around the world, policymakers and the public are already looking beyond the last months of the Bush administration and its record of denial and delay. All the speeches in the world aren't going to change that reality."

Meyer, who has been involved in international and domestic global warming policy since 1989, is available to provide comment after the president's speech. Call Lisa Nurnberger at 202-331-6959 or Aaron Huertas at 202-331-5458.

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The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit organization working for a healthy environment and a safer world. Founded in 1969, UCS is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has offices in Berkeley, California, and Washington, D.C. For more information, go to www.ucsusa.org.