Bush Administration Ignores its Own EPA's Report Acknowledging Growing Danger of Global Warming.

Between the Lines' Melinda Tuhus Interviews Jon Coifman, spokesperson of the National Resources Defense Council.

In an environmental about-face, the Bush administration last week released a report acknowledging the reality of global climate change. The new report, issued quietly by the Environmental Protection Agency, points to human activity as the culprit in the form of emissions from oil refineries, power plants and motor vehicles, and contradicts earlier White House statements that there was not enough evidence to link industrial emissions to global warming. In response, the Bush administration's continues to advocate voluntary industry guidelines to reduce those emissions.

In the EPA findings, which were submitted to the United Nations, the administration forecasts that total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions will increase an astonishing 43 percent between 2000 and 2020. The U.S. is by far the largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world. But even in the face of this report by his own administration, Mr. Bush has refused to reconsider his withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, a U.N. backed treaty to cut emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Jon Coifman, a spokesperson with the National Resources Defense Council, about the EPA's report, the current status of the Kyoto protocol and actions the U.S. can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Contact the Natural Resource Defense Council by calling (202) 289-6868 or visit their Web site at www.nrdc.org

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