


DATE: July 7, 2001

BACKGROUND: Reuters reports that the Natural Resources Defense Council and World Wildlife Fund are running radio ads criticizing the Bush administration for bowing out of the Kyoto Protocol. The ads began running July 5 in Washington D.C., Chicago, Miami, Portland (ME), Manchester (NH), Portland (OR) and Philadelphia.

TEN SECOND RESPONSE: Climate change is a natural occurrence and is happening at this moment. It's happened for thousands of years and scientists still aren't certain to what extent man contributes to it.

THIRTY SECOND RESPONSE: Scare tactics won't work with the American people. They realize that signing a treaty that would raise our energy prices, put many out of jobs, and yet not require developing countries to comply with the same restrictions is not fair. If the Europeans support the treaty, why haven't their governments ratified it?

DISCUSSION: Over 15,000 scientists, physicists, meteorologists and climatologists have signed a petition denouncing the Kyoto Protocol. You may find information about it at http://www.sepp.org/pressrel/petition.html and a list of signers at http://zwr.oism.org/pproject/.

In Europe, only Romania has ratified the treaty that Europeans claim the U.S. is abandoning. President Bush didn't "kill" the Kyoto Treaty. The U.S. Senate passed a resolution on July 25, 1997 by 95-0 that states that the Senate will not ratify any climate treaty that would harm the U.S. economy or fails to require developing countries to reduce their emissions. The Kyoto Protocol does not meet either standard.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that, if implemented, the Kyoto Protocol would cause gasoline price to go up between 14 and 66 cents per gallon and electricity prices to rise 20 to 86 percent. Union leaders such as Cecil E. Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, and James Hoffa, president of the Teamsters Union, have also expressed concern about the Protocol.



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