AAAS Issues a "Policy Alert" (July 4, 2008)

If there is one thing that can be said for the Bush White House, it remains consistent as regards anthropogenic effects on climate. On July 2 the American Association for the Advancement of Science issued the following statement:

White House Ignored EPA Recommendation. Senior officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have stated on condition of anonymity that the White House refused to open an e-mail containing the agency’s recommendation that greenhouse gas emissions must be regulated as pollutants. This conclusion, reached in December 2007, was the EPA’s response to a Supreme Court ruling earlier that year requiring the agency to determine whether or not it would regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The recommendation was never released, and instead, the EPA is to release an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would contain its analysis of the impacts of regulating greenhouse emissions but with no formal conclusion.