U.S. Must Address Global Warming, Bush Ally
Says
HOUSTON (March 05) – Former Secretary of State James Baker,
a close ally of the Bush family, broke ranks with the Bush administration on
Thursday and called for the United States to get serious about global
warming.
Baker, in a speech to an audience that included a number of
oil company executives, said “orderly” change to alternative energy was
needed.
“It may surprise you a little bit, but maybe it’s because
I’m a hunter and a fisherman, but I think we need to a pay a little more
attention to what we need to do to protect our environment,” he told the Houston
Forum Club.
“When you have energy companies like Shell and British
Petroleum, both of which are perhaps represented in this room, saying there is a
problem with excess carbon dioxide emission, I think we ought to listen,” Baker
said.
Baker ran presidential campaigns for George Bush and served
in his Cabinet and led George W. Bush’s controversial legal fight to win the
Florida vote in the 2000 election.
The current Bush administration has been skeptical about
global warming and refused to sign on to the international Kyoto Treaty to
combat climate change, saying it would hurt the U.S. economy.
Baker said he agreed with the decision not to join Kyoto,
calling it “a lousy treaty” because it did not include China and India.
But he said he supported “a gradual and orderly transition”
to new fuels.
“I think we need to go forward with some sort of gradual,
resourceful search for alternative sources,” Baker said.
Many scientists blame the burning of fossil fuels such as
coal and oil for creating a “greenhouse” effect that is warming the world
climate.
The United States is the leading oil consumer and top
producer of greenhouse gases. Most U.S. energy companies reject the idea that
global warming is occurring.