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"While President Clinton and Vice President Gore travel the country enumerating the climatic disasters of the past year, they continue to put forward a policy that is all talk and no action," said Greenpeace’s Gary Cook.

Cook said the CEA approach is flawed because it is based not on any concrete plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at home, but relies instead on “hot air” paper reductions from abroad. The low cost of compliance indicated in the analysis is based on the assumption that the vast majority -- as much as 75 percent -- will be reached by buying "reductions" from abroad.

"The current approach runs absolutely counter to President Clinton’s rhetoric about how energy efficiency and renewables like solar and wind power can help avert global warming," said Cook. In fact, studies by the US Department of Energy, among others, have shown that the majority of greenhouse gas cuts can be achieved at home at the same or lower cost through the use of energy efficiency and renewables.

The White House approach also gives away America’s competitive edge in renewable energy and efficiency technologies to Europe and Japan, as we continue our dependence on imported oil -- and on importing "reduction" credits needed to burn it.

Cook said the CEA analysis continues to send the wrong message to developing nations. “The White House approach allows the US to continue to pollute at virtually the same rate, so why would we expect developing nations to get serious about reducing their own emissions?” Cook said.

A "reductions" plan based only on emissions trading would deny the U.S. public desperately needed improvements in air quality -- a tragic missed opportunity for an Administration that touts its concern for children's health.

As a further example of the disconnect between the White House's rhetoric on climate change and its actions, earlier this week the Mineral Management Service announced it would be holding offshore oil lease sales in the Alaskan Arctic, in waters adjoining the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. "We cannot afford to burn even 25% of the oil and other fossil fuels we have already discovered, yet the Clinton Administration is inviting oil companies to drill for more in pristine waters of the Arctic," Cook said.

"As many Americans face the 26th day of deadly, record-breaking heat, we remind the Administration that it will take much more than emissions trading to stop further climate change in the long term," Cook said. "We must follow up our Kyoto commitments with concrete actions like eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, embracing renewable energy sources, and placing a moratorium on all federal offshore oil lease sales."

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