Bush Reverses Course on Carbon Dioxide

W A S H I N G T O N, March 13 -- Backing off a campaign pledge, President Bush told Congress today he will not regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

The decision, outlined in a letter sent to a Republican senator, came after furious lobbying from the coal industry. It was a blow to conservationists who see curbing emissions of such "greenhouse gases" as key to reducing global warming.

The letter cited skyrocketing energy costs, particularly in the West, as one reason for Bush's about-face.

Bush said he supports a "comprehensive and balanced energy policy that takes into account the importance of improving air quality."

"I do not believe, however, that the government should impose on power plants mandatory emissions reductions for carbon dioxide, which is not a 'pollutant' under the Clean Air Act," Bush wrote to Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.

Environmentalists Agog

The decision drew sharp criticism from the Natural Resources Defense Council. "He's turned his back on the weight of all the alarming scientific consensus that global warming is real, and that carbon dioxide is the main cause," said David Doniger, a spokesmanfor the environmental group.

Greenhouse gases — primarily carbon dioxide produced by burningfossil fuels like coal and oil — are widely believed to trap heatin the atmosphere, causing the phenomenon known as global warming.

Vice President Dick Cheney told senators of the administration's decision at a weekly policy gathering today, said an official on Capitol Hill.

Bush promised in the campaign to treat carbon dioxide emissions as pollutants, and Christie Whitman, his Environmental Protection Agency administrator, said last month that the administration was strongly considering such regulations.

Bush pledged last year to require electric utilities to "reduce emissions and significantly improve air quality." The legislation Bush proposed would have established "mandatory reduction targets for emissions of four main pollutants: sulfur dioxide, nitrogenoxide, mercury and carbon dioxide."