President Bush has disowned a pledge he made during his election campaign. He had pledged that he would regulate power plant emissions of CO2. However, citing an Energy Department study that predicted that there would be “significantly higher electricity prices” if this pledge were to be kept, Bush decided to change policy.
He said: “At a time when California has already experienced energy shortages and other western states are worried about the price and availability of energy this summer, we must be very careful not to take actions that could harm consumers.” Europe has expressed its concern about this change in policy in the context of climate change negotiations which are due to resume in July.
