-Caveat Lector-
Saturday July 14 08:30 AM EDT
U.S. Opposes Plan for Financing of Clean Energy Over Fossil Fuel
By JOSEPH KAHN
The New York Times
WASHINGTON, July 13 — The Bush administration plans to oppose an
international drive to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and increase
financing for nonpolluting energy sources worldwide, administration
officials said today.
The proposals are contained in a report commissioned by the Group of 8
industrial nations, which will hold its annual summit meeting in Genoa,
Italy, next week. The proposals would commit rich nations to help one
billion people around the world get their power from renewable energy
sources, like wind, water and the sun.
The White House says its opposition to the proposals is based on a desire
to let the marketplace, rather than government, decide how quickly
renewable energy sources are adopted worldwide. But critics say it is yet
another instance of the Bush administration's placing the interest of oil
and gas companies ahead of the drive to reduce global warming.
That debate notwithstanding, the administration's decision — along
with objections today by Canadian officials, who also oppose elements of
the report — could prevent the G-8 from endorsing the proposals. The
group usually works by consensus, and proposals are generally not adopted
if any members object.
European leaders had hoped to use the summit meeting to jump-start talks on
global warming and to salvage what they could of the Kyoto Protocol, the
treaty to fight global warming, which the Bush administration also opposes.
Some European officials and environmental groups viewed the report by the
G-8 "task force" as a major rallying point.
A final draft copy of the report calls on rich nations to "remove
incentives and other supports for environmentally harmful energy
technologies." It also encourages them to shift the priorities of
international lending agencies, like the World Bank, to support more clean
energy projects in poor countries.
People who helped prepare the report said one important goal was to
persuade wealthy nations to stop promoting fossil fuel projects in the
developing world, a step that could reduce sales of power plants,
pipelines, drilling equipment and other goods used in producing energy from
oil and coal. The effort is directly related to fighting global warming.
The task force recommended that the G-8 nations use their public financing
leverage with national and international lending institutions to support
more clean energy projects.
A Bush administration official said the United States did not support the
report even though the high-profile task force rewrote it to reflect some
American objections.
The task force included a number of government officials as well as leaders
of multinational businesses and environmental groups. Co-chairmen of the
group were Corado Clini, Italy's top environmental official, and Mark Moody
Stuart, chairman of the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell.
A draft copy of the report was provided to The New York Times by people who
support its goals and who want to call attention to the administration's
opposition.
While the administration supports the idea of expanding use of renewable
energy sources, it does not favor the task force's emphasis on
government-to-government financing, the administration official said. He
said the goal of having one billion people rely on clean energy sources
within a decade was a target that had "no analytical basis."
"While we are committed to expanding the use of renewables, there was a
sense that this task force was more focused on government funding —
throwing money at the problem," the official said. "We are more interested
in looking at how to leverage private sector efforts."
He said the final communiqu� of the summit meeting next week was likely to
include language that supports the spread of clean energy even if the
report is not endorsed.
President Bush announced in the spring that the United States had no
intention of meeting targets set in the Kyoto treaty.
"By rejecting the task force's recommendations, President Bush is once
again undermining any attempt to take serious action on global warming,"
said Daphne Wysham, a fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies in
Washington.
The institute and Friends of the Earth, an environmental organization, did
a study that found that the export promotion agencies of rich nations, like
the Export-Import Bank of the United States, are the world's largest public
backers of fossil fuels, the main causes of global warming. The credit
agencies supported $115 billion in such projects in the five years through
1999, the study said.
"About two billion people on this planet are not served by electricity, and
the most cost effective approach for them is often solar or biomass, not
fossil fuels," said Dan Reicher, who served on the G-8 task force as a
Clinton administration official. "But it takes real targets —
numerical goals — if we are going to make a difference."
The Bush administration official said he considered the task force's
emphasis on nonpolluting energy for the developing world as lopsided. He
said that as poor nations grow, they will need traditional energy sources
as well as renewables.
"There is not just one solution to the energy demands of growing and
developing economies," he said.
Among the goals embraced in the final report are several targets for
improving or expanding the use of renewable energy. It says the G-8 should
aim to help 200 million poor people worldwide use biomass energy sources,
like natural and human waste products, to fuel fires for cooking. It also
suggests that clean energy sources could eventually provide electricity to
300 million people who do not have electricity today and 500 million more
who are connected to an existing grid.
The executive summary of the report did not say how many people are now
served by renewable energy sources, which includes hydropower. But it
called its goals "ambitious."
Bush administration officials decided early on that they could not support
key elements of the task force's work, according to people who took part in
the task force efforts. At a key meeting to discuss an early draft of the
report, held in Japan in March, an administration official rejected an
early draft of the report and submitted a new executive summary prepared in
Washington, the people involved said.
The task force incorporated some of the administration's views and watered
down language concerning numerical goals, the participants said. But it did
not accept all of the changes proposed by Washington, and the
administration declined to support the final draft.
================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
================================================================
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
